I spend a lot of time listening to podcasts. I get up early and try to get a workout in daily. I also listen to podcasts at 2x speed. This all means I get to listen to a bunch of pods. I started with Bill Simmons and the Ringer Network (which is mostly NBA), but a couple years ago I started branching out to the college football podcasts. I thought folks may be looking for something to listen to this offseason and wanted some recommendations. The following are my rankings.
Before I dived into it, I put together some categories to talk about the rankings.
This might be surprising as it’s not one that I see on many people’s list. But when I sat down to do this ranking, I asked, ”which podcast do I search for and play first?” And it’s this one. It stars Dan Wetzel, Pat Forde, and Ross Dellenger. When I first started listening to this podcast, Dan’s voice was a little annoying to me. But he’s become my favorite person on the pod because he cracks me up.
They come on 1-2 times a week and do a good job of running through the storylines. Each pod is around 40 mins to an hour. During the season, they discuss the big games before and after they occur with an OpEd type perspective, and I found that their takes weren’t the same as the other pods. Dan does a lot of the research and will bring in some pretty wild stats. Not like SP+ type stats, but just real oddball things that are pretty interesting. Ross is big into the court proceedings. He’s always good for a summary on what is being said on the Hill about the NCAA. And Dan and Pat are quick to make fun of all the dumb decisions our courts, the NCAA, etc., are making. The other thing I like that they do is tell dumb people stories at the end and banter about it some.
2. Cover 3
If you are into sports betting, this is the pod for you. Most of what they talk about is gambling centric. Chip Patterson, Danny Kanell, Tom Fornelli, and Bud Elliott are the recurring hosts. Bud is not a Satterfield fan and can’t help but bring him up whenever he talks about the Huskers. And Tom’s schtick where he talks about how smart he is has run its course. But their discussion on the major headlines are always pretty solid. I don’t think they really investigate a story, but they do intense research on stuff they are going to put money on.
They will do a series of over/under podcasts conference by conference. And during the season they do a bets pod, an instant reaction pod, and then an “upon further review” pod. I enjoy every one of those during the season. Each pod is an hour or more, but its all worth listening to. They’ll go conference by conference and say some words on each game. In the offseason when they are looking to generate content, they do what they call “summer school” and they’ll run through all the power 4 schools fairly in depth, bringing in 247 team SMEs. About 20 mins on each school. I really pick and choose what I listen to in the offseason.
3. The Audible
This is Stew Mandel and Bruce Feldman. They are both pretty low energy but discuss their articles and tell stories around them. I feel like they are more of an intellectual’s podcast than a football guy’s podcast. Bruce and Stew spend a lot of time debating the finer points of CFB, and I’m here for it. Back to my scale of which pod do I select first, The Audible is one I’ll select after Cover 3. But I think the main reason is because they are on the shorter side and infrequent that places them third and not lower. Meaning, if the pods were longer and more frequent, I would probably place this around 6th. They are good writers, writing about interesting topics, and what they bring to this pod is a little behind the scenes on the articles they write. Or, B-roll materials that got cut. They will also spend time picking major games but what they have to say about the games is average commentary.
4. The Solid Verbal
Dan Rubenstein and Ty Hildenbrandt co-host this pod. This one has started moving up the rankings during the offseason as they really think outside the box on the format of their pods. Somehow Spotify sent me back a year and I listened to a Dungeons and Dragons type pod where they acted out “Thurston Howell III” becoming the czar of CFB. This month they did a two part pod where they did a bracket on 64 “minor grievances” with CFB. What won—which I felt should have lost in the sweet 16—was punting on 4th and 1 AND the announcer saying it was the right call. They really had a stick up their crawl over the announcer justifying cowardice as they put it. But that was fun listening to a bunch of “oh yeah, I hate that!” things. That kind of content is their bread and butter. Unique takes and topics During the season, they’ll do the same rhythm of preview, instant take, and review. Given they rarely cover Nebraska, I will pick other pods over their in-season pods.
5. Andy Staples
What’s really dragging Andy down is that he has so many pods that I skip a bunch after reading their descriptions. He interviews a bunch of people I don’t care about, or talks about things I skip through. But he’s a former Florida Gator who has good energy and knowledge.
I’ve found that I care nothing about what Michael Penix has to say, nonetheless what some random player for the Washington Huskies has to say. I don’t care what Kalen Deboer has to say after becoming Alabama’s coach. They give you nothing and it’s just a waste of time.
He will bring in JD Pickell, Steve Wiltfong, and other On.3 team experts to discuss their programs. I’ll listen to probably half of these. If someone is coming in to talk about the broader CFB, I’ll listen. But much like the Summer School pod on Cover 3, when they narrow the topic drastically, then obviously the topic needs to be something of interest.
6. Split Zone Duo
This pod stars Alex Kirshner, Richard Johnson, and Steven Godfrey. All three are journalists working for Athlon, SI, The Washington Post, and maybe some other places. Alex is great. Does all the research and has reasonable opinions. Richard is good, too. Sound, informed, takes, and will venture into Xs and Os. Godfrey is annoying. He comes off like a hot take artist that acts pompous and like he’s dealing with idiots everywhere.
