The season is almost here, and Alabama and Tennessee put some icing on the almost-baked cake to get me even more excited. The Vols and Crimson Tide announced that they will both wear their home jerseys in their 2026 and 2027 games. We need more of these color matchups, and not just in college football. In the NBA, seeing the Lakers gold jerseys next to the Celtics green just works.

But it has to be the right matchup. I asked Richard for his thoughts on the uniforms and which teams should follow suit:

So, Bama and Tennessee are doing this because they used to play the game in Birmingham, a not-really “neutral” site. Florida and Georgia did the color-on-color thing for a few years in the 2010s, and it was really cool. Then they just stopped and didn’t really explain why. I’ve been crashing out over the fact that they stopped doing it ever since, honestly. It was a great idea.

USC and UCLA also do the color-on-color thing, which makes sense because they’re literally playing in their hometowns when they get together. Texas and Oklahoma could do this too in Red River. It would be a cool look. There are so few durable college neutral-site games in this day and age that I think highlighting the couple we have left with a color-on-color matchup is just a neat aesthetic nod.

I don’t love the fact that the NBA has bastardized what a home jersey really is, especially in the Finals and the playoffs. Home jerseys should be home jerseys, and road jerseys should be road jerseys. Enough of the statement, icon, whatever the hell they call it, business. The NFL is getting this way too. I am a very old man yelling at clouds when it comes to traditional uniform aesthetics.

One of the dumbest things in college football is how everybody just says, “Well, the recruits like it,” as a way to hand-wave away traditional schools going to alternate uniforms. I’m sorry, but Ohio State should not ever wear black. Notre Dame’s Shamrock Series jerseys are universally awful. Nebraska’s new stock set this year is terrible too, and I could go on and on.

Richard even made a video about how Florida should wear its home jerseys against Georgia. You can check it out here.

Which other college football rivalries do you think deserve the home jersey treatment?

Here’s what Alex and Richard dropped into your podcast feeds this week:

• Are you ready for MACtion? We are, which is why we previewed the Mid-American Conference this week. Miami University has an influx of money this season, but that doesn’t necessarily make the RedHawks the favorites in the conference. Take a listen to learn why.

• Which FCS teams will knock down an FBS opponent this season? That’s what Richard, Alex, and host emeritus Godfrey are trying to figure out in this year’s FCS Upset Draft episode. If you’d like to play along this season, submit your own picks right here.

• Three episodes in one week means the season is inching closer and closer. Our Thursday episode is the Mountain West preview, where Alex and Richard talk about the newest conference members in UTEP, Hawaii, and NIU. Alex also specifically calls his shot on the next FCS-to-FBS transfer we might be talking about on Sunday mornings.

Some recommended reading and watching:

• For Slate, Alex wrote about how AI detectors might be making our writing worse.

• For more battles between Alex and computers, check out his Opta Analyst piece where he sets his predictions against their prediction model.

• Over at CBS Sports, Richard surveyed anonymous front office employees to give their predictions on the upcoming season.

• Richard is also asking the important questions this week: is John Mateer so swole now that it might mess up his throwing motion?

• Speaking of John Mateer, he is also one of the topics discussed in the College Football Happy Hour with friends of the show Lucy Rohden and Jessica Smetana. Subscribe to their YouTube channels for more.

• The Protect College Sports Act went from positive momentum to essentially DOA, at least until the midterms. Over at Extra Points, Matt Brown offered an alternative — at least in the interim.

• Turfman’s College Foot-ball Almanac is available for purchase, and it includes articles from a lot of your favorite people in college football. It is a different kind of college football preview magazine, and the designer worked very hard on it. (It was me.)

Thanks for reading, and we’ll talk to you next week, possibly with a surprise.

Hello! This episode is free for everyone, but to get our full catalog of shows this season and beyond, we’d love it if you became a paid subscriber.

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Paid subscribers (there are thousands of them!) get about twice as many episodes from us during the season, as well as Q&A and chat opportunities and other perks as they come to our minds. Thanks so much.

