Big Ten Offseason Vibe Check: Ohio State's President Makes It Weird

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.comQuick note! This is a subscriber episode of Split Zone Duo. You can subscribe here. Subscribers, be on the lookout on Sunday night or early Monday for the links to enter our annual bracket competition, with SZD sponsor prizes for the winners. It’ll be fun! OK, here’s this hoops-centric episode. College basketball has many of the same challenges as football, and some that are even tougher. Rodger Sherman joins Alex and Richard for a state of the union on CBB and a compare-contrast of how the dynamics we’ve observed in football are showing up in hoops. In this episode, you’ll find: * 7:46: The story of Miami (Ohio), a mid-major basketball team whose undefeated regular season has resulted in an awfully CFB-like discourse about whether they should miss the NCAA tournament * 17:08: The widening gap between the high-major conferences and everyone else, quantified in real time by Rodger * 27:33: Why continuity problems appear to be worse in CBB * 41:32: Is that thing actually happening where the House settlement results in basketball-only schools having an advantage? * 45:06: We probably shouldn’t actually worry that much about a small number of recent pros returning to the college game * 1:00:27: Rodger prepares us for March Madness Produced by Anthony Vito. This is a subscriber episode For $10 a month (or getting a free month with the whole year), you get: * Roughly twice as many episodes (usually two bonus a week in season and once a week out of season, but sometimes more) * Our entire back catalog of hundreds of bonus episodes, with many of them focused on evergreen topics from college football history * Subscriber Q&A opportunities * The knowledge that you’re helping us make an audience-driven podcast about college football and keeping this podcast alive and well

Offseason vibe checks return for 2026, starting with the Big Ten. This is our way of checking in on how the offseason is going for every team in the league. Richard and Alex go through the 18-team B1G in the following order: * 3:22: Indiana* 9:08: Iowa* 12:08: Oregon* 16:36: Rutgers* 17:39: Illinois* 20:24: Penn State* 25:59: Michigan State* 30:15: Michigan* 34:38: Purdue* 36:01: UCLA* 38:23: Nebraska* 42:10: Wisconsin* 47:44: Maryland* 52:19: USC* 55:38: Minnesota* 57:18: Washington* 1:00:24: Northwestern* 1:08:52: Ohio StateThis episode is free, but you can get a lot more of them by becoming a paid subscriberFor $10 a month (or a free month with the whole year), you get: * Roughly twice as many episodes (usually two bonus a week in season and once a week out of season, but sometimes more) * Our entire back catalog of hundreds of bonus episodes, with many of them focused on evergreen topics from college football history * Subscriber Q&A opportunities * The knowledge that you’re helping us make an audience-driven podcast about college football and keeping this thing alive and well Producer: Anthony VitoLearn about the Nokian Tyres Hakkapeliitta 01.Shop at Homefield. 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

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.comHost emeritus Steven Godfrey is back to join Richard for a whip-around of the most interesting coordinator moves (and non-moves) from the 2026 coaching carousel. There’s a lot to cover here, including but not limited to:* 1:04: Miami’s key retentions* 3:13: Palace intrigue at Auburn* 4:45: Clemson pushes the Chad Morris button* 8:50: Texas says hi again to Will Muschamp* 11:31: Kansas does the same with Andy Kotelnicki* 12:45: Tennessee’s possibly great but definitely kind of awkward Jim Knowles hire, after he flopped at Penn State* 16:45: Chip Kelly’s post-Eagles career remains bizarre* 19:49: Bobby Petrino and Bill Belichick* 23:05: Ole Miss’ new world* 27:48: Gary Patterson and USC* 29:02: Deion’s shrinking runway in Boulder* 30:22: TCU’s identity shift* 31:22: Mike Norvell, play-caller* 31:45: Michigan’s Utah era* 32:31: Ohio State’s NFL OC hire* 33:00: Oregon replacing not one but two coordinators* 34:50: Buster Faulkner (with the GT offense?) heads to GainesvilleProducer: Anthony Vito