They do 2-3 pods a week, although don’t really deal too much with the instant reaction.
7. The Joel Klatt Show
I’m a Klatt fan which is hard knowing he’s a Buff. Where he’s at his best is painting a picture and explaining why something is the way it is. But with him being Fox’s big noon color guy he’s extremely guarded on what he’ll say. Also, he spent a bunch of time this offseason talking about the NFL draft. I don’t care about pre-draft analysis. He also brings in guests that I’ve found I have little interest in. If I was really engaged in a game he called, then his pod is a must that week. And if he’s talking general CFB topics, I’ll listen.
8. The Late Kick with Josh Pate
Josh is good at what he does, but by the time I get to Josh, I’m worn out on the topic and he’s not added anything new to the conversation. There are three reasons why he’s this low down the list. First, he’s an SEC guy. Second, I don’t like being told over and over again how smart you think you are, and how right you’ve been in the past. Third, he’s super long winded. I probably only get to one of his podcasts every couple weeks. Although, when I’ve got nothing else to watch and he’s broadcasting on YouTube, I’ll tune in.
He is connected and it’s worth listening when he’s got a “hunch”, as they are probably informed hunches. He’s a part of 247, will bring in their team SMEs, and he gets a lot of coaches on his show. Which is all content that I’m not super interested in.
Honorable Mentions
Always College Football with Greg McElroy. He’s a nice guy and fine at what he does. I just had to trim the list and there wasn’t anything about him that made me want to listen to him over the others. I don’t have anything bad to say about this one.
Unnecessary Roughness. These are Barstool guys who are fun to listen to but they lack depth in their insights. They are more hot take artists who are trying to stir things up. And Brandon is way pompous for someone I've never heard provide thoughtful insights.
Dishonorable Mentions:
Until Saturday. This is a group from the Athletic. I don’t recall why they annoyed me to the point of unsubscribing, but I did. It was probably Ari Wasserman.
The Number One College Football Show. I wanted to give this show a shot. RJ Young is energetic and passionate about what he says, but it quickly became evident he was playing the algorithm. I unsubscribed in the preseason last year when he had Colorado in his top 20 after I got progressively more pissed off at how much air time he gave to the Buffs when there were plenty of headlines he could have run through.
Before I dived into it, I put together some categories to talk about the rankings.
- Topics. Do they talk about things that I care about? For example, do they only talk about the SEC or the top schools? Do they bring on guests that I care about?
- Frequency. How often do they air to keep my attention? If a show is 2-3 times a week, that’s a pretty good clip to stay on top news stories and not only key in on the big ones.
- Insights. There are separate ways to be insightful in this category. Do they bring in good background context when telling a story? Do they know the game and can talk about scheme and what not? Are their analyses, well, insightful?
- Takes. Everyone has a take, but do their takes piss me off? Or are their takes something I enjoy listening to? If their take feels like its something off of First Take and is just argument to stir the pot and build a conversation, then it tends to piss me off. This goes hand in hand with insights, though. If you are insightful, then your takes can build off of that. If you aren’t insightful, it’ll be hard to overcome that with takes.
- Humor. Do they make me laugh?
This might be surprising as it’s not one that I see on many people’s list. But when I sat down to do this ranking, I asked, ”which podcast do I search for and play first?” And it’s this one. It stars Dan Wetzel, Pat Forde, and Ross Dellenger. When I first started listening to this podcast, Dan’s voice was a little annoying to me. But he’s become my favorite person on the pod because he cracks me up. | Overall | Topics | Frequency | Insights | Takes | Humor |
| A- | A | B+ | B | A- | A |
2. Cover 3
If you are into sports betting, this is the pod for you. Most of what they talk about is gambling centric. Chip Patterson, Danny Kanell, Tom Fornelli, and Bud Elliott are the recurring hosts. Bud is not a Satterfield fan and can’t help but bring him up whenever he talks about the Huskers. And Tom’s schtick where he talks about how smart he is has run its course. But their discussion on the major headlines are always pretty solid. I don’t think they really investigate a story, but they do intense research on stuff they are going to put money on. | Overall | Topics | Frequency | Insights | Takes | Humor |
| A- | A- | A- | A | A- | B |
3. The Audible
This is Stew Mandel and Bruce Feldman. They are both pretty low energy but discuss their articles and tell stories around them. I feel like they are more of an intellectual’s podcast than a football guy’s podcast. Bruce and Stew spend a lot of time debating the finer points of CFB, and I’m here for it. Back to my scale of which pod do I select first, The Audible is one I’ll select after Cover 3. But I think the main reason is because they are on the shorter side and infrequent that places them third and not lower. Meaning, if the pods were longer and more frequent, I would probably place this around 6th. They are good writers, writing about interesting topics, and what they bring to this pod is a little behind the scenes on the articles they write. Or, B-roll materials that got cut. They will also spend time picking major games but what they have to say about the games is average commentary.