The Mountain West looks very new in 2026. The guts of the league left for the Pac-12, and then the MWC brought in reinforcements. North Dakota State brings FCS’ greatest dynasty up a level. NIU is here from the MAC, and UTEP comes aboard from Conference USA. Richard and Alex have a rose, bud, and thorn for all 10 teams:

- 4:35: New Mexico

- 8:17: UNLV

- 14:29: Hawaii

- 19:48: Air Force

- 23:35: Nevada

- 26:56: Wyoming

- 32:04: San José State

- 37:19: Northern Illinois

- 44:29: UTEP

- 46:57: North Dakota State

- 51:53: Preseason honors

Producer: Anthony Vito

This season, FBS teams will play 127 games against FCS opponents. Most years, FBS teams will lose a small handful of those games. The purpose of the Split Zone Duo FCS Upset Draft is to identify those teams, engage in some friendly competition, and use the process as a look ahead to the season. Everyone picks four FCS winners, but there’s a catch: Some FCS upsets are barely upsets at all, and they may only be worth three points. Others could be worth 100.

Compete in our 2026 FCS Upset Draft

It’s a Split Zone Duo pastime, and it’s easy to join. Anyone can play, but only paid subscribers are eligible to win a prize. Not signed up for SZD? You can join us right here. And here is the game form where you can make your picks:

2026 FCS Upset Draft

Here are the rules. Read carefully!

These are similar to the rules in past years, but pay close attention:

• A nonpartisan committee made of up one member (me, Alex Kirshner) puts every FCS-versus-FBS game on the schedule into a spreadsheet.

• Each game gets a point value of 3, 5, 10, or 100, with higher point values awarded to games where an FCS team is a bigger underdog.

• You may pick FOUR games. The form should stop you at that point.

• You can pick non-upset "upsets" in which great FCS teams beat bad FBS teams, but you'll likely only get three or five points if it pans out.

• Or you can take some bigger swings for 10- and 100-point values and go for the fences. Getting a 10-pointer right has long been an ingredient for victory.

• At the end of the season, five top points-scorers will be celebrated on an episode of SZD. Most of all, you’re fighting for eternal glory here, but in case that’s not enough, you’ll also get something cool from Homefield.

• You must enter your picks by 12 p.m. ET on Week 1 Saturday. You can resubmit as many times as you like before then and we'll count your most recent entry. Just use the same email address each time. One catch: any game that has already kicked off is locked in as you had it. You can't drop a Thursday or Friday game after you've seen how it went.

Here's a big ol’ list of previous FCS-on-FBS wins.

We'll track the results throughout the season, and if we can set one up cleanly, we’ll give people a public leaderboard option to view.

Thank you to our subscribers and partners

Become a paid subscriber today to get a lot more SZD, and check out www.nokiantyres.com/szd and www.homefieldapparel.com

This episode is made possible by our paid subscribers, who also get tons of bonus content all year long, and even more during the season. Join us!

Conference previews continue with a (mostly) business-free preview of the MAC, focused on the actual football. We’ve got something good, something bad, and something curious about every team in the league, in this order:

- 2:41: Western Michigan

- 5:41: Ohio

- 8:59: Toledo

- 15:02: Miami (OH)

- 19:10: Central Michigan

- 22:27: Akron

- 25:37: Buffalo

- 28:59: Kent State

- 33:00: Ball State

- 34:39: Eastern Michigan

- 38:08: Bowling Green

- 42:31: UMass

- 46:39: Sacramento State

- 53:15: Preseason honors

CATCH UP ON CONFERENCE PREVIEWS

You can catch up on all of our season preview dives by scrolling down on your podcast app of choice. You can also find our published previews here:

• Sun Belt

• Conference USA

• American

• Big 12

• Independents and Pac-12

• ACC

THANKS TO OUR PARTNERS

• Ask your tire dealer about Nokian Tyres

• Shop for college sports apparel at Homefield

Watch this episode on YouTube.

Hello! This is a free episode of Split Zone Duo. Our show exists thanks to our subscribers. We’d love for you to become one by following this link. By subscribing, you’ll get roughly twice as many podcasts from us this season, and you’ll also help ensure this independent show continues to exist.

Our conference preview series rolls on with the Sun Belt. Alex and Richard have something to be excited about, something to be worried about, and a point of curiosity for every team in the league. We go in reverse standings order from last year:

- 2:43: James Madison

- 10:14: Old Dominion

- 13:32: Coastal Carolina

- 16:35: Georgia Southern

- 28:01: Marshall

- 31:50: Appalachian State

- 38:48: Georgia State

- 40:56: Troy

- 46:00: Southern Miss

- 48:32: Louisiana

- 53:03: Arkansas State

- 54:21: South Alabama

- 58:03: ULM

- 1:00:50: Louisiana Tech

Producer: Anthony Vito

THE CONFERENCE PREVIEW INDEX

You can catch up on all of our season preview dives by scrolling down on your podcast app of choice. You can also find our published previews here:

