Phantom Island

Brian Shearer, the Director of Competition and Regulatory Policy at the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator, joins Ryan Nanni to discuss a recent paper put out by his team titled "How to Save Audiences $11 Billion on Live Events." They discuss the differences between sports crowds and concert audiences, why franchises and owners haven't spoken out against the ticket companies as musicians have, and what the prospects for regulatory improvement look like. Phantom Island is presented by Homefield and produced by Michael Surber.

Members of the Phantom Island community send Steven Godfrey questions, and, on this episode, he answers them on topics ranging from what USC really wants from a coach, what the trajectories look like for a couple of previously hot coaching prospects off to slow starts, why things are working so well for Chip Kelly at his latest stop, and an extended soliloquy about coffee making.

This is a preview of the full episode, which is available to paid subscribers – go to phantomisland.show to sign up today. Phantom Island is presented by Homefield and produced by Michael Surber.

Parker Fleming joins Steven Godfrey to discuss explosive plays in college football, why they matter more in a game where tempo has started to fade, the differences between explosive runs and explosive passes, how to possibly find more explosives in the portal, and much more.

This is a preview of the full episode, which is available to paid subscribers – go to phantomisland.show to sign up today. Phantom Island is presented by Homefield and produced by Michael Surber.

Steven Godfrey returns from a long day on the phone to talk with Ryan Nanni about possible rumblings all over college football. Listen if you'd like to compare Lincoln Riley's current school and his old one, hear about the North Carolina coaches that aren't Bill Belichick, and see if Ryan can summon a candidate to Tallahassee that will generate great chaos in the Sunshine State.

This is a preview of the full episode, which is available to paid subscribers – go to phantomisland.show to sign up today. Phantom Island is presented by Homefield and produced by Michael Surber.

Jen Ramos-Eisen, freelance baseball and labor writer for Defector (amongst other places) joins Ryan Nanni for a review of Year One of the WPBL. How was the actual baseball? What were the pros and cons of holding all the games in Illinois? Why was the television production so uneven? And what's actually going on with the league's finances and governance? Phantom Island is presented by Homefield and produced by Michael Surber.

ESPN's Bill Connelly joins Steven Godfrey to review the history of college football coaches returning to their old, successful stomping grounds. Get ready to hear about Greg Schiano, Scott Frost, and Mack Brown (but also Jeff Tedford and Bill Snyder!) and the common patterns that explain why this move often doesn't go the way the nostalgic might hope.

This is a preview of the full episode, which is available to paid subscribers – go to phantomisland.show to sign up today. Phantom Island is presented by Homefield and produced by Michael Surber.

Zach Osterman and Mike Niziolek combined their experience on the Indiana football beat to write Unthinkable to Unstoppable: How Curt Cignetti and the Indiana Hoosiers Stunned College Football, and they sat down with Ryan Nanni to talk about the decision to write this book after the 2025 season and not after the stunning turnaround of 2024, how Cignetti built a team with pieces he knew and pieces he didn't, and what other programs should – and should NOT – try to mimic from this Indiana run. Phantom Island is presented by Homefield and produced by Michael Surber.

Arkansas State Head Coach Butch Jones sat down with Steven Godfrey before the start of this football season to discuss the realities of building and sustaining a program in the world of the transfer portal and NIL. How do you build culture when your roster turns over so frequently? Have coaches shifted their perspective on what it means to lose your best players to the portal? And when does a team find its identity in this new system?

This is a preview of the full episode, which is available to paid subscribers – go to phantomisland.show to sign up today. Phantom Island is presented by Homefield and produced by Michael Surber.

Steven Godfrey has football opinions about the LSU-Ole Miss showdown in Week 3, but what he really wants to talk about with Ryan Nanni on this episode is the cultural history of this rivalry, how Lane Kiffin distracts from it, and whether this game will lead to the kind of anger and chaos lots of people think might come to pass in Oxford.

This is a preview of the full episode, which is available to paid subscribers – go to phantomisland.show to sign up today. Phantom Island is presented by Homefield and produced by Michael Surber.

Freelance writer Sydney Bauer joins Ryan Nanni to review the WNBA's summer tumult over transgender athletes, what those stories revealed about the media's ability to provide necessary context and nuance to a complex topic, why the discussion always seems to focus on hypotheticals and not real people, and how one profile sprawled into almost every other topic in the WNBA. Phantom Island is presented by Homefield and produced by Michael Surber.