| Overall | Topics | Frequency | Insights | Takes | Humor |
| B | B+ | B | A- | B+ | B- |
4. The Solid Verbal
Dan Rubenstein and Ty Hildenbrandt co-host this pod. This one has started moving up the rankings during the offseason as they really think outside the box on the format of their pods. Somehow Spotify sent me back a year and I listened to a Dungeons and Dragons type pod where they acted out “Thurston Howell III” becoming the czar of CFB. This month they did a two part pod where they did a bracket on 64 “minor grievances” with CFB. What won—which I felt should have lost in the sweet 16—was punting on 4th and 1 AND the announcer saying it was the right call. They really had a stick up their crawl over the announcer justifying cowardice as they put it. But that was fun listening to a bunch of “oh yeah, I hate that!” things. That kind of content is their bread and butter. Unique takes and topics During the season, they’ll do the same rhythm of preview, instant take, and review. Given they rarely cover Nebraska, I will pick other pods over their in-season pods.
| Overall | Topics | Frequency | Insights | Takes | Humor |
| B+ | B+ | B+ | B | B+ | A- |
5. Andy Staples
What’s really dragging Andy down is that he has so many pods that I skip a bunch after reading their descriptions. He interviews a bunch of people I don’t care about, or talks about things I skip through. But he’s a former Florida Gator who has good energy and knowledge.
I’ve found that I care nothing about what Michael Penix has to say, nonetheless what some random player for the Washington Huskies has to say. I don’t care what Kalen Deboer has to say after becoming Alabama’s coach. They give you nothing and it’s just a waste of time.
He will bring in JD Pickell, Steve Wiltfong, and other On.3 team experts to discuss their programs. I’ll listen to probably half of these. If someone is coming in to talk about the broader CFB, I’ll listen. But much like the Summer School pod on Cover 3, when they narrow the topic drastically, then obviously the topic needs to be something of interest.
| Overall | Topics | Frequency | Insights | Takes | Humor |
| B | C+ | A+ | B | B+ | B |
6. Split Zone Duo
This pod stars Alex Kirshner, Richard Johnson, and Steven Godfrey. All three are journalists working for Athlon, SI, The Washington Post, and maybe some other places. Alex is great. Does all the research and has reasonable opinions. Richard is good, too. Sound, informed, takes, and will venture into Xs and Os. Godfrey is annoying. He comes off like a hot take artist that acts pompous and like he’s dealing with idiots everywhere.
They do 2-3 pods a week, although don’t really deal too much with the instant reaction.
| Overall | Topics | Frequency | Insights | Takes | Humor |
| B | B- | A- | A- | B | B |
7. The Joel Klatt Show
I’m a Klatt fan which is hard knowing he’s a Buff. Where he’s at his best is painting a picture and explaining why something is the way it is. But with him being Fox’s big noon color guy he’s extremely guarded on what he’ll say. Also, he spent a bunch of time this offseason talking about the NFL draft. I don’t care about pre-draft analysis. He also brings in guests that I’ve found I have little interest in. If I was really engaged in a game he called, then his pod is a must that week. And if he’s talking general CFB topics, I’ll listen.
| Overall | Topics | Frequency | Insights | Takes | Humor |
| B | C+ | B | A- | B- | C- |
8. The Late Kick with Josh Pate
Josh is good at what he does, but by the time I get to Josh, I’m worn out on the topic and he’s not added anything new to the conversation. There are three reasons why he’s this low down the list. First, he’s an SEC guy. Second, I don’t like being told over and over again how smart you think you are, and how right you’ve been in the past. Third, he’s super long winded. I probably only get to one of his podcasts every couple weeks. Although, when I’ve got nothing else to watch and he’s broadcasting on YouTube, I’ll tune in.
He is connected and it’s worth listening when he’s got a “hunch”, as they are probably informed hunches. He’s a part of 247, will bring in their team SMEs, and he gets a lot of coaches on his show. Which is all content that I’m not super interested in.
| Overall | Topics | Frequency | Insights | Takes | Humor |
| B+ | C+ | B+ | B+ | B | D+ |
Honorable Mentions
Always College Football with Greg McElroy. He’s a nice guy and fine at what he does. I just had to trim the list and there wasn’t anything about him that made me want to listen to him over the others. I don’t have anything bad to say about this one.
Unnecessary Roughness. These are Barstool guys who are fun to listen to but they lack depth in their insights. They are more hot take artists who are trying to stir things up. And Brandon is way pompous for someone I've never heard provide thoughtful insights.
Dishonorable Mentions:
Until Saturday. This is a group from the Athletic. I don’t recall why they annoyed me to the point of unsubscribing, but I did. It was probably Ari Wasserman.
The Number One College Football Show. I wanted to give this show a shot. RJ Young is energetic and passionate about what he says, but it quickly became evident he was playing the algorithm. I unsubscribed in the preseason last year when he had Colorado in his top 20 after I got progressively more pissed off at how much air time he gave to the Buffs when there were plenty of headlines he could have run through.
