• No, 2026 Isn’t 2007. Here’s Why
    10 Nov 2026
    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com

    Richard is joined by co-host emeritus Steven Godfrey to talk parity, upsets, and the takeaways from an admittedly wild 2026 college football regular season to date. There’ve been some comparisons to the truly wildest season in recent college football memory, but we are here to tell you why they’re not quite the same. Regrettably, Alex is not here to wax poetic about 13-9.

    Production: Anthony “Rutgers Detester” Vito

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    12 min
  • Week 10 CFB Hurry-Up: Notre Dame Takes Miami to Midnight Mass
    8 Nov 2026

    The Week 10 college football slate turned out to be light on classics, but it was heavy on impact. Alex and Richard go through dozens of games, including:

    1:35: Notre Dame 31, Miami 24

    6:00: Georgia 42, Ole Miss 7

    7:34: Alabama 31, LSU 13

    13:18: Texas 34, Missouri 20

    17:52: UCLA 34, Minnesota 20

    19:53: Oregon 41, Ohio State 28

    23:26: Michigan State 15, Michigan 6

    25:56: Penn State 28, Washington 25

    27:50: Utah 28, BYU 20

    32:05: Texas Tech 53, West Virginia 48

    46:26: Boise State 64, Colorado State 38

    Producer: Anthony Vito

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    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.splitzoneduo.com/subscribe
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    49 min
  • Team of the Week: Toledo Runs the Cignetti Play
    5 Nov 2026
    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com

    MACtion is back as of this week, and the Toledo Rockets are once again right there in the mix to win the conference. How did the most consistent program in the Mid-American get that way? And what challenges has it needed to overcome to stay there? There are a lot of them. Inside this episode:

    4:20: The Cignettification of Toledo

    6:38: Mike Jacobs and the small-college coaching pipeline

    15:38: Remembering Toledo coaches, from Nick Saban to Jason Candle

    20:04: Giant-killing and the Glass Bowl

    24:38: The university, the city, and the challenges of MACtion

    34:07: Can anybody else in the MAC do this?

    Producer: Anthony Vito

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    15 min
  • Week 10 Tasting Menu: Every Game Is Good
    4 Nov 2026

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    Richard and Alex look ahead to one of the juiciest weekend schedules college football has seen in years. First, a quick discussion of the midterm elections’ effect on the college football landscape, and then dozens of games, including:

    - 10:34: Virginia Tech at SMU

    - 14:04: New Mexico at Nevada

    - 18:15: BYU at Utah

    - 23:46: Texas at Missouri

    - 31:38: Texas A&M at South Carolina

    - 34:25: Alabama at LSU

    - 40:14: Oregon at Ohio State

    - 52:39: Georgia at Ole Miss

    - 58:05: Miami at Notre Dame (note: recorded before we heard Malachi Toney’s status is uncertain)

    - 1:05:43: Oklahoma at Florida

    Producer: Anthony Vito

    THANKS TO OUR SUBSCRIBERS AND PARTNERS

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    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.splitzoneduo.com/subscribe
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    1 hr and 14 min
  • Playoff Rankings Reaction with Jessica Smetana: Week 10
    4 Nov 2026

    Guest host Jessica Smetana joins Alex to talk through the first College Football Playoff rankings reveal of the season. This episode first aired as a live stream on YouTube and has been spruced up lightly by our producer, Anthony Vito, to go into your podcast feeds now. In this episode:

    * Running through the opening 1-25

    * What the committee says it’s doing differently this year

    * Our biggest beefs with the committee (Alabama, hello again lol)

    * The committee’s crush of the week

    * The team at risk of being dropped from the group chat

    * Jessica Smetana’s Notre Dame Discourse Corner

    * The sneaky good win (or loss) of the week. Hi, Oregon?

    Thanks for listening, and especially thank you if you were one of the people who joined us live and waited for us during some early technical glitching!



    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.splitzoneduo.com/subscribe
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    36 min
  • “The Job”: An FSU Emergency Episode Breaks Out
    2 Nov 2026
    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com

    Florida State is open. Richard and Alex give the whole job market an overview but focus most of this episode on the Noles, who are still (for most people) the best available gig on the market. In this episode:

    3:01: Richard walks Alex through the backroom and infrastructural changes FSU has already made (and the ones fans still want)

    12:50: Where exactly did Mike Norvell’s tenure go wrong?

    22:59: Where will this job sit in the pecking order of available gigs?

    25:24: Names who might make sense in Tallahassee

    30:29: NC State’s apparent pursuit of Philip Rivers and what we see in it, plus a bit more on on Baylor and Sam Houston

    Producer: Anthony Vito

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    15 min
  • Week 9 CFB Hurry-Up: Is Ohio State Doing This?
    1 Nov 2026

    Richard and Alex take you through Week 9, telling you about dozens of interesting games in 30ish minutes. Including but not limited to:

    USC 30, Ohio State 18

    Indiana 23, Minnesota 16

    Washington 17, Nebraska 10

    South Carolina 42, Oklahoma 25

    BYU 27, Arizona State 20

    Texas Tech 34, Arizona 26

    Iowa State 51, Oklahoma State 49

    Miami 38, North Carolina 35

    Clemson 36, Florida State 24

    Troy 24, James Madison 21

    Johns Hopkins wins on a FAIR-CATCH KICK

    Producer: Anthony Vito

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    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.splitzoneduo.com/subscribe
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    48 min
  • Team of the Week: Is This New Mexico’s Moment? Eck Yeah, Brother
    29 Oct 2026
    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com

    The New Mexico Lobos have a long and mostly bleak football history. A former coach one said you could fit the fanbase in a few rows of bleachers. The list of UNM players the casual college football fan remembers watching is zero player long. But right now, under coach Jason Eck, UNM is one of the most exciting turnaround stories in the country and has a real chance to make the playoff. The Lobos are doing something no one else is doing, and Rodger Sherman joins Alex Kirshner to talk about it on this SUBSCRIBER SPECIAL:

    0:16: New Mexico’s moment

    9:51: The Jason Eck story

    19:26: Remember a Lobo (Brian Urlacher edition)

    25:20: Why winning at New Mexico is ultra-difficult

    36:48: The defense and the turnovers

    42:50: What happens after Eck?

    Producer: Anthony Vito

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    20 min