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

Join us for Relaunch Week! 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.

A quarter of the way (and change) into the 21st century, the occasion calls for a proper celebration of the sport we all love before we get into 2026 in earnest. Richard and Alex compete in a draft of the century’s best games to date, but there’s a twist: years cannot be repeated, and neither drafter can use the same team more than once, whether it won or lost. We won’t spoil the picks in the episode description this time, so you’ll just have to see where they fall. Vote on the winner at www.splitzoneduo.com.

Producer: Anthony Vito

Matt Brown of Extra Points joins Richard and Alex to talk about the major college sports business stories of the moment. In this latest SZD/Extra Points Sports Business Hour (and the final week before conference previews), the gang discuss the following:

* 2:06: The EA Sports microtransactions revolt

* 28:02: The Big 12 and Monster Energy: a sponsorship bag fumble or the internet getting carried away during a dead zone in July?

* 42:10: More Texas Tech vs. the Big 12 from media days

* 49:25: Michigan’s athletic department limbo as a lawfirm investigation into the Wolverines’ culture comes to a conclusion

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

* Shop at Homefield

* Learn more about Nokian Tyres

Producer: Anthony Vito

EA Sports College Football principal game designer Ben Haumiller joins Richard and Alex to answer their questions (and many of our subscribers’ questions) about the new CFB video game that comes out July 9. This episode covers new features and gameplay changes, why EA decided to implement an NIL system in dynasty mode, what interactions with schools have been like, which new FBS teams and stadiums made it into the game, and whether Ben is willing to apologize to Alex for all the clock-saving injuries that cost him games last year.

* 0:27: Alex’s shameful record in last year’s game

* 5:47: NIL comes to the EA CFB franchise. Why and how?

* 15:16: Mascot Mode back, plus other new features and how the video game has become a very real part of the college football economy

* 27:04: New team and stadium additions, and what didn’t make it in time

* 32:05: Road to Glory changes, “generational recruits,” ratings logic, and “dynamic weather” as new parts of the game

* 51:38: Tweaks to the coach carousel and player decisions, plus the aesthetic changes that Ben says will make the game feel more real. Plus: How does a professional game developer feel about all of those AI mockups?

For $10 a month (or you can get a free month with an annual subscription), www.splitzoneduo.com 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

* Shop at Homefield

* Learn more about Nokian Tyres

Alex, Richard, and Godfrey spend this subscriber episode reopening some of college football’s ugliest firing files: the decisions that looked reckless in the moment, the ones that aged like bad cheese, and the cases where the process was the bad before the next hire even got started. The trip runs from Nebraska and Washington through FIU, East Carolina, Maryland, and Ole Miss, with athletic directors getting at least as much scrutiny as the fired coaches.

In this episode:

* 2:23: The honorable-mention bucket, including Bo Pelini, Larry Coker, Jeff Jagodzinski, Rick Neuheisel, and Mike Price.

* 17:24: Nebraska actually gets its own division, with Frank Solich tagging in

* 22:13: Mario Cristobal at FIU, an incomprehensible mistake

* 32:38: Ruffin McNeill at East Carolina, which becomes a real AD disaster tale

* 41:27: Ralph Friedgen at Maryland is arguably the worst of all, feat. a James Franklin “coach in waiting” mess

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 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.

Producer: Anthony Vito

Mike Goodman, cohost of soccer podcast The Double Pivot, joins Richard and Alex to talk about a subject that’s been on our minds a lot lately: tournament expansion. The World Cup expanded from 32 teams to 48, and we’ve already seen some of the benefits (and perhaps some of the drawbacks) of that move. What can the recent experiences of the world’s biggest sporting event tell us about college football’s potential playoff expansion to 16 or 24 teams?

* 0:17: Should the World Cup’s expansion prompt a rethink of the CFP’s?

* 3:21: Mike Goodman joins and explains FIFA’s weird (read: corrupt) politics

* 27:39: Why this has worked fairly well in soccer but probably isn’t translatable to college football

* 45:21: What college football could learn from FIFA’s situation

Producer: Anthony Vito

Alex, Richard, and host emeritus Steven Godfrey identify 10-ish head coaches whose tenures are not going well heading into 2026. Is it possible to find hope in any of these situations? On this show, we’re trying to figure out what a turnaround might look like. In this subscriber episode:

0:01: Michigan’s hoops coach goes to the Mavericks, and it’s time for another news cycle about college coaching lifestyles

9:22: Explaining the assignment for this episode

12:23: Mike Norvell and Florida State

19:35: Mike Locksley and Maryland

26:25: Luke Fickell and Wisconsin

34:16: Dave Doeren and NC State

42:02: Dave Aranda and Baylor

47:21: Dabo Swinney and Clemson

57:36: Speed round: Shane Beamer, Scott Satterfield, and Pat Narduzzi

1:01:31: Sure, let’s talk about Bill Belichick and Deion Sanders

Producer: Anthony Vito

This episode is for paid subscribers, but everyone can hear a free preview. Want to get all of our podcasts? Join us here.

Richard takes a solo show journey to wrap up the Brendan Sorsby saga now that the Texas Tech quarterback has announced his intention to enter the NFL’s supplemental draft and effectively end a sports betting saga that included dueling lawsuits, seething administrators/coaches, and state politicians getting into a tit-for-tat.

-What does the whole affair tell us about the status of Cody Campbell’s team ownership?

-Did Tech author its own demise?

-How Brett Yormark comes out looking the best out of every admin.

-What’s the recourse if you’re just over following lawsuits?

-Also … Sorsby’s gonna get taken by a team, right?

Producer: Anthony Vito

As the season gets closer and closer, the hypotheticals start to inch closer to reality. Will the good vibes that your favorite team captured this offseason actually pan out, or will it only lead to disappointment? Is the current situation with your coaching staff or roster getting any better? This internal monologuing can snowball into the dreaded sports anxiety.

So we asked you the listener, to spell out your anxieties about your favorite team so that we can analyze whether they’re substantiated or whether you’re just mostly being a impatient for the season to come. In this episode we cover:

* 07:56 Boston College

* 11:28 Cal

* 14:00 Duke

* 16:01 Georgia Tech

* 18:09 Louisville

* 22:32 North Carolina

* 23:30 Pitt

* 25:00 Stanford

* 27:01 Virginia Tech

* 33:02 Arizona

* 35:23 Iowa State

* 37:37 BYU

* 43:41 Texas Tech

* 52:16 Michigan State

* 58:48 Penn State

Producer: Anthony Vito

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.