All the Ways You Can Help Our Podcast

We're very appreciative when listeners ask. Ahead of our seventh season, here are the many ways you can help us keep this podcast in good shape.

Welcome to the College Football Newsletter, and to the home stretch of Split Zone Duo’s Relaunch Week

Relaunch Week is when we officially kick off the season preview episodes, as well as drop in a few surprises throughout the week. We’re so close to the season that we can almost take a whiff of that nice autumn breeze. And we’d like you to come along for the ride with us when the season gets here. In the meantime, we often get questions from listeners and subscribers about how they can support the podcast beyond the most obvious things. We’re honored that people want to help us succeed.

Here’s a long list of ways you can help:

Purchase a premium subscription:

• Just through Sunday, we’re offering 30% off an annual subscription, so now is an excellent time to sign up. You get about twice as many episodes in your feed, and we consider these episodes to be some of our best stuff. If you like the coach carousel or CFB history, or just want a bit more insight during the season, this is for you.

• Gift a subscription to a friend. The sale still applies to gift subs.

Follow these social media accounts and then interact with our carousels and videos on them:

• We’re on Instagram, Bluesky, TikTok, Twitter, Threads, and Facebook.

• Follow Alex, Richard, and Hector (me) on their own accounts. This helps the podcast reach new people, which is crucial to keeping us chugging.

• We now have two YouTube channels: a podcast channel and a channel for special projects. You should subscribe to both. Optionally, you can watch all of our videos start to finish five times and then email them to all of your contacts.

• Leave comments on our videos and shorts when you see them. We love feedback.

• Basically, when you see Split Zone Duo stuff, engage with it in your preferred way.

Tell someone about our podcast:

• Leave a review or star rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Or anywhere it looks like you can leave a review. If you’re a paid subscriber, leave a comment on your preferred platform’s main SZD feed, as your private feed on Apple Podcasts doesn’t have a review option.

• Tell a friend about us. Drop a referral link in the group chat or tell your buddy in person. College football is always better with friends. You can also get subscription dollars back if people sign up!

Listen to the podcast:

• Grab your headphones or turn up the speakers, and enjoy the episodes. People often ask if it’s best to listen on any particular platform. The answer: nope, just listen somewhere.

Support our sponsors and be loud about it:

Homefield for great college sports apparel, Nokian Tyres for great tires, and more partners as you hear about them on our show.

Send us comments or social media posts about your favorite stuff you’ve gotten from these fine companies! They’ve been amazing partners, and your enthusiastic support also helps us connect with other potential sponsors.

We also have a “name your price” option for people who want to send more subscription dollars than $10 a month. At this time, we don’t offer any special perks at this level, but we offer it because some subscribers feel strongly enough about the show that they want to support it at a higher level. As always, there are no expectations and a lot of appreciation there.

In the meantime, let’s talk about the reigning ACC champs, Duke.

There’s still some juice to squeeze in the proverbial orange that is the ACC’s wonky tiebreaker scenario that kept Miami out of the conference championship and put Virginia and Duke in. And it’s not just limited to intraconference joking, either. At SEC Media Days, new Florida head coach Jon Sumrall used them as an example to prove that the state of college football’s elite is centered on just the Power Two. He told Brett McMurphy, “I’m not knocking any league. And then there’s a couple behind that (the Big 12 and ACC) and the American’s right there. Like last year’s ACC champion was who? Duke. We beat ‘em in Tulane.”

First off, Sumrall is absolutely knocking the ACC here. But more importantly, he’s identifying that last year’s situation was so rare that it presents an opportunity to widen the gap between his conference and the ACC. A five-loss Duke representing the conference as a champion probably won’t happen again, so now is the time to point that out. In a few weeks, everyone’s record will be 0-0 and the new ACC tiebreakers will be in place. But Sumrall’s comparison changes drastically if Miami, an ACC team who won their Playoff games to advance to the national championship, were in the conference championship game instead. Like most things in the offseason, every move is about brand positioning, in the hopes that it might get you a bit better committee consideration later on. That’s the game, until the actual games on the field begin.

Here’s what Alex and Richard dropped into your podcast feeds in Relaunch Week:

• Season previews are here! First up is the ACC. Miami is the team to beat in the conference, but someone else has to join them in the championship game. Could it be the reigning champs, Duke? Probably not.

• Rodger Sherman joins in for an episode of Why You’re Always Bad on the Northwestern Wildcats. He spends a chunk of the show trying to convince everyone that Northwestern has a winning record since 2008, which historical records do seem to support. Still, Alex and Richard don’t buy it. This is a great episode for remembering some guys and really understanding a program.

• Alex is ready to defend his 2025 title in the latest episode of the Coach Departure Draft. Which coach is close to being pre-fired entering the season if things don’t improve, and whose buyout is too big for the school to move on in the immediate future (Pat Narduzzi.) Which one will resign and then join another school, thereby giving Alex something to gloat about for the next season? It won’t be Kyle Whittingham; we can be sure of that. Both Alex and Richard have different rankings. Where do you agree? Where don’t you?

• It’s the 25th anniversary of the 2001 season. Alex and Richard take a look back at one of the most unusual seasons this sport has ever had.

• We’re taking a subscriber episode out of paywall and putting it on the free feed. This one is on the 2001 coaching carousel. Look for it today.

The craziest 24 hours in one college football Saturday:

We have a new video for you over on our YouTube channel. It’s about October 1st, 2016. In the span of 24 hours, we got so many game winners and iconic college football moments. Mack Brown had to abandon doing commentary during that Friday’s BYU-Toledo game because it ran so long. North Carolina started their game with a seemingly insurmountable lead against Florida State. An interim coach named Ed Orgeron won his first game at LSU. Jauan Jennings made a catch for the Tennessee Volunteers. Watch as Richard walks you through every moment. I honestly forgot how many things happened in such a short amount of time.

Have an idea for another video? Drop it in the comments. Thanks for reading, and we’ll talk to you next week.