• Conference USA

• American

• Big 12

• Independents and Pac-12

• ACC

THANKS TO OUR PARTNERS

• Ask your tire dealer about Nokian Tyres

• Shop for college sports apparel at Homefield

Subscribe now

Ralph Russo spent many years as a college football writer for the AP and an administrator of the AP Top 25. Now a senior writer for The Athletic, Ralph joins Richard for a preseason chat about the poll everyone loves to hate. In two decades at the AP, Ralph saw just about everything. How does the poll come together? What does it say about the history of college football? It’s imperfect, but it’s also our best record of how seasons played out across 90 years. Ralph takes us through the AP Poll’s history, its current status in the CFP era, and why, in a way, it matters now more than ever. Producer: Anthony Vito

FURTHER LISTENING!

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Welcome to the College Football Newsletter, where incoming Purdue athletic director Tommy McClelland said something that is so perplexing, I had to make sure the summer heat wasn’t getting to me. Watch here, or here’s an embed:

One more time, that’s: “We’re here to win championships. If you don’t want to win championships, go to Indiana.”

Let’s focus on the good part first. Purdue is here to win championships. That’s the right mindset to have for any program. Elsewhere in the Big Ten, head coach Pat Fitzgerald said he expects Michigan State to win every game. Great! The Purdue men’s basketball team won the Big Ten championship this year. Great job having high expectations and a recent example of what that can look like.

But the latter half of that sentence: Who’s gonna tell him?

Strictly from a rivalry perspective, I understand why an athletic director is incentivized to say these kinds of things. Throw a little jab at your opponent to show the alumni base that you’re serious about what it truly means to be a Boilermaker. Get some excitement brewing as you enter this role. You’ve got to say something. Maybe be a little more specific or pick a different jab, though, given recent events.

Purdue faces the Hoosiers in the last week of the regular season. Now I can’t wait for the petty postgame social posts that come from this.

Here’s what Alex and Richard dropped into your podcast feeds this week:

• We’re previewing the American with Godfrey. Our host emeritus stops by to hype up the ECU Pirates and to figure out the state of this conference since most major players in 2025 were successful enough to move on in 2026.

• Mailbag time! Alex and Richard discuss superleagues but without mentioning the Power Two. There’s also a great discussion in here about which schools you get to root for if you got a postgraduate degree.

• Who’s winning Conference USA? Unsurprisingly because of their money, it’s probably Liberty. But Richard and Alex discuss the low-key game of the year in this conference, and that does not include the Flames.

Some recommended reading and watching:

• Do you follow Alex on Instagram? He’s been posting videos on the most embarrassing losses in college football history and some other fun gems. Follow him for more.

• ESPN released a list of the greatest college football supervillains. Since we’ve been talking about self-awareness here in this newsletter, number seven here is great.

• The Athletic has a list of sleeper teams who could make some noise in the Playoff race.

• Holly and Spencer announced they’re working on a college football preview magazine called Turfman’s College Foot-ball Preview Almanac. A lot of your favorites are involved, including me. More soon.

Thanks for reading and we’ll talk to you next week.

Richard and Alex preview the 2026 season in Conference USA. Last year, the richest school in the league went 4-8, while a recent FCS team that looked like a disaster a few months earlier went ahead and won the league. Go figure. Here’s what we’re thinking about this season for:

- 1:42: Kennesaw State

- 6:49: Jacksonville State

- 10:34: Western Kentucky

- 14:16: Missouri State

- 17:55: FIU

- 23:36: Delaware

- 28:17: Liberty

- 35:56: Middle Tennessee

- 38:16: New Mexico State

- 43:39: Sam Houston

- 49:37: Preseason honors

Producer: Anthony Vito

If you like this episode, you’ll love a paid subscription.

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In our preseason mailbag, Alex and Richard take a bunch of questions from Split Zone Duo subscribers. Here’s what we’re talki…

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If you like this episode, you’ll love a paid subscription.

For $10 a month (or you can get a free month with an annual subscription), subscribers get about twice as many Split Zone Duo podcasts, as well as our coach carousel reporting, deep dives on college football history, Q&A opportunities, and many more goodies as we think of them. You also help keep this show independent and ensure we’re making a podcast that puts our listeners, not anyone else, first. OK, now here’s the episode!

