This is the last post at The Outside Zone. Everything will be archived – from this season’s G5 preview series to the posts made in the very first season of The Outside Zone, back before it was all about the Group of Five. Those of you who have supported this outlet financially will be getting prorated refunds for any percentage of your subscription that extends beyond this post.
In a lot of cases, this would be a sad announcement. I always expected it to be. The last two seasons have often been fraught for me – working full-time at a weekly newspaper while posting three lengthy dispatches about G5 football every week. I feared that The Outside Zone would need to end out of necessity, that I wouldn’t be able to keep up with the workload. There were times… many times, that I struggled with that workload. Posts went up late, they went up the next day, or sometimes they didn’t go up at all.
Somehow, my time with The Outside Zone outlasted my time at Buckeye Sports Bulletin, which I called home from the fall of 2019 until the spring of 2022. I didn’t particularly enjoy covering Ohio State, but I figured that I’d stick around at BSB for the long run. I was making enough to live as I wanted to, I was good at what I did, and Columbus is the only home I’ve ever known. Movement to a bigger outlet seemed unlikely given how open I was in my disdain for the local team, but I really didn’t mind.
The Outside Zone was always meant to be a reprieve from the Ohio State beat for me. I was tired of watching a miserable perennial contender (and I was certainly tired of writing about it), so I made myself an excuse to follow new teams. I had no real exposure to Group of Five football before launching this outlet, and I was learning on the fly just as you all were. But I was having so much fun watching and writing about new teams. For as long as I covered the Buckeyes, I would need this outlet.
This spring, my girlfriend got a job at Utah State. We’d never been to Utah, but we packed up shop and moved out to Logan, where Utah State makes its home. I applied initially for a job at the post office, before quickly remembering the promise I made to myself at 15 when I started writing about sports: I will never work a real job. Enter The Aggship, a credentialed Utah State outlet.
Even as I moved over to covering a team that I don’t openly dislike, I planned to keep The Outside Zone rolling. It had become a part of my routine, and I saw no good reason to end it.
That is, until Ryan Donnelly and D.J. Byrnes approached me about the project that would become Meet at Midfield. The idea originally was for an Ohio State outlet with a national wing that covered the sport in a way true to its spirit. It grew, rapidly, to a site about the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry, and about the things like it that make the sport so great. Ryan and I already run Flipping The Field, a college football podcast about all of college football, so it was a natural fit that he and I direct the national effort for this new site.
And that’s where The Outside Zone is heading.
It won’t be identical. I’m not going to be making three posts a week – sometimes it will be more, sometimes less. Not every post will be about the Group of Five. There’s a primer for G5 football on the home page as you read this, and I’ll be covering this level of the sport more than just about any other national reporter in the sport. But I’m going to talk about the Power Five, too. In written form and on FTF, which is adding a premium wing.
But ultimately, it was time. I’m thrilled about this new venture. I’m thrilled about covering Utah State. The Outside Zone was born out of desperation. I needed to renew my interest in the sport and wrest myself from the doldrums of Ohio State.
Now, as I write its final post, The Outside Zone has filled its purpose. I’m on a beat that I love, covering a team that I’m supremely interested in. I have the freedom with Meet at Midfield to write about whatever I want in the wide world of college football.
I’d love to bring you all with me. The subscription is $12.99, which gets you premium posts from five of the internet’s best college football posters (and me), premium episodes of Flipping The Field, The Bucket Problem with Ace Anbender and Taylor Fulton, and High Street Freaks, a new show from Ryan, D.J. and Kevin Harrish. Perhaps best of all, we’re hoping to create the first-ever good college football message board. It’s a place for people who love the serious parts of the sport as much as they love the unserious parts.
If you’ve enjoyed The Outside Zone, you’ll enjoy Meet at Midfield. I know that I will, and I’d love to see you there. Thank you for reading.