Steven Godfrey joins Richard and Alex to talk about some stories we’d already planned to mark the halfway point of the season. But first, we’ve got a REALIGNMENT INTERRUPTION, brought to us by James Madison leaving the Sun Belt for the American Conference in 2028. In this episode:

0:26: JMU’s move to the American

9:44: Roster management people and coaches seem to think it’s impossible to find good backup QBs now. Do we agree? And is there a statistical way to see if anything has really changed? (It’s hard because defining a “backup” in a robust statistical way is impossible in modern college football.)

29:09: A change to punt formation rules was supposed to chaos special teams chaos this season. What actually happened?

39:48: Alex expands on FOOTSHOT, his blunt-object stat that elaborates on how often teams shoot themselves in the foot. Hello, Buffs!

Producer: Anthony Vito.

Richard Johnson and Alex Kirshner guide you through the best college football week yet this year, led by Georgia’s big win in Tuscaloosa and a Red River upset and then bouncing through dozens more games. Including:

* 1:33: SEC, led by Georgia 20, Alabama 17 and Oklahoma 27, Texas 24

* 14:40: Pac-12, led by Boise State 38, Fresno State 31

* 16:23: Big Ten, led by Indiana 20, Nebraska 17

* 25:59: Big 12, led by BYU 24, Iowa State 10

* 29:14: ACC and Notre Dame, led by North Carolina 21, Pitt 17

* 33:43: American, led by Army 20, Tulane 17

* 35:48: Mountain West, led by UNLV 13, North Dakota State 7

* 36:58: MAC, led by Eastern Michigan 25, Akron 23

* 38:49: Sun Belt, led by James Madison 27, Georgia Southern 24

* 43:01: Conference USA, led by FIU 22, New Mexico State 3

Producer: Anthony Vito.

THANKS TO OUR SUBSCRIBERS AND PARTNERS

* Quo, a business phone service! 20% off your first six months using this link

* 10% off a set of Nokian Tyres with code SPLITZONEDUO at: https://www.tires-easy.com/brands/nokian-tires

* Shop for college sports apparel at Homefield

Subscriber mailbag, with questions brought to you by the listeners at www.splitzoneduo.com.

Alex Kirshner answers subscriber questions ahead of Week 6! Why does Lincoln Riley always put mediocre defenses on the field? There are three pretty good theories from people who know him well. Is there a surprising reason to think Texas’ offense will turn things around? Does Michigan have a “culture” problem or something more simple? Can Kane Wommack tell us anything much about how the coaching carousel works today? Would the Protect College Sports Act be a bad thing for portal-heavy head coaches? Are stadium renovations over? And plenty more in this mailbag, which is edited by Anthony Vito.

CATCH UP ON THIS WEEK AT SPLIT ZONE DUO

* Listen to the Week 6 Tasting Menu, our preview of the weekend. Alex and Richard Johnson cover all of the week’s most interesting games and stop along the way to talk about a few big stories and ask some questions. Such as this one: Is South Carolina actually too broke to fire Shane Beamer?

* The Charlotte 49ers are the worst team in the country. They are also Split Zone Duo’s TEAM OF THE WEEK. Rodger Sherman talks with Richard about a program whose potential remains completely theoretical, and about how an ambitious move into FBS football can go horribly awry.

* We’ll see you Sunday for the Hurry-Up, landing by early afternoon.

Week 6 preview! Richard and Alex talk about what’s interesting to them in the big college football weekend to come, while stopping to cover a handful of big stories along the way.

32:43: Is South Carolina actually too broke to fire Shane Beamer?

47:31: Can Oklahoma score an offensive touchdown in Red River?

1:07:27: When it comes to Cal coach Tosh Lupoi, Richard is … vindicated?

1:10:35: Are Ohio State fans in the “Lunatic Fringe” right to be worried?

1:18:47: Is UNLV a genuine trouble spot for North Dakota State?

1:21:05: Are we fully aligned on Alabama being all the way back, before the Tide host Georgia in a potential hurricane game?

1:27:50: Who wins: Penn State’s stoppable force or USC’s movable object?

1:30:54: Could Fresno State spoil Boise’s run to an unbeaten Pac-12 slate?

Producer: Anthony Vito

THANKS TO OUR SUBSCRIBERS AND PARTNERS

Quo, a business phone service! 20% off your first six months using this link

10% off a set of Nokian Tyres with code SPLITZONEDUO

Shop for college sports apparel at Homefield

Subscriber episode! Join us to hear the whole thing.