The American had a great 2025. The reward? The top of the league all needed new coaches, and almost all of the top players went either to the NFL or the power conferences. This is a year of restarts. Cofounder Steven Godfrey joins Alex for a dive into the league, going team by team:

- 4:58: Tulane

- 12:45: North Texas

- 20:53: Navy

- 28:01: East Carolina

- 32:49: South Florida

- 39:19: Army

- 45:32: Memphis

- 50:43: UTSA

- 56:00: Temple

- 1:00:35: FAU

- 1:03:58: Rice

- 1:08:44: UAB

- 1:12:29: Tulsa

- 1:16:02: Charlotte

- 1:20:29: Preseason superlatives and conference honors

Producer: Anthony Vito

This is the situation: On a normal offensive play, five guys have to wear numbers between 50 and 79. These guys are called “offensive linemen,” and they stand next to each other. They are not eligible to go downfield to catch passes. This works fine for everyone. You don’t want most linemen catching passes.

It gets weird on kicks and punts, though. Special teams coaches like to have fast guys covering punts. Take Ohio State on this play in last year’s Playoff:

The Buckeyes could do that because of the “numbering exception,” which lets kicking and punting teams put non-linemen (i.e. guys not wearing numbers 50-79) in the central line positions. Like always, teams have to have seven men on the line, and of those guys, only the two on the ends of the line can run out to catch a pass in the event of a fake. But if you want to put fast coverage guys on the line, you can do it, and you don’t need to go through the hassle of getting a smaller No. 52 jersey for some running back or safety.

Football coaches are creative geniuses, and sometimes also big assholes. So in the 2000s, some high school coaches figured out that if they lined up in scrimmage kick formations (i.e. with “kickers,” “punters,” or “holders” way off the line) on every play, they could confuse the defense about who was eligible. Nobody would wear 50 through 79, and players could line up a few steps off the line, and the defense would not know for sure who was eligible.

The high priests of high school ball outlawed the “A-11 offense” in 2009. But little remnants of it have lived on, as punting teams look for ways to keep the defense off balance. Ohio State was one of those teams, as the above formation became this:

Oh no! What are they doing!?

Well, you can’t do that anymore. This year, the rule says this, with my bolding:

In a scrimmage kick formation at the snap (Rule 2-16-10) Team A may have fewer than five linemen numbered 50-79, subject to the following conditions:

• The snapper and two adjacent linemen on either side of the snapper, not numbered 50-79 who are lined up in (or touching) the tackle box are ineligible receivers by position and become exceptions to the numbering rule when the snapper takes his position.

• Any and all such numbering-exception players must be clearly on the line of scrimmage, and all backs must be clearly in the backfield. Otherwise, Team A commits a foul for illegal formation.

The football rules committee said the exception was creating confusion. Look at Miami’s players responding there, and you can see that they’re right.

Now, once the snapper takes his position over the ball, those four Ohio State players closest to the snapper are locked into their alignment, unless they’re wearing numbers 50 through 79. I’ve learned that special teams coaches in the South have asked the SEC’s officiating supervisor if they could circumvent this rule by having the snapper take his position after everyone else, and the league’s officiating supervisor told them that they could not. Sorry, coaches.

Our Southern pals are not alone. Coaches all over are angry about this, as a big handful explained to USA Today in April. Among other things, coaches predict:

1. Fewer fakes, because defenses won’t be as liable to get confused over who on the offense is allowed to go downfield. (The ref I asked doesn’t accept that this will be true, but concedes it’ll remove some creativity lanes.)

2. More blocked kicks and injuries to punters, because teams that want to cover punts with better athletes will now have to leave them in the middle of their formations no matter what and hope they can block.

There’s also, of course, the possibility of a lot of early-season illegal formation flags while coaches and players get comfortable with the new rules. Coaches might also object so furiously that the NCAA shelves the change, but it’s held firm on it all summer despite the uproar. (Kirk Ferentz, special teams connoisseur, believes the rule will lead to a “clown show.”)

Personally? I think fewer fakes sounds bad, but the idea of more blocked kicks is a thread worth pulling on. Punting teams could respond to that by simply putting bigger bodies (the ones wearing numbers 50 to 79) next to the snapper, but then those guys would have to cover down the field. That sounds fun! It also sounds like a fair conflict to throw coaches into: You can either have better coverage or more flexibility to move people around for fakes. Pick one!

If you liked this, subscribe free to get more CFB emails from us on Fridays. You don’t even have to be a paid subscriber to get them:

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That’s a little column from Alex. Now here’s what to catch up on from a busy week at SZD.

Hector tagging in!

