Split Zone Duo’s conference previews for 2025 keep rolling along with a two-parter: the Pac-12 and the FBS independents, whose ranks have thinned.

* Oregon State might finally (finally!) be poised for stability and growth

* Washington State faces a similar crisis to the one OSU faced last year, although the Cougs have a few reasons for optimism as they prepare to take a big chunk of the best program in FCS and import it to FBS

* Jim Mora has the UConn Huskies in just about the best place possible

* Why this one feels like a “win the national title or bust” year for Notre Dame—or at least get back to the semifinals

Cool stuff from Split Zone Duo’s partners

* Use SZD20 for 20% off your first order at Homefield.

* Enter your favorite CFB road trip at our Nokian Tyres landing page, and you’ll be entered in a drawing to win free tires.

Godfrey joins Alex and Richard for the third installment in our offseason series, “Why You’re Always Bad.” This episode is about ULM, formerly known as Northeast Louisiana State. The Warhawks are perhaps the most consistently bad team in the top division of college football, which raises the question of why they’re at that level in the first place. It turns out there’s an answer. In this episode, the Split Zone Duo crew discusses:

* ULM’s struggle to define its identity, literally

* The program’s rise from junior colleague to I-AA to the big time

* The fatal error in ULM’s move to FBS, and how a series of predictable (and some unpredictable) events made things worse

* The rare good times and why ULM hasn’t been able to capitalize on them

* The lesson for others in the Warhawks’ struggles

SCROLL DOWN IN YOUR PODCAST FEED to find our similar subscriber episodes in this series on Rice (published May 12) and Kent State (published February 26).

This episode of Split Zone Duo is for our paid subscribers, without whom the podcast wouldn’t exist. We thank you! And if you’re interested in becoming a paid subscriber, now’s a great time. It costs $10 a month and we are currently offering free trials, as well as a free preview snippet of this episode. You can join us at www.splitzoneduo.com

Season previews are back! Richard and Alex go alphabetically through the whole Sun Belt, picking out one rose, one bud, and one thorn for all 14 schools, from Appalachian State to Troy. In this episode:

* App State hits the reset button

* Coastal Carolina should be feeling some urgency

* Georgia Southern extended Clay Helton and kept its roster together, so why aren’t we feeling so good about the Eagles?

* Georgia State’s recruiting growth under Dell McGee is in bloom

* JMU has every chance to contend for the G5 playoff spot

* Marshall follows a Sun Belt championship with a whole lot of uncertainty, but at least one thing about the Herd should be cool

* ODU gets back its star linebacker after a lost season

* Arkansas State has one of the G5’s best receivers … and a date with the Hogs

* Louisiana appears most of the way back, three years after Billy Napier left

* ULM has immense challenges but a reason or two for belief

* South Alabama loses a star running back and its starting QB but gains a Major League ballplayer, among others

* Southern Miss, which went 1-11, is sort of the defending champ

* Texas State has the opportunity to put it all together

* Troy looks at some regression to the mean, but how much more than that?

Then we pick some preseason superlatives to close out the first preview of 2025.

Cool stuff from Split Zone Duo’s partners:

* Use SZD20 for 20% off your first order at Homefield.

* Enter your favorite CFB road trip at our Nokian Tyres landing page, and you’ll be entered in a drawing to win free tires.

Producer: Anthony Vito

For the Fourth of July, we look all the way back to the founding of … college football. Richard and Alex pick and debate the defining teams of each decade of the sport’s history, starting with one year of the 1860s and rolling through the 2010s. Remember that “defining team” is usually complimentary, but not always. Without spoiling any of the discussion, this show features:

* Rutgers vs. Princeton for the crown of the 1860s

* Yale’s case against everybody for the later 1800s

* Why Michigan’s 1900s was even more impressive than you think

* Georgia Tech vs. the advent of the forward pass in the 1910s

* That classic college football matchup: Alabama vs. Cal, for the ‘20s

* Someone likes Pitt for the 1930s, and it’s not Alex

* Did the 1940s belong to Army and Navy, or did they belong to the school that best manipulated the rules meant to help people from the army and navy?

* Why there will never be another program like 1950s Oklahoma, ever

* A curveball for the ‘60s, but definitely not for the ‘70s

* Penn State vs. SMU for the ‘80s

* A brutal Nebraska vs. Florida State vs. Miami vs. Florida race for the ‘90s

* In the 2000s, a chance to go off the beaten path instead of just picking Florida or USC: Will we take it?

* No need to complicate the 2010s

This is a subscriber episode of Split Zone Duo.

Everyone can listen to a free preview of this show, and we offer weeklong free trials if you want to try us out. It’s a great time of year to do it, and you can get a month free with an annual subscription.

Thank you for listening, and we hope you have a great holiday weekend.

