Godfrey's dipping a bit into coach gossip, mainly because Florida State is winless and Florida's even worse. But let's poke around on a few other places, including Arkansas, of course, before stress-testing the narrative on bowl sites for playoff rounds and extolling the virtues of physical media.

Producer: Anthony Vito.

Oregon State and Washington State lopped off the top of the Mountain West to create the beginnings of a new conference. The move has marginal benefits, but we’re skeptical it will change much about the pecking order outside the power conferences. Meanwhile, the Mountain West has limited options, and the American Athletic could find itself doing some WEIRD things. We play fantasy conference commissioner and chart some paths forward.

Production: Anthony Vito

This episode is for paid subscribers, but everyone can hear a free preview. Free subscribers can still hear the Week 4 Tasting Menu, our preview of the games ahead. Paid subscribers get another show this week, and everyone gets the Sunday Hurry-Up recap after games have been played.

Godfrey, Richard, and Alex preview Week 4. Meet some freshman running backs at Baylor and South Alabama. Prepare for the return of Josh Heupel to Oklahoma. Consider USC beating Michigan by multiple scores. Marvel at how ridiculous a Friday night Stanford-Syracuse conference game is. And try to figure out a big question: What happened to Oklahoma State’s running game? The Pokes need to figure it out quickly with Utah coming to town.

Producer: Anthony Vito

THE NOKIAN TYRES ROAD TRIP OF THE WEEK: Every week all season, head to NokianTyres.com/SZD and enter your pick for the most enticing CFB road trip of that week. When you do, you’ll be entered into a monthly drawing for free tires. This week’s Trip of the Week? It’s UCLA’s visit to the LSU tailgate scene.

SPLIT ZONE DUO SHIRTS FOR A CAUSE NEAR AND DEAR TO OUR HEARTS: One of our great friends is Wes Boling, the man responsible for our Nokian partnership. This season, 100 percent of the profits from SZD shirt sales at Homefield will go toward a fund to help Wes and his family deal with an extremely difficult and expensive medical situation. More details are here, and our collection of shirts is at homefieldapparel.com/szd. And if you’ve never ordered from Homefield before and are shopping around the whole catalog, use our code SZD20 for 20 percent off your first order.