• It’s time to preview the Big 12. Because we go in order of the standings, we start with the current main character of the conference, Texas Tech, and how the Red Raiders are starting to see the downsides to having one guy be at the forefront of everything. Then we talk about every other team, in detail.

• Jessica Smetana joins to talk about Notre Dame for the independents and Pac-12 combined preview. She explains how CJ Carr could succeed after previously relying on a backfield that had two future first round NFL Draft picks. She also points out that Brian Kelly, who was seen visiting camp, might never get an in-stadium welcome unless most of the people in charge either leave or retire. Richard is surprised at this news.

• We have a special Friday episode for subscribers. Alex is joined by host emeritus Godfrey to talk about what conference commissioners actually do. This is especially helpful now that we’re in the middle of media days.

Some recommended reading

• For CBS Sports, Richard talked to current Stanford players about their attempt to unionize. The piece also includes the recent history of collegiate athletes attempting unionization.

• In the last Sports Business Hour, Matt Brown talked about the tension between the business of jersey patches and football rivalries. He specifically mentioned that Ohio State would never allow a sponsor to put a splash of blue on its scarlet unis even if the company’s logo was blue. Well, he was right.

• Elise Woodward is set to be the first female radio play-by-play announcer in FBS. She’ll be calling games for the Washington Huskies this upcoming season.

Thanks for watching our latest YouTube video

We dropped a video on how October 1, 2016 was one of the wildest days in college football. Based on all the comments on the video and throughout social, you all loved it. Is there another day in college football that is at that level? Let us know. Also, if you haven’t watched it yet, you can check it out right here.

Thanks for reading, and we’ll talk to you next week

Host emeritus Steven Godfrey joins Alex for this subscriber episode. College football’s conference commissioners are all over the microphone right now. How many of them actually have things to do, and how many of them are trying to look like they have agency while the world closes in on them?

- 0:25: Who are media days for in 2026? Well, the commissioners.

- 2:21: How Mike Slive created the modern commissioner’s state of the union

- 5:25: Brett Yormark’s problem at the Big 12’s kickoff event

- 12:35: Why the Big Ten and SEC commissioners are so busy at the moment

- 20:45: Quiet on the ACC front

- 23:26: Does the sport need all these commissioners?

Producer: Anthony Vito

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Our 2026 conference preview series rolls on with the Big 12. Alex and Richard pick out one thing they like, one thing they don’t, and one thing that makes them curious about all 16 teams in this league, in reverse standings order:

- 1:16: Texas Tech

- 11:44: BYU

- 15:03: Utah

- 20:50: Houston

- 24:20: Arizona

- 30:08: Arizona State

- 34:57: Iowa State

- 39:02: Kansas State

- 43:06: TCU

- 49:14: Cincinnati

- 55:20: Baylor

- 1:01:44: Kansas

- 1:05:10: UCF

- 1:09:56: West Virginia

- 1:12:16: Colorado

- 1:20:37: Oklahoma State

- 1:22:53: Preseason superlatives and conference honors

Producer: Anthony Vito

Subscribe now

If you like this episode, you’ll love a paid subscription.

For $10 a month (or you can get a free month with an annual subscription), subscribers get about twice as many Split Zone Duo podcasts, as well as our coach carousel reporting, deep dives on college football history, Q&A opportunities, and many more goodies as we think of them. You also help keep this show independent and ensure we’re making a podcast that puts our listeners, not anyone else, first.

Thank you to our partners, Homefield and Nokian Tyres.

Richard and Alex preview the two remaining FBS independents, Notre Dame and UConn, before diving into the reconstituted Pac-12. Teams in order:

• 5:57: Notre Dame, featuring Jessica Smetana of The Echoes

• 26:45: UConn

• 34:30: Moving to the new Pac-12 and refreshing you on the new membership and competitive format of the league

• 40:29: Boise State

• 48:21: San Diego State

• 51:35: Fresno State

• 58:41: Utah State

• 1:01:42: Washington State

• 1:09:25: Oregon State

• 1:12:50: Texas State

• 1:17:06: Colorado State

• 1:19:39: Pac-12 superlatives and preseason honors

Producer: Anthony Vito

Thanks to all of you who joined us during RELAUNCH WEEK. The 2026 season is now underway.

In case you did not feel like listening to five podcasts and watching a short history doc from us all in a five-day period, here’s a catchup:

• Free podcast: The 2026 ACC preview (our first of the year)

• Subscriber podcast: “Why You’re Always Bad: Northwestern” feat. Rodger Sherman

• Free podcast: The 2026 Coach Firing Confidence Draft

• Subscriber podcast: “Story of a Season: 2001”

• Wide release: “Anatomy of a Coach Carousel: 2001”

We also have a new YouTube history doc, which a few thousand people seem to have enjoyed quite a bit so far. We think you’ll like it too!

