Shows
Who Killed College Football?The Unaccused Suspects: Schools, Players, and the MediaIf you got to the end of this series and thought, “wait, the six suspects they listed failed to include [INSERT ENTITY HERE],” well, maybe this bonus episode will cover that exclusion! Steven and Ryan sit down to talk about how schools, players, and the media do (or don’t) fit into this mystery, and if you stick around to the end, you’ll hear a little teaser info about what they have planned next. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wkcf...2025-02-0742 min
Who Killed College Football?Bonus Episode: Government Q&AThis is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wkcfb.substack.comThe epilogue may be out, but Steven and Ryan are not done reviewing questions submitted by the wise and learned paid subscribers to the Who Killed College Football Substack. A free preview of the episode is available to everyone, but if you’d like to unlock the full episode and be able to submit questions of your own for future mailbags, become a paid s…2024-12-1617 min
Who Killed College Football?Epilogue: The Case File That Won't Stay ClosedWe’ve looked at six different parties who have shaped the direction of college football over the last fifty years (or longer): television, conferences, the NCAA, the NFL, coaches & agents, and the government. So now it’s time to ask a few tough questions. Are any of those six directly and solely responsible? Is college football actually dead or dying? And why won’t Nick Saban sit down to chat with Steven Godfrey?Producer: Michael HenahanResearcher: Alex McDaniel This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus...2024-12-0638 min
Who Killed College Football?Suspect Number 6: The GovernmentFrom Richard Nixon to the United States Senate to the Virginia Governor’s Office to the California Board of Regents to the Supreme Court of the United States, college football has been subject to grandstanding, criticism, and scrutiny at all levels of government. But can our nation’s elected institutions (or its courts) actually solve the sport’s problems, and do they even have the ability to do so?Producer: Michael HenahanResearcher: Alex McDaniel This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes...2024-11-271h 09
TrapDraw Podcast – No Laying Up317: Ryan Nanni on Who Killed College FootballThe long wait for another college football-focused Trap Draw episode is over as Ryan Nanni returns to the pod to discuss his latest content series - Who Killed College Football. Ryan partnered with Steven Godfrey for an all-encompassing look at the current state of college football and the impacts of various stakeholders in the game including TV Networks, conference offices and commissioners, the NCAA, the NFL and more.If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining The Nest: No Laying Up’s community of avid golfers. Nest members help us maintain our light commercial interruptions (3 mi...2024-11-261h 33
Who Killed College Football?Bonus Episode: Coaches Q&AThis is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wkcfb.substack.comSteven and Ryan tackle questions from paid subscribers to the Who Killed College Football Substack community about Suspect Number Five: Coaches and Agents. A free preview of the episode is available to everyone, but if you’d like to unlock the full episode and be able to submit questions of your own for future suspects, become a paid subscriber today!2024-11-2309 min
Who Killed College Football?Suspect Number 5: Coaches & AgentsFrom its earliest days, college football has had a tense relationship with players and money. But it wasn’t until the market for coaches started exploding that the gulf between what coaches earn and what players cannot really started to look outlandish. Agents, of course, helped usher the age of absurdity in, by winning contract terms that gave their clients more and more, even if they weren’t successful. As their pay skyrocketed, coaches were mostly silent about structural issues popping up in the sport, and for good reason: the status quo was entirely too good to overturn.2024-11-151h 10
Who Killed College Football?Bonus Episode: NFL Q&AThis is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wkcfb.substack.comSteven and Ryan sit down once again to review questions from the paid subscriber community on Substack, this time about Suspect Number Four: The National Football League. A free preview of the episode is available to everyone, but if you’d like to unlock the full episode and be able to submit questions of your own for future suspects, become a paid subs…2024-11-1310 min
Who Killed College Football?Suspect Number 4: The NFLOnce upon a time, the NFL shaped its Draft policies (and date) around not angering college football. The power and popularity of The Shield have increased dramatically over the last four or five decades, but the league spent many of those years keeping underclassmen out as a default, and it took years of pressure from players like Barry Sanders, Cris Carter, and Herschel Walker to eventually open up a pro pathway for juniors. Why has the NFL shied away from taking on college football, and what has it meant to the college game to keep players trapped in one...2024-11-051h 09
Who Killed College Football?Bonus Episode: NCAA Q&AThis is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wkcfb.substack.comAs we do after every suspect is revealed and investigated, we turned it over to the paid members of the Who Killed College Football Substack community to interrogate us about the NCAA episode. Topics include why the Association and its members failed to plan for the future, the death penalty vs. just kicking a school out of the NCAA altogether, and what…2024-10-2906 min
Who Killed College Football?Suspect Number 3: The NCAAThe NCAA spent the better part of 70 years stamping out threats to amateurism wherever they could find them. From big scandals to seemingly minor violations, the Association was there to defend the idea that college football shouldn’t be about money, at least for the players. For a while, the courts, media, and public opinion all backed them up. But as the riches in the sport grew, the NCAA became something of a comic villain, and when the time came for college football’s relationship with labor to evolve, the NCAA never seemed ready to lead the charge.Producer: Mich...2024-10-241h 09