The Charlotte 49ers are quite possibly the worst team in FBS in 2026, so why should you care? Rodger Sherman joins to explain. Part of Charlotte's story is the actual cautionary tale of moving up from FCS to FBS and the old thing Richard never shuts up about: Winning is not a business model. But there are nearly 1:1 examples of Charlotte-style programs that have found success. We dive into what gives in the Queen City. In this episode:

0:00: Why Charlotte gets the nod this week despite being so bad

5:15: A rapid climb from startup program to the American

16:31: “Winning is not a business model”

30:33: What UTSA got right that the 49ers very much did not

Producer: Anthony Vito

TEAM OF THE WEEK is a subscriber series where Rodger Sherman and SZD hosts talk about a college football team doing something no one else is doing

We’ve already covered the following:

Week 1: North Dakota State

Week 2: UMass

Week 3: Oklahoma State

Week 4: Arkansas

Week 5: Mississippi State

This series will continue all season.

Richard and Rodger Sherman take you on a 30(ish)-minute journey through Week 4 of the college football season. We begin with Missouri beating Florida to a pulp and waltz through the rest of the CFB schedule.SEC

* Missouri 45, Florida 17

* Georgia 38, Vanderbilt 14

* Alabama 56, Mississippi State 23

* Tennessee 24, Auburn 14

* Kentucky 35, South Carolina 34

BIG TEN

* Ohio State 31, Iowa 14

* USC 25, Washington 21

* Purdue 24, Illinois 17

* Michigan 20, Minnesota 14

* Nebraska 48, Maryland 23

* Northwestern 34, Penn State 13

* Wisconsin 31, Michigan State 3

BIG 12

* BYU 17, TCU 10

* Texas Tech 29, Colorado 7

* Houston 27, UCF 17

* Arizona 34, Cincinnati 7

* Baylor 55, Arizona State 19

* Iowa State 45, West Virginia 42

ACC

* Notre Dame 37, North Carolina 26

* Miami 41, Clemson 13

* SMU 25, Boston College 16

* Florida State 38, Virginia 7

* NC State 31, Louisville 28

* Pitt 35, Virginia Tech 33

* Wake Forest 57, Stanford 3

AMERICAN

* Memphis 59, Charlotte 8

* UTSA 16, Rice 14

* Temple 17, USF 13

* North Texas 45, Tulsa 44

MOUNTAIN WEST

* Air Force 14, Navy 9

* San Jose State 20, Hawaii 16

* NDSU 28, Wyoming 0

* UNLV 39, Cal 31

MAC

* Toledo 39, Ball State 24

* WMU 20, Buffalo 17

* Ohio 13, Kent State 10

* Eastern Michigan 35, UMass 14

* Bowling Green 24, Miami (OH) 20

SUN BELT

* James Madison 45, Marshall 17

* Louisiana 23, Arkansas State 20

* Louisiana Tech 31, Army 29

CONFERENCE USA

* New Mexico State 34, Western Kentucky 13

PAC-12

* Oregon State 56, Colorado State 26

* San Diego State 31, Texas State 29

FBS INDEPENDENTS

* Syracuse 42, UConn 41

FCS

* Idaho 35, Montana State 34

* Harvard 20, Colgate 17

* Yale 41, Merrimack 28

Producer: Anthony VitoTHANKS TO OUR SUBSCRIBERS AND PARTNERS

* Quo, a business phone service! 20% off your first six months using this link

* 10% off a set of Nokian Tyres with code SPLITZONEDUO at: https://www.tires-easy.com/brands/nokian-tires

* Shop for college sports apparel at Homefield

Mailbag time! Alex and Richard answer subscriber questions on three broad topics, which sometimes meander into new areas:

0:53: Oklahoma has two losses heading into Red Vier. Who do we blame, and what would we do about it?

11:43: What keeps college football fresh for us, given that it’s now “work”?

17:19: How much has College GameDay changed? And how much of our shifting perception about the show is because we have changed?

29:54: What do we think about the current Protect College Sports Act?

Producer: Anthony Vito* What do we think about the current Protect College Sports Act?

Producer: Anthony Vito

The regular season is somehow one-third finished. Host emeritus Steven Godfrey joins Richard and Alex for a discussion about nine teams that have really surprised us and, in some cases, caused a big shift in opinion:

* 6:09: Michigan

* 15:30: Texas

* 19:41: Georgia

* 23:12: Wake Forest

* 26:42: Oregon State

* 32:14: Cal

* 35:04: UCLA

* 39:28: Washington

* 43:08: Oregon

* 53:46: Texas A&M

Producer: Anthony Vito

THANKS TO OUR SUBSCRIBERS AND PARTNERS

* Quo, a business phone service! 20% off your first six months using this link

* 10% off a set of Nokian Tyres with code SPLITZONEDUO

* Shop for college sports apparel at Homefield