You can support all of this work by becoming a paid subscriber if you’re not one already. Here are many other ways you can help us if you’re interested.

Welcome to the College Football Newsletter, and to the home stretch of Split Zone Duo’s Relaunch Week

Relaunch Week is when we officially kick off the season preview episodes, as well as drop in a few surprises throughout the week. We’re so close to the season that we can almost take a whiff of that nice autumn breeze. And we’d like you to come along for the ride with us when the season gets here. In the meantime, we often get questions from listeners and subscribers about how they can support the podcast beyond the most obvious things. We’re honored that people want to help us succeed.

Here’s a long list of ways you can help:

Purchase a premium subscription:

• Just through Sunday, we’re offering 30% off an annual subscription, so now is an excellent time to sign up. You get about twice as many episodes in your feed, and we consider these episodes to be some of our best stuff. If you like the coach carousel or CFB history, or just want a bit more insight during the season, this is for you.

• Gift a subscription to a friend. The sale still applies to gift subs.

Follow these social media accounts and then interact with our carousels and videos on them:

• We’re on Instagram, Bluesky, TikTok, Twitter, Threads, and Facebook.

• Follow Alex, Richard, and Hector (me) on their own accounts. This helps the podcast reach new people, which is crucial to keeping us chugging.

• We now have two YouTube channels: a podcast channel and a channel for special projects. You should subscribe to both. Optionally, you can watch all of our videos start to finish five times and then email them to all of your contacts.

• Leave comments on our videos and shorts when you see them. We love feedback.

• Basically, when you see Split Zone Duo stuff, engage with it in your preferred way.

Tell someone about our podcast:

• Leave a review or star rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Or anywhere it looks like you can leave a review. If you’re a paid subscriber, leave a comment on your preferred platform’s main SZD feed, as your private feed on Apple Podcasts doesn’t have a review option.

• Tell a friend about us. Drop a referral link in the group chat or tell your buddy in person. College football is always better with friends. You can also get subscription dollars back if people sign up!

Listen to the podcast:

• Grab your headphones or turn up the speakers, and enjoy the episodes. People often ask if it’s best to listen on any particular platform. The answer: nope, just listen somewhere.

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Homefield for great college sports apparel, Nokian Tyres for great tires, and more partners as you hear about them on our show.

Send us comments or social media posts about your favorite stuff you’ve gotten from these fine companies! They’ve been amazing partners, and your enthusiastic support also helps us connect with other potential sponsors.

We also have a “name your price” option for people who want to send more subscription dollars than $10 a month. At this time, we don’t offer any special perks at this level, but we offer it because some subscribers feel strongly enough about the show that they want to support it at a higher level. As always, there are no expectations and a lot of appreciation there.

In the meantime, let’s talk about the reigning ACC champs, Duke.

There’s still some juice to squeeze in the proverbial orange that is the ACC’s wonky tiebreaker scenario that kept Miami out of the conference championship and put Virginia and Duke in. And it’s not just limited to intraconference joking, either. At SEC Media Days, new Florida head coach Jon Sumrall used them as an example to prove that the state of college football’s elite is centered on just the Power Two. He told Brett McMurphy, “I’m not knocking any league. And then there’s a couple behind that (the Big 12 and ACC) and the American’s right there. Like last year’s ACC champion was who? Duke. We beat ‘em in Tulane.”

First off, Sumrall is absolutely knocking the ACC here. But more importantly, he’s identifying that last year’s situation was so rare that it presents an opportunity to widen the gap between his conference and the ACC. A five-loss Duke representing the conference as a champion probably won’t happen again, so now is the time to point that out. In a few weeks, everyone’s record will be 0-0 and the new ACC tiebreakers will be in place. But Sumrall’s comparison changes drastically if Miami, an ACC team who won their Playoff games to advance to the national championship, were in the conference championship game instead. Like most things in the offseason, every move is about brand positioning, in the hopes that it might get you a bit better committee consideration later on. That’s the game, until the actual games on the field begin.

Here’s what Alex and Richard dropped into your podcast feeds in Relaunch Week:

• Season previews are here! First up is the ACC. Miami is the team to beat in the conference, but someone else has to join them in the championship game. Could it be the reigning champs, Duke? Probably not.