Who Killed College Football?Bonus Episode: Texas A&M President Emeritus R. Bowen LoftinThis is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wkcfb.substack.comR. Bowen Loftin served as president of Texas A&M from 2010 to 2014. He also appeared in our Conferences episode, discussing the influence the Longhorn Network had on Texas A&M’s decision to head to the SEC. But he had more to share about life in the old Big 12, including some revelations about the Governor’s office and the reality of the conference’s po…2024-10-1704 min
Who Killed College Football?Bonus Episode: Conferences Q&AThis is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wkcfb.substack.comAs we do after each suspect, we took questions from the paid members of the WKCFB Substack community about the conferences episode. (Temple is mentioned twice here, to give you a sense of how winding this gets.) A free preview of the episode is available to everyone, but if you’d like to unlock the full episode and be able to submit questions of your ow…2024-10-1413 min
Who Killed College Football?Suspect Number 2: ConferencesConferences didn’t used to be where all the bargaining power resided in college football, and their concerns used to be exceedingly local. Today, they’re conglomerates locked into escalating wars of spending and revenue, and leaning on their market strength (or weakness) to shape everything from the postseason to realignment. They’ve even found a way to make that business competition important to fans, and the conferences have no reason to slow down now.Producer: Michael HenahanResearcher: Alex McDaniel This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get acce...2024-10-091h 09
Who Killed College Football?Bonus Episode: Television Q&AThis is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wkcfb.substack.comAfter we review each suspect in our college football murder mystery, we’ll be taking questions from paid members of the WKCFB Substack community about that episode – what went into making it, topics we didn’t cover, questions about the history we laid out, whatever. We got some great questions after the TV episode and enjoyed batting them around.If you…2024-10-0214 min
I-80 ClubRyan Nanni On Who Killed College Football and the Current State of the Sport | I-80 Club Plus OneRyan Nanni of Who Killed College Football and the Shutdown Fullcast joins Josh Peterson and Jack Mitchell to dive into his new project with Steven Godfrey: Who Killed College Football? They discuss what led to putting together this podcast series, how small changes led to massive overhaul in the sport, and if discussions like this are healthy.Watch this episode on YouTube!Subscribe to WKCFB: https://wkcfb.substack.com/ Did you enjoy the episode? To hear more content like this and support an independent podcast, become a Patron today for as low as $5 a...2024-10-0142 min
Who Killed College Football?Suspect Number 1: TelevisionCollege football’s rise as a valuable TV product is still relatively new. For decades, the sport either couldn’t be televised or was limited at a national level. But once that market opened up, networks moved fast to get more of everything – more games, more bowls, more playoffs. They’re not just broadcast partners either. These companies have found a way to acquire partial ownership of college football, becoming business partners with conferences. Thanks to television, it’s easier than ever to watch almost every game at the FBS level. It’s also a lot harder to tell what that le...2024-09-261h 05
Who Killed College Football?Prologue: College Football Is Dead, Long Live College FootballBefore we dive into the six suspects in the death of college football, let’s begin with a confession. College football is, in fact, very much alive, with upsets being sprung, conferences continuing to realign, and expanded playoff spots to fret over. The sport remains incredibly popular, entertaining, and, at least for certain segments, financially lucrative.But the college football you used to know? That might be dead, whether you’re unhappy about the slow erasure of amateurism, swollen superconferences disregarding geography, the power of television networks to shape the future, and any number of other changes that could shak...2024-09-2526 min
Who Killed College Football?Who Killed College Football - TrailerComing soon: Steven Godfrey and Ryan Nanni attempt to find out Who Killed College Football? in a six-part series examining the major power players who have wreaked so much havoc on the sport This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wkcfb.substack.com/subscribe2024-09-2001 min
Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast"The Blind Side" commentary track with Steven Godfrey and Ryan NanniThis is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.comSplit Zone Duo is proud to present a long-sought-after project: The feature-length commentary track for The Blind Side (2009). This movie got a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars, and Sandra Bullock won Best Actress. Steven Godfrey, who covered Ole Miss around the time of the events depicted in the film, saw things differently than how the movie showed them. Please enjoy this extensive commentary on the whole thing. You do not necessarily need to pull up the movie to...2024-01-2523 min
Shutdown FullcastShutdown Fullcast 3.9Things are totally normal on this week's Shutdown Fullcast as the usual cast of Steven Godfrey, Jason Kirk, and Ryan Nanni, discussing:
-- The Big 12's imminent expansion
-- The Big 12's imminent collapse
-- Living in Orlando: you can do that, apparently?
-- How nuclear winter leads to a reborn, hard-as-hell Big 8
-- How that same nuclear winter plays right into Bill Snyder's hands
-- Paul Johnson's Intervention/Recruiting
-- Godfrey's retirement business plan, Chick-fil-Agnostic
-- Canadian legal precedent. Shit, we've completely lost the damn plot.
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Learn more about...2015-07-0144 min