In this episode, we take a break from the usual offseason doom loop and focus on the things that still make college football worth getting excited about. With the 2026 season now inside the 100-day window, we lean into the joy, weirdness and ritual of the sport, from team entrances and tailgate footballs to bowl games as holiday escape hatches, overseas openers in Dublin and Rio, and the simple feeling of leaning forward on the couch right before kickoff.

We also get into the more specific quirks that make college football feel like college football: pylon cams, visor coaches, turnover props, weird eye black, old-school announcers, preview magazines, 68-degree noon kickoffs, coaches losing their minds on the sideline, late-night windows and the constant possibility that a huge favorite might get dragged into a game it has no business losing.

Plus, we look ahead to some of the real football reasons to be excited for 2026, including a loaded crop of star players, a monster Week 10 schedule, the evolving Group of Five playoff race and the SEC’s move to a nine-game conference schedule. Consider this a little kickoff yearning for the summer months, a reminder that, for all the sport’s problems, there’s still nothing quite like it.

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In this episode, we introduce a new game called “Bed or Built,” where we take some of college football’s most repeated narratives and decide whether it’s time to put them to bed or if they’re still built to last. With the 2026 season creeping closer, we sort through the stories that have followed programs, coaches and fan bases for years, and ask which ones still make sense in the current version of the sport.

We dig into Mario Cristobal and Miami, Matt Rhule’s turnaround reputation, Lane Kiffin’s chaos factor, Ryan Day’s “born on third base” label, Texas A&M’s hard ceiling, Oregon’s late-season hurdle, Clemson’s attempts to adapt, James Franklin’s big-game baggage and the difficulty of following Nick Saban at Alabama. Along the way, we get into the transfer portal, coaching hires, College Football Playoff expectations, roster-building, fan perception and how quickly old narratives can become outdated.

Timecodes:
0:00 - Intro
5:46 - Mario Cristobal & Miami will trip up
13:45 - Matt Rhule is a turnaround genius
20:38 - Lane Kiffin is misunderstood
26:25 - Ryan Dan was born on third base
32:35 - Texas A&M has a hard ceiling
38:56 - Oregon will fall flat late
45:33 - Clemson can't adapt
54:08 - Big Game James Franklin
56:09 - Being the guy after Nick Saban

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In this episode, we react to Tony Petitti’s public push for a 24-team College Football Playoff and try to sort through what it actually means for the sport. Is expansion really about access, regular-season stakes, and rewarding more teams, or is it mostly about television inventory, conference leverage, and the ongoing ESPN vs. Fox tug-of-war? We also talk through why the SEC’s preference for 16 teams suddenly puts some fans in the strange position of... rooting for Greg Sankey.

Then it’s time for an ACC vibe check, as we take a look at the conference before full preview season kicks into gear. Miami looks like the league’s clearest headliner, but after that, things get messy fast. We work through the conference’s biggest connective tissues, including offensive line questions, thin receiver rooms, quarterback uncertainty, Cal’s wide range of outcomes, Louisville’s favorable path, Georgia Tech’s possible regression, and whether Virginia Tech or NC State could turn into a surprise playoff-adjacent story.

Also included: Slices 'N Steps in NYC, illegal-streaming hypotheticals, Chili’s corn nostalgia, and the beginning of what may become a fully realized ACC-as-abandoned-mall taxonomy.

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Timecodes:
0:00 - Intro & Slices 'N Steps in NYC
6:38 - Tony Petitti's 24-Team CFP Plan
31:07 - The Vibrant ACC Mall
38:00 - The Cal Factor
45:20 - The Case for Syracuse
52:07 - The Case Against Georgia Tech
59:48 - Miami's Heisman Elimination Game
1:07:49 - Virginia Tech's CFP Chances
1:12:41 - The Surprise Orange Julius
1:17:05 - Mapping Out The ACC Mall

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We’re midway through May, which means it’s time to start talking ourselves into, and out of, what the 2026 college football season could become. In this episode, we turn the month itself into a game with a Big Ten “Mayyyyybe” vibe check, asking which scenarios feel realistic, which ones feel like offseason nonsense, and which ones might look strangely prescient by November.

Could Ohio State’s schedule create a real College Football Playoff problem? Is Maryland quietly positioned to take a step forward? Can Wisconsin stabilize things for Luke Fickell, Iowa mess around with a playoff run, or UCLA become one of the more interesting teams in the conference under Bob Chesney? We also dig into Oregon’s internal coordinator hires, Michigan’s tricky first year under Kyle Whittingham, and USC’s unlucky, unforgiving schedule.

Along the way, there are schedule sandwiches, quarterback questions, offensive line concerns, coaching crush rankings, a surprising amount of hernia talk, and more.

Timestamps:
0:00 - Intro
5:01 - Ohio State misses the CFP
14:22 - Maryland wins a game after September
20:42 - Wisconsin saves Luke Fickell's job
27:23 - Oregon regrets new coordinators
34:19 - Iowa makes the CFP
39:27 - UCLA wins 8 games
47:22 - Michigan becomes a mess
55:52 - USC's unlucky schedule

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We’re taking an early look at the 2026 college football schedule and doing a public service for the Verballerhood: figuring out which Saturdays deserve to be protected on the family calendar. From Week 0 appetizers to monster November slates, we rank the season week by week, identify the biggest projected matchups, and decide when it is safe to go outside and when it is absolutely not.

Along the way, we dig into the weeks that look especially dangerous for teams stuck between emotional rivalry games, cross-country trips, short weeks, and potential letdown spots. Ohio State, Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Notre Dame, Penn State, Oregon, USC, LSU, Ole Miss, BYU, Texas Tech and others all pop up as we sort through the best weekends, the sneaky ones, and the obvious trap-ortunities.

