This season, FBS teams will play 126 games against FCS opponents. Most years, anywhere between five-ish and 10-ish FBS teams will lose those games. The purpose of the Split Zone Duo FCS Upset Draft is to identify those teams, engage in some friendly competition, and use the process as a look ahead to the season. Everyone picks three FCS winners, but there’s a catch: Some FCS upsets are barely upsets at all, and they may only be worth three points. Others could be worth 100. Folks, it’s time for some game theory.Former FCS Upset Draft champion Jason Kirk (Shutdown Fullcast, The Athletic) returns to the program to compete against Alex, Richard, and all of you.

Enter the FCS Upset Draft by visiting www.splitzoneduo.com and locating the entry form.

Here are the rules. Read carefully!

* A nonpartisan committee made of up one member (me, Alex Kirshner) puts every FCS-versus-FBS game of the season into a spreadsheet.

* Each game gets a point value of 3, 5, 10, or 100, with higher point values awarded to games where an FCS team is a bigger underdog.

* This year, you may pick FOUR games, up from the usual three. The form will let you enter more, but only entries with four picks or fewer will count. (Why the change? There are 10 more FBS-vs.-FCS games this year than last, so we figured we’d broaden our game a bit.)

* You can pick non-upset "upsets" in which great FCS teams beat bad FBS teams, but you'll likely only get three or five points if it pans out.

* Or you can take some bigger swings for 10- and 100-point values and go for the fences. Getting a 10-pointer right has long been an ingredient for victory.

* At the end of the season, the top three points-scorers will be celebrated on an episode of SZD. Most of all, you’re fighting for eternal glory here. But we’ll also have some special gifts (to be announced!) from our team, with tiebreakers to determine three champions as needed.

* You must enter your picks by noon ET on Saturday. However if you pick a game being played on Thursday or Friday, you need to enter your pick before that game kicks off.

Here's a catalog of previous FCS-on-FBS wins, in case it gives you any inspiration. This year, as usual, features well north of 100 games to choose from.

We'll track the results throughout the season, though you might want to write down your own answers for memory, as we do not keep a public leaderboard for the whole world to see. Happy picking!

Thank you to our subscribers and partners

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Producer: Anthony Vito

Yahoo Sports’ Nate Tice joins Richard in this new episode of “Scheme School,” focused on one very famous QB. Arch Manning finally takes the reins of the Texas Longhorns this weekend at Ohio State. For a quarterback who’s been talked about more than any other QB prospect in maybe the whole history of the sport, we haven’t talked much about the specifics of Manning’s game.

* What we’ve seen in limited reps so far

* What, specifically, Manning is good at. “Eyes” and “balance” come up a lot.

* The things he hasn’t done well in a small sample. You can’t go broke taking a profit, but Manning hasn’t always taken it

* How Steve Sarkisian’s offense makes Manning easier to project as an NFL quarterback, and how that might affect his future plans

Producer: Anthony Vito

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

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

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

Richard and Godfrey preview 2025 in the newly renamed American Conference. In a recent episode, we touched on this league’s long-term difficulties. In this one, we talk about the season to come, previewing all 14 teams.

The episode wraps with preseason award nominees from the hosts for the SZD Dude of the Year, the Low-Key Cool Game of the Year, the Minority Coach of the Week In an Interesting Schematic Spot (of the Year), and the Coach Who’s Not Gonna Be Here Next Year. Producer: Anthony Vito.

Catch up on all of our 2025 previews

In reverse chronological order:

* Mountain West

* ACC

* Conference USA

* Big 12

* MAC

* Pac-12 and FBS independents

* Sun Belt

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

Our partners at Homefield have seen a lot of you on the road in recent years. They’re getting back on the trail this fall for the Homefield Can't Miss Kickoff Tour, presented by Modelo, and we’re sharing news of the first three stops on the tour in Tallahassee (weekend of 8/30), Philadelphia (weekend of 9/13), and Bloomington (weekend of 9/20). You can get much, much more information on this tour here and get the rest of the reveal from our friends’ shows, the Shutdown Fullcast and Phantom Island.

Richard and Alex preview the Mountain West in 2025, starting with the same team that’s favored every year and then going in no particular order:

* Boise State still looks like the class of the league

* San Jose State has leveled up, but now Ken Niumatalolo confronts life without an All-American receiver

* UNLV is the apple of Richard’s eye with Dan Mullen in charge

* Colorado State made strides last year, but were they real, or were they just the result of a lousy schedule? Does it matter?

* Fresno State wipes the slate clean, but we’re optimistic

* Hawaii looks a lot better than we both thought they would

* Air Force should get back to business the way it used to be done

* San Diego State was shockingly bad on offense in Sean Lewis’ first year. How much does that change our feeling on them?

* Utah State made a great hire, but it’ll take some time

* Wyoming is still searching for an identity

* New Mexico is a blank canvas, and a new coach from FCS is trying something different

* Nevada is a hard job that continues to be hard

The episode wraps with preseason award nominees from the hosts for the SZD Dude of the Year, the Low-Key Cool Game of the Year, the Minority Coach of the Week In an Interesting Schematic Spot (of the Year), and the Coach Who’s Not Gonna Be Here Next Year. Producer: Anthony Vito.

Catch up on all of our 2025 previews

In reverse chronological order:

* ACC

* Conference USA

* Big 12

* MAC

* Pac-12 and FBS independents

* Sun Belt

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