• Rodger Sherman joins in for an episode of Why You’re Always Bad on the Northwestern Wildcats. He spends a chunk of the show trying to convince everyone that Northwestern has a winning record since 2008, which historical records do seem to support. Still, Alex and Richard don’t buy it. This is a great episode for remembering some guys and really understanding a program.

• Alex is ready to defend his 2025 title in the latest episode of the Coach Departure Draft. Which coach is close to being pre-fired entering the season if things don’t improve, and whose buyout is too big for the school to move on in the immediate future (Pat Narduzzi.) Which one will resign and then join another school, thereby giving Alex something to gloat about for the next season? It won’t be Kyle Whittingham; we can be sure of that. Both Alex and Richard have different rankings. Where do you agree? Where don’t you?

• It’s the 25th anniversary of the 2001 season. Alex and Richard take a look back at one of the most unusual seasons this sport has ever had.

• We’re taking a subscriber episode out of paywall and putting it on the free feed. This one is on the 2001 coaching carousel. Look for it today.

The craziest 24 hours in one college football Saturday:

We have a new video for you over on our YouTube channel. It’s about October 1st, 2016. In the span of 24 hours, we got so many game winners and iconic college football moments. Mack Brown had to abandon doing commentary during that Friday’s BYU-Toledo game because it ran so long. North Carolina started their game with a seemingly insurmountable lead against Florida State. An interim coach named Ed Orgeron won his first game at LSU. Jauan Jennings made a catch for the Tennessee Volunteers. Watch as Richard walks you through every moment. I honestly forgot how many things happened in such a short amount of time.

Have an idea for another video? Drop it in the comments. Thanks for reading, and we’ll talk to you next week.

This is a wider re-release of a 2025 episode for Split Zone Duo’s paid subscribers, who make this show possible. We’re sharing it widely to show more people what our subscriber shows are like, and because it’s a natural fit with our new episode on the 25-year anniversary of the 2001 season.

Through Sunday, July 27, you can sign up for an annual subscription at 30% off. (Plus, an annual subscription already includes a free month.)

30% off special

The coaching carousel before the 2001 season transformed college football. Some programs set themselves up for national championship (or even dynastic) runs. Some screwed themselves. Some set the stage for the next several decades of the top tiers of the SEC and Big Ten. In this episode, Alex Kirshner, Richard Johnson, and Steven Godfrey take a fine-toothed comb through the consequential coaching cycle at the end of 2000:

• 9:07: The hires that worked out well (Gary Patterson to TCU, Pete Carroll to USC, Jim Tressel to Ohio State, Rich Rodriguez to WVU, and many more)

• 23:20: The hires that fell flat (hello, UNC and Arizona)

• 26:45: The hires that shaped college football to this day

• 29:06: The what-if scenarios that nearly made it all different

• 40:03: A reevaluation of Larry Coker?

• 54:32: Ohio State and Georgia shopping for upgrades

• 55:45: Class superlatives, including the Ellis Johnson Southern Miss Award for missed opportunities, the Coaching Carousel Global Impact Award for the most profound ripple effects, and Hire of the Year

Producer: Anthony Vito

Content note: This episode includes an extended discussion of the September 11 attacks and their connection to college football.

For Relaunch Week, Alex and Richard revisit the 2001 college football season, a year flattened in memory into the dominance of an all-time Miami team but very, very strange below the surface. September 11 halted the sport and …

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Welcome back to Split Zone Duo RELAUNCH WEEK 2026. This week only (through Sunday), you can become a paid subscriber and take 30% off your first year of an annual subscription at this link. This episode is free for everyone, and if you like it, we’ve got more like it behind the paywall.

Alex and Richard conduct the second annual Coach Firing/Retirement/Departure Confidence Draft, assigning point values to 27 FBS coaches based on how likely they are to leave their jobs after the 2026 season, either because they got fired or retired. (Poachings are not included.) Last year, Alex scored a narrow victory thanks to his bold and successful pick of Kyle Whittingham to be out at Utah after the season. Can Richard fight back?