Plus, we discuss shared calendars, zhoug sauce, Trappy Valley, the revered Ball-Sac Game, how much of November should be blocked off, and several increasingly questionable strategies for preserving couch time during the best stretch of the season.

Timestamps
0:00 - Intro
7:36 - Week 0
9:33 - Week 1
12:11 - Week 2
17:49 - Week 3
23:20 - Week 4
25:17 - Week 5
30:28 - Week 6
37:38 - Week 7
40:04 - Week 8
44:40 - Week 9
47:09 - Week 10
53:09 - Week 11
57:47 - Week 12
1:03:51 - Week 13

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We’re back for Part 2 of our May Q&A, which means the offseason conversation gets both bigger and weirder. We start off with College Football Playoff expansion anxiety, including the possibility of a 24-team field, the future of conference championship games, and the growing gap between the people running the sport and the fans who love it.

We discuss the new marriage between Michigan State and Pat Fitzgerald, which leads us into a broader conversation about safe hires, risky hires, Transfer Portal recruiting, and what it actually means to rebuild in the modern Big Ten. We also touch on Texas, Arch Manning, Steve Sarkisian, Florida State, Mike Norvell, and the kinds of expectations that can turn a normal season into a referendum.

We also spend some time on the quarterback and offensive coordinator pairings we’re most curious to watch, with stops at places like Georgia Tech, UCLA, Florida, Kentucky, and a few others. Which combinations are actually exciting? Which ones feel volatile? Which ones have the widest range of possible outcomes?

And because it’s an offseason Q&A, we find room for the important stuff: wearing your team’s gear when things are bleak, whether video podcasts have raised the appearance bar, and Dan’s surprisingly spicy take on wearing sneakers with suits.

Timestamps:
0:00 - Intro
3:09 - Mass CFB Exodus?
25:04 - Why Pat Fitzgerald?
38:39 - New QB-Coach Pairings?f
47:50 - Loser Sports Apparel?
53:00 - Texas Expectations?
59:46 - Norvell's Future?
1:06:03 - Old School Showbiz?

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In Part 1 of our big May Q&A, we dig into some of the biggest questions hanging over college football right now, starting with Brendan Sorsby’s uncertain status at Texas Tech and what it could mean for the Big 12 race. We also get into the new single-window transfer portal calendar, the changing value of internal player development, and how roster construction is evolving in a sport where continuity, money, scouting, and plain old luck all seem to matter at once.

From there, we zoom out to the SEC’s national championship drought, Texas’s non-conference schedule, the future structure of college football, and what a more stable version of the sport might look like by 2035. And naturally, we also find time for foot massagers, suspicious domain names, street-naming philosophies, and a little competitive geography talk.

Timestamps:
0:00 - Intro
2:16 - Brendan Sorsby & Portal Buyers' Remorse
22:16 - Homegrown Talent
36:18 - Non-con Schedule Smoke
44:12 - SEC vs The Field
51:24 - CFB in 2035
1:07:45 - Street Naming Strategies

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Bill Connelly from ESPN.com stops by to walk us through the post-spring college football landscape, fresh off turning in 7,000 words on the MAC and kicking off his annual conference preview series. We get into how the portal era has transformed his prep work, why the SEC has become a "horizontal" conference of strong middles, and which conferences are hardest to make sense of right now. Bill evaluates the Big 12 after the Brendan Sorsby news, talks up a few mid-major teams to watch, and explains why he still doesn't fully trust Texas the way the rest of the country does.

We also dig into the Bob Chesney's roster build at UCLA, Oklahoma State's full offensive transfusion, Lane Kiffin's quarterback insurance policy, and what to make of the pairing of Bryce Underwood and Kyle Whittingham in Ann Arbor. Bill also shares his Alabama skepticism, his read on Indiana's encore, and why he's increasingly intrigued by Texas A&M.

And, to close things out, a little World Cup talk in advance of this summer's tournament.

Timestamps:
0:00 - Intro
4:05 - Bill Connelly joins the show

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Just as we hit record, news broke that Texas Tech's Brendan Sorsby, one of the highest-paid quarterbacks in the transfer portal this cycle, is checking into a treatment program for a gambling addiction, and is under NCAA investigation dating back to his time at Indiana. In this episode, we lead off with what it means for Texas Tech, and why this story is bigger than just one player in an era where sports betting has never been more accessible.

Then, we're joined by fantasy football extraordinaire, Jason Moore of The Fantasy Footballers, for a crossover segment years in the making. Jason gives his advice for how our favorite college stars translate to fantasy football, talks through a uniquely thin fantasy class, and picks out his favorite landing spots among the biggest rookie names. Plus, he helps Ty through his issue of drafting too many rookies. When in doubt, just bet against the bad teams.

Timecodes:
0:00 - Intro
4:19 - Brendan Sorsby seeks treatment for gambling problem
10:47 - Jason Moore of The Fantasy Footballers joins the show

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In this episode, we're joined by Cole Cubelic (SEC Network, McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning, The Cube Show) for an SEC vibe check. It's not a preview, just the temperature of the conference in late April. Cole pulls no punches on the reality facing SEC fan bases: Nick Saban's standards aren't coming back, sub-goals like winning the conference have been devalued, and we've collectively forgotten what a genuinely successful season looks like. Plus, we dive in the strange Kalen DeBoer hot seat chatter, Shane Beamer's underrated portal wizardry at South Carolina, why the Alex Golesh hire at Auburn matters more than who left in the portal, Texas's need for hard-hat glue guys to pair with its sports cars, and whether Lane Kiffin's LSU rebuild can actually cohere in year one.

We also discuss the loss of program continuity in the transfer portal era, the new nine-game SEC schedule as a gauntlet-within-a-gauntlet, and a big wave of defensive coordinator turnover that could make September interesting.

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