Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast

Still think this is the best CFB pod out there but the most recent epi with Carparelli was bad. Admittedly I did not get through it because I kept waiting for you guys to push back on some of his talking points and when that didn’t happen, I stopped listening. He brought up “what about the character of the players who sit out bowls?” I would ask, if a player gets injured during a bowl game, will an NFL team draft that player in the same spot/sign them to the same $ as an UDFA because their “character” makes up for their torn ACL? Really strong “I walked 8 miles, uphill both ways, in the snow to get to school” vibes from Carparelli on that take. He also stated that “bowls don’t have extra money to pay schools” while also claiming it’s not about the money for the schools…First, bowls have plenty of money, they just pay it out to administrators and PR people, like himself. Who deserves to get paid, the players who risk serious injury and whose participation dictates the quality of the product, or some guy in a funny-colored blazers, whose absence would have no discernible effect on the quality of the game? And I can’t imagine that it’s not about the money for the schools when some teams are playing the day after Christmas and on NYD, instead of being with their families. Call me crazy, but even guys who love the game would probably prefer to play on a different date. Lastly, his complaint that the bowl deals were struck prior to NIL and that the current environment isn’t “what bowls signed up for”…are you kidding me? He’s complaining about no longer being able to take advantage of student-athletes the way they could in the good ol’ days? Coming from a bowl executive, this is laughable, as bowls have become largely obsolete, leeches on the system. I could be persuaded to change my mind on this if someone could please point out one benefit bowls supply to CFB that the networks and schools can’t already provide for themselves. A stadium to play in? When you have bowls in Birmingham and Detroit, and schools already invest heavily in their own stadiums, that’s not it. TV exposure? Conferences already have that with their network deals. The one thing bowls used to have- notoriety, is quickly eroding as we get things like “the Sugar Bowl presented by KFC” or worse “the Beef O’Brady’s bowl”, which used to be something else that wasn’t sponsored but was so forgettable, no one remembers what it was originally called. Really would have liked some more pushback from Alex and Richard in this guys boiler plate talking points.

Stop putting your paid episodes on the free feed I’m not going to pay for it… I have to listen to the commercials get better sponsors do a better job

Great listen. Smart football talk without being demeaning or shock jock focused.

In my effort to give a fair review, I’m going to give credit where credit is due but offer what many I talk to about the pod would greatly appreciate going forward. The team does a great job going both deep and wide in the right places of the college football landscape. From promoting the sport, how the schedule is progressing, team and player analysis, as well as where the sport is going. Great job. That said, fans of college football engage with in the sport because they want to be entertained. It’s is also one of the best example of a team sport and is often used as an escape from a fallen world. Counter to their charge as sports journalists, too many times SZD interjects personal diatribes about politics that even if they were brought up in relation to a current event in the sport (often their comments are not), at least strive to present the other side of the political spectrum as the objective journalists you are suppose to represent. We get it. Richard, Godfrey and Alex, you align yourself with the political left. In no way should those leanings show up in providing a fun, entertaining and in the fandom we all participate in. We tune in to detract ourselves from the same political noise of the world you now are exacerbating. One of the reasons we love sport and college football is that it is a uniting force. I hope your contributions to the sport retain that focus as well. My hope is that you’ll be more measured in your approach.