Matt Brown joins Richard and Alex for the latest SZD/Extra Points Sports Business Hour. In this episode, the group talks about how the job of an athletic director has changed in the past handful of years: * The worst athletic director Matt has ever seen * What used to be the key markers of a good AD? * How have those traits changed in the 2020s? * News story reactions: Oliver Luck gets yet another college sports job, and Mississippi is poised to give tax breaks to athletes on NIL dealsThanks to Matt! You can read him all the time at Extra Points. Get more SZD by becoming a paid subscriberWe don’t stop in the offseason! Subscribers get bonus shows roughly each week (sometimes more frequently) on college football history, the coaching carousel, or any other topic or news story that we think you’ll be interested in hearing about. Thanks to the 4,000 of you who make this show possible! Thanks to our sponsorsnokiantyres.com/hockeyhomefieldapparel.comProducer: Anthony Vito 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

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.comIn this subscriber episode, Godfrey, Richard, and Alex revisit 28 head coach transitions before the 2012 college football season. This was one of the most consequential coach carousels of the 21st century, with lots of very good, lots of very bad, plenty in the middle, and also the John L. Smith situation:THE GOOD* 9:29: Urban Meyer to Ohio State* 16:05: Mike Leach to Washington State* 22:39: Bill O’Brien to Penn State* 31:34: Justin Fuente to Memphis* 34:28: Matt Campbell to Toledo* 35:31: Jim McElwain to Colorado State* 36:55: Gus Malzahn to Arkansas State* 39:28: Terry Bowden to AkronTHE WHATEVER* 41:36: Jim Mora Jr. to UCLA* 46:54: Todd Graham to Arizona State* 50:28: Paul Chryst to Pitt* 51:10: Larry Fedora to North Carolina* 53:42: Kyle Flood to Rutgers* 55:45: Bob Davie to New Mexico* 56:46: Tim DeRuyter to Fresno StateTHE UGLY* 58:05: Tim Beckman to Illinois* 59:00: Tony Levine to Houston* 1:00:59: Curtis Johnson to Tulane* 1:01:59: Norm Chow to Hawaii* 1:05:54: Charley Molnar to UMass* 1:06:21: Garrick McGee to UAB* 1:13:08: Carl Pelini to FAU* 1:17:05: Ellis Johnson to Southern Miss* 1:19:25: Charlie Weis to Kansas* 1:28:00: John L. Smith to ArkansasTHE DEBATABLE* 1:20:48: Kevin Sumlin to Texas A&M* 1:21:36: Hugh Freeze to Ole Miss* 1:25:02: Rich Rodriguez to ArizonaProduced by Anthony Vito.Paid subscribers can here this episode and also our other “Anatomy of a Coaching Carousel” shows: * 2001* 2010Everyone else can hear free previews of these episodes. Thanks so much to our paid subscribers for making this show possible.

Your mission is simple, should you choose to accept it: By awarding or subtracting 24 points from a handful of old college football games, how much can you alter about the entire trajectory of the sport? Richard and Alex see how much damage they can do with three possessions’ worth of points: * 0:23: RIP to college football’s Wes Rucker, Joey Knight, and Rondale Moore* 3:37: Richard’s additional reporting on Sacramento State’s MAC move and the ridiculous math used to justify it * 13:22: The Split Zone Duo Hockey Hour responds to the Olympics * 19:46: News of the week: Joey Aguilar loses his eligibility case, and Jeff Monken suggests moving Army-Navy to Thanksgiving weekend * 24:32: Reshaping college football history with 24 pointsGet more SZD by becoming a paid subscriberThe offseason is a busy time at SZD, where we focus a lot on creative projects and CFB history while also keeping tabs on the news of the moment. Many of our favorite episodes go out in these months for subscribers — including the next one on Friday, featuring host emeritus Steven Godfrey. Thanks to our sponsorsnokiantyres.com/hockeyhomefieldapparel.comProducer: Anthony Vito 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

