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

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

- 0:27: Richard’s recruiting symposium report, including the G6 team that’s spending money like nobody else in its conference’s history

- 8:56: What is the point of conferences, really?

- 17:33: Your guide to picking a G6 team, tailored for a Washington fan but meant for anyone who’d like to care about more football teams

- 21:57: Could the NFL weaken its college farm system? Does it care?

- 25:31: What if Notre Dame bumps a P4 from the Playoff by being ranked 12th?

- 31:28: How could college football get a real salary cap?

- 34:38: Did COVID money fuel Miami’s ascent?

- 38:34: What would make the “We’re So Back 12” successful this year?

- 43:58: Which G6 team could win a Playoff game?

- 45:47: How do you rediscover joy in college football?

- 51:57: Which unvisited FBS stadiums top our lists?

- 53:39: How many titles make Indiana a football school?

- 54:15: Video game dynasty report

- 54:48: How did we choose the intro soundbites?

- 56:47: Akron, you better take your fan drive-scripting exercise seriously

Producer: Anthony Vito

The American had a great 2025. The reward? The top of the league all needed new coaches, and almost all of the top player talent 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: Florida Atlantic

- 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

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

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

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

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.

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 jumbled its schedule; a chaotic December put Nebraska in the national championship game after Colorado had beaten the Huskers by 26; Florida and Tennessee settled the SEC East in December; Oregon got left out; and a landmark coaching class signaled that the sport’s next era had already begun. This subscriber episode tells the story of the season in about 100 minutes, including archival audio of Lee Corso condemning the SEC’s initial plan to play four days after the attacks. In this episode:

- 0:17: How Miami’s dominance hides a lot of weirdness in the history books

- 15:04: September 11’s effect on the season, including …

- 33:59: How the BCS race became unlike any other

- 56:37: An absurdly good crop of new head coaches that reshaped the sport

- 1:02:21: Rex Grossman vs. Eric Crouch

- 1:15:24: The many eras that were butting against each other here

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

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 only), 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