Producer: Anthony Vito

Around 20 FBS coaches will retire or get fired by the end of this season, but which ones will they be? Alex and Richard pick out 23 names and rank them from least to most likely to be entering their last season on the job. Then we talk about the context, especially in the handful of cases with big differences in our rankings. Plus, everyone gets buyer’s remorse at least once.

This episode is free for all. For the most part, however, we release our discussions of the coach carousel for our SplitZoneDuo.com subscribers. Now’s a great time to sign up for the year and get lots of podcasts during the season:

Sports Podcast Festival on August 23, with code SPF25 for a buy one, get one half off deal: https://www.etix.com/ticket/p/78691649/the-2nd-annual-sports-podcast-festival-raleigh-the-rialto

Cool stuff from Split Zone Duo’s partners

* Use SZD20 for 20% off your first order at Homefield.

* Enter your favorite CFB road trip at our Nokian Tyres landing page, and you’ll be entered in a drawing to win free tires.

Production: Anthony Vito.

Part 2 of our conversation with EA Sports College Football principal game designer Ben Haumiller. Ben takes a bunch of subscriber questions on the upcoming CFB game and the state of college sports video gaming in general:

* How to actually learn to play a football video game

* Incorporating the House settlement and NIL

* How a new 'gadget” position” embraces the reality of modern depth charts

* Improvements to the coach carousel

* The process of putting music in the game

* The customization options for conferences and teams (or, in other words, why you cannot destroy the SEC and put all the teams back in the SoCon)

* Different uses for Team Builder

* The potential for a custom stadium builder, one day

* Whether kicking and loud road environments are still impossible

* Adding scandals to college sports video games

And more. Thanks for Ben for joining us, and thanks to our subscribers for not just supporting the show but providing the inspiration for this one. Join us on a free trial and get lots more episodes as well as question-asking rights.

Producer: Anthony Vito

Part 1: EA Sports College Football principal game designer Ben Haumiller joins Alex and Richard for a discussion of the upcoming CFB video game, with a focus on Dynasty mode and lessons learned from last year’s long-awaited return.

* What EA learned from the best-selling sports game of all time

* The easier and more difficult parts of releasing a second game

* How the new game will (and, most importantly, won’t) include microtransactions

* Real-life coaches and how they’ll change the dynasty experience

* Addressing to Alex’s specific complaints about the coach carousel

* Balancing the competing desires of having a realistic game, but also a game in which UMass can eventually sign a bunch of five-stars

* Getting the transfer portal and recruiting right

* The challenges of keeping up with a sport that is endlessly changing, especially the playoff system

Part 2 of our discussion with Ben, coming later this week, is a listener Q&A just for our SplitZoneDuo.com subscribers. We’d love to have you!

Come see us live at the Sports Podcast Festival on August 23 in Raleigh. Use code SPF25 for a buy-one, get-one-half-off deal: https://www.etix.com/ticket/p/78691649/the-2nd-annual-sports-podcast-festival-raleigh-the-rialto

Cool stuff from Split Zone Duo’s partners

* Use SZD20 for 20% off your first order at Homefield.

* Enter your favorite CFB road trip at our Nokian Tyres landing page, and you’ll be entered in a drawing to win free tires.

Production: Anthony Vito.

Alex and Richard discuss a handful of offseason stories:

* The Pac-12’s expansion efforts are coming to a head, and Texas State—not Sacramento State—appears to be the apple of the league’s eye. Extra Points publisher Matt Brown joins to talk about why Sac State’s extremely public campaign for FBS membership has not paid dividends. Read Matt’s report on the Hornets’ looming move to FCS independence.

* The House settlement is now official, and depending on who you talk to, it’s either an ironclad new system to regulate the college football economy or a house of cards just waiting to be toppled. Justin Williams, a college football reporter for The Athletic, explains these competitive views. Read his recent story: “Return of the bag man: NIL clearinghouse could revive paying college athletes under table.” (Of course, also read Godfrey’s old classic.)

* Playoff expansion might be stalemated, and there’s a surprising group of people at the heart of the resistance: SEC head coaches. What?

* Cal joins Stanford in putting a famous alum in charge of the whole football program, not as head coach but as general manager. What are the ramifications sport-wide, and what is specific to the Bay Area schools? Refer back to our subscriber episode on Cal’s tumultuous offseason.

Sports Podcast Festival tickets for 8/23 (use code SPF25 for a buy-one, get-one-half-off deal): https://www.etix.com/ticket/p/78691649/the-2nd-annual-sports-podcast-festival-raleigh-the-rialto

Cool stuff from Split Zone Duo’s partners

* Use SZD20 for 20% off your first order at Homefield.

* Enter your favorite CFB road trip at our Nokian Tyres landing page, and you’ll be entered in a drawing to win free tires.

Production: Anthony Vito.