The board runs in order of tenure, from Kirk Ferentz’s 28th year at Iowa to Bill Belichick’s second at North Carolina, and produces wide gaps on Joe Moorhead, Mike Norvell, Luke Fickell, and the exact meaning of a Lincoln Riley departure. In this episode, we cover these coaches in order:

• 5:23: Kirk Ferentz at Iowa

• 6:21: Troy Calhoun at Air Force

• 7:54: Dabo Swinney at Clemson

• 9:39: Dave Doeren at NC State

• 11:01: Pat Narduzzi at Pitt

• 12:15: Mike Locksley at Maryland

• 14:27: Mike Norvell at Florida State

• 15:32: Ricky Rahne at Old Dominion

• 16:11: Shane Beamer at South Carolina

• 18:12: Steve Sarkisian at Texas

• 20:34: Sonny Cumbie at Louisiana Tech

• 21:50: Joe Moorhead at Akron

• 23:49: Timmy Chang at Hawaii

• 24:39: Tony Elliott at Virginia

• 27:01: Lincoln Riley at USC

• 29:04: Sonny Dykes at TCU

• 30:35: Brent Venables at Oklahoma

• 31:53: Deion Sanders at Colorado

• 33:43: Luke Fickell at Wisconsin

• 34:40: Jamey Chadwell at Liberty

• 35:35: Matt Rhule at Nebraska

• 37:05: Bill O’Brien at Boston College

• 38:41: Kalen DeBoer at Alabama

• 40:14: Scotty Walden at UTEP

• 40:50: Derek Mason at Middle Tennessee

• 40:53: Dell McGee at Georgia State

• 42:00: Bill Belichick at North Carolina

Note: We unintentionally omitted Baylor's Dave Aranda from this draft. We will come back to him in the Big 12 preview later this summer.

Producer: Anthony Vito

If you like this, you’ll like a paid subscription

For $10 a month (or you can get a discounted annual subscription this week), subscribers get about twice as many Split Zone Duo podcasts, as well as our coach carousel reporting, deep dives on college football history, Q&A opportunities, and many more goodies as we think of them. You also help keep this show independent and ensure we’re making a podcast that puts our listeners, not anyone else, first.

Producer: Anthony Vito

Welcome back to Split Zone Duo RELAUNCH WEEK 2026. The below episode is for paid subscribers, including a free preview for everyone. This week only (through Sunday), you can become a paid subscriber and take 30% off your first year of an annual subscription at this link.

Rodger Sherman joins Alex and Richard for the newest installment of “Why You’re Always Bad,” focused on the program that now owns the FBS record for losses. Northwestern has also posted a winning record over the last 18 years, won six consecutive bowl games, and is preparing to open an extremely expensive new stadium. So Rodger comes prepared to challenge the premise. The group works through the Wildcats’ dark ages, occasional breakthroughs, facility-rich “Ryan family,” small fan base, and existential need to remain inside the Big Ten. In this episode. In this episode:

• 4:04: Brief history of Northwestern football

• 9:56: Cool players and guys you should know from program history, including Trevor Siemian, Justin Jackson, and Otto Graham. Plus, a trailblazing history of Black coaches and NFL presidents

• 28:51: Awful moments in program history (there are many)

• 59:33: Do they have any money (and who, exactly, are the “Ryan family”)

• 1:10:09: What are their (many) non-financial difficulties?

• 1:20:06: Can we find one villain to blame for their struggles?

• 1:22:42: What is this program’s best-case scenario in the next 10 years?

• 1:25:58: Verdict time: What happens if the Big Ten splits?

Everyone can hear a free preview of this episode.

To get the whole thing, become a paid subscriber today. For $10 a month (or you can get a discounted annual subscription this week), subscribers get about twice as many Split Zone Duo podcasts, as well as our coach carousel reporting, deep dives on college football history, Q&A opportunities, and many more goodies as we think of them. You also help keep this show independent and ensure we’re making a podcast that puts our listeners, not anyone else, first.

Producer: Anthony Vito

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We are also offering our annual Relaunch Week special, good for 30 percent off your first year of an annual subscription.

Relaunch Week 30% off

Welcome to our first conference preview of the 2026 season, where Alex and Richard discuss the ACC’s 17 teams. This episode has a rose (a good thing), a bud (a point of intrigue), and a thorn (a worry) for every team in the league. Each school is covered, and then we pick some preseason awards:

- 4:28: Virginia

- 10:51: Duke

- 16:13: SMU

- 21:49: Miami

- 29:28: Pitt

- 34:43: Georgia Tech

- 43:28: NC State

- 49:05: Cal

- 52:53: Clemson

- 58:48: Louisville

- 1:02:47: Wake Forest

- 1:08:23: Stanford

- 1:11:38: Florida State

- 1:17:33: North Carolina

- 1:23:52: Virginia Tech

- 1:28:34: Boston College

- 1:32:08: Syracuse

Producer: Anthony Vito. Thanks to Homefield and Nokian Tyres.