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.comThis is a subscriber episode of Split Zone Duo, but everyone can listen to a free preview. Become a subscriber today by clicking on this link. In the second leg of our big offseason-opening mailbag, Richard and Alex take a big list of subscriber questions. (But first, yet another MAC head coach leaves his job and restarts the coach carousel in the process.) Among the questions answered in this episode: 7:54: Which new Sun Belt head coach is the best bet to succeed this year?* 11:05: How excited should we be about Buster Faulkner as Florida’s new offensive coordinator?* 16:41: Who’s having the hardest time coping with Curt Cignetti’s success at Indiana? (Alex says it’s Purdue fans; Richard disagrees.) * 21:50: How durable is the House settlement-generated age of parity? * 23:17: What will it take for college football players to finally be declared university employees?* 28:17: Will college football adopt transfer fees like European soccer?* 30:09: Are schools stuck in mutually assured destruction when it comes to recruiting rule enforcement?* 32:04: What happened with the major running back transfers that fizzled out this year?* 33:14: Can mid-tier power conference programs like Pitt still have breakthrough seasons in this era?* 36:05: Why can’t Nebraska take the next step in NIL and rev share spending?* 39:08: How can resource-deprived programs like West Virginia compete at the highest level right now?* 43:22: Will the single transfer portal window eventually move from winter to post-spring ball?* 46:50: Will more five-star recruits pick smaller schools over Blue Bloods, and are we entering the era of the strategic redshirt?* 50:31: Does the expanded playoff put even more emphasis on having veteran starters on your roster?* 52:15: Is the Pac-12 media deal ever actually going to happen, and what’s going on with the Mountain West lawsuit?* 53:19: Does the new Pac-12 have the horses to keep up with the American, and will the playoff committee treat it as a premier G6 league?* 54:00: Can the Pac-12 and Mountain West coexist, or is one conference going to have to absorb the other?* 59:19: What happens to conference championships if they get rid of conference championship games?* 1:04:07: Is the Big Ten pushing for a 24-team playoff because Fox wants to renegotiate media rights?* 1:07:57: Would you rather have the Lou Groza Award winner or the Ray Guy Award winner on your team?* 1:09:11: What will it take for spring football to succeed, and do people even want it?Then, in the FUN ROUND: * 1:10:46: Why are the swear words bleeped in the SZD podcast intro?* 1:12:24: Who’s been the main character of SZD throughout its existence?* 1:14:15: For Richard: What’s more likely, Dabo embracing the transfer portal or Spurs winning the Champions League?* 1:15:51: Alex, have you ever done a trail run, and do you have any advice for someone training for a trail half and a 50K?* 1:17:45: Alex, what’s on your race calendar these days? \Produced by Anthony Vito.

Richard and Alex talk about a handful of college football news stories, headlined by Sacramento State’s geographically and financially absurd move to the MAC:* 5:24: Sacramento State to the MAC and our many, many questions* 31:55: The inaugural Split Zone Duo Olympic Hockey Hour* 34:12: Eligibility lawsuits and who’s still a college athlete (Trinidad Chambliss, Joey Aguilar, and Charles Bediako)* 48:52: The Pac-12’s flex scheduling idea* 51:38: The merciful end of the Michigan sign-stealing saga (it was still going!)* 52:33: YouTube TV’s coming sports-only package* 57:55: RIP Robert Duvall, Clemson Tigers fanThis episode is free for all. Get more shows by becoming a subscriber today at www.splitzoneduo.com/subscribeBy no means do we stop talking about college football in the offseason. We take the opportunity to get creative and bring subscribers all sorts of deep dives on CFB history, the coaching carousel, Xs and Os, and plenty more. Help us make the show and get lots more of it by becoming a paid subscriber.Thanks to our sponsorsnokiantyres.com/hockeyhomefieldapparel.comProducer: Anthony Vito 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

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.comSubscriber episode: Richard and Alex answer questions from our subscribers as college football gets into the meet of its offseason. We got a lot of very good questions, so we are breaking this mailbag into two separate recordings and will answer more of your questions next week. In this episode: * 0:15: Important news: Richard…

The greatest program in FCS is moving to the Mountain West, effective this upcoming season. North Dakota State won 10 of the past 15 FCS national titles and decided to try something new. It’s a huge move, giving FBS a new contender for the Group of 6 spot in the Playoff and reshaping the competitive pecking order in FCS. But we’ve still got many questions to talk through:* Why now? NDSU had batted around this idea for years* Does the money make sense? (NDSU probably wouldn’t be doing it if it didn’t, but the additional expenses will be millions per year)* Why the Mountain West and not the new Pac-12?* How good will the Bison be right away?* Is it ever right to be bored of success?* Is it time to update our priors on how hard it is for teams to successfully leap from FCS to FBS?* TRIVIA: Which seven states still don’t have an FBS team?Also, we talk about the college elements of the Super Bowl and Bobby Hauck’s very brief retirement from coaching. Producer: Anthony VitoThanks to our partners, Homefield and Nokian Tyres.Get a lot more of this show by becoming a paid subscriber. By no means do we stop talking about college football in the offseason. We take the opportunity to get creative and bring subscribers all sorts of deep dives on CFB history, the coaching carousel, Xs and Os, and plenty more. Help us make the show and get lots more of it by becoming a paid subscriber. 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