Richard and Alex preview the SEC for the 2025 season:

* Texas has everything it needs to make a deep playoff run

* Georgia has a few more questions, especially at QB, but (this will shock you) looks like a frontline contender once again

* Alabama is back, per Richard

* LSU has championship upside, but will the defense be good or great?

* South Carolina has a huge star at QB and another at EDGE. The rest of the roster is more open to interpretation, but one of us is optimistic

* Florida has DJ Lagway, and that counts for a lot

* Ole Miss faces a QB transition, but there’s reason to be optimistic. Will the defense keep chugging after a bunch of losses?

* Texas A&M will run over you and play solid defense. How serious will Marcel Reed and the wide receivers be?

* Tennessee’s best side of the ball probably isn’t offense

* Oklahoma has some elite talent and some splashy portal additions, and Richard thinks this might work out

* Auburn might have the best receivers in the conference and has a bunch of young players that flashed last year. What about the weird QB situation?

* Mizzou is building its roster effectively but has some substantial losses to contend with, and it doesn’t sound like a great QB room

* Vanderbilt will probably move backward, but the ‘Dores have made progress

* Arkansas faces another year of coaching carousel questions

* Kentucky appears to be a bad situation

* Mississippi State is a bit more interesting but faces a long slog

After going through each team, the group awards preseason honors: The Split Zone Duo Dude of the Year, the Low-Key Cool Game of the Year, and the Coach Who’s Not Gonna Be Here Next Year Award. Producer: Anthony Vito.

That wraps up our conference previews

* Big Ten

* American

* Mountain West

* ACC

* Conference USA

* Big 12

* MAC

* Pac-12 and FBS independents

* Sun Belt

Thank you to our subscribers and partners

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Alex, Richard, and Rodger Sherman preview the Big Ten for 2025. This nearly two-hour episode runs through all 18 teams, in this order:

* Penn State faces “semifinals or bust” season

* Ohio State should step back, but how much can a team step back when it has Jeremiah Smith on one side of the ball and Caleb Downs on the other?

* Oregon has a few question marks but all the talent in the world

* Iowa has Rodger thinking about a darkhorse playoff run

* USC beefs up and has a QB that you could look at in one of two ways

* Michigan’s season is “found money,” but how much cash is in there?

* Wisconsin starts to get back to being Wisconsin

* Minnesota has a great running back, an optimistic QB, and … ?

* Indiana is poised to avoid a cliff after last year’s breakout

* Michigan State has an intriguing passing game. Will it be good?

* Illinois, with a light schedule and a heavy defensive front, has a playoff shot

* Nebraska figures out offensive line and maybe receiver, leaving a world of possibility in Dylan Raiola’s second season

* UCLA has a famous QB and a whole lot of questions (including that QB)

* Maryland is still Maryland, but it might have its QB of the future

* Washington could be the league’s hardest team to make sense of either way

* Northwestern will probably be bad, but it’s a left tackle development hub now

* Purdue has a good running back and, well, not much else

* Rutgers continues to play Schianoball, and it’s working fine

After going through each team, the group awards preseason honors: The Split Zone Duo Dude of the Year, the Low-Key Cool Game of the Year, and the Coach Who’s Not Gonna Be Here Next Year Award. Producer: Anthony Vito.

Thank you to our subscribers and partners

Become a paid subscriber today to get a lot more SZD, and check out www.nokiantyres.com/szd and www.homefieldapparel.com

The NCAA’s big decision on Michigan’s sign-stealing operation is here, and it is a nothingburger. To explain what happened and get a Michigan perspective on it (because it is very funny), Alex welcomes Jane Coaston, Crooked Media podcaster and Michigan fan, to discuss it. You can read the full infractions decision here if you would like some light PDF reading on your Friday. Can reasonable people finally agree on topics like whether Jim Harbaugh and Sherrone Moore knew what was up, whether the title was tainted, and whether Michigan really is a model program? Let us debate.

Producer: Anthony Vito