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Around the Network

Diehard Countdown No. 94 — The Statue of Liberty. Boise State 43, Oklahoma 42.
Top StoriesGroup of Six

100 Days, 100 Reasons G6 Football Matters

No. 94: The Statue of Liberty

Tim Stephens·
Diehard Countdown No. 95 — Josh Allen, Wyoming. The Power 4 passed. Wyoming didn't.
Top StoriesGroup of Six

100 Days, 100 Reasons G6 Football Matters

No. 95: Josh Allen — Wyoming's $330 Million Man

Tim Stephens·
Diehard Countdown No. 96 — The Ass Kickin' Chicken
Top StoriesGroup of Six

100 Days, 100 Reasons G6 Football Matters

No. 96: The Ass Kickin' Chicken

Tim Stephens·
Troy quarterback Goose Crowder
Top StoriesTroy

Goose Crowder Has Played 29 Games in Five Years. He Keeps Coming Back.

Injuries took most of five college seasons from Troy's captain. His last one starts in September.

Tim Stephens·
Diehard Countdown No. 97 — UAB Came Back from the Dead
Top StoriesGroup of Six

100 Days, 100 Reasons G6 Football Matters

No. 97: UAB Came Back from the Dead

Tim Stephens·
Caden Creel #12 runs the ball for Jacksonville State
Top StoriesJax State

Now It's His Team

Charles Kelly spent all spring limiting Caden Creel’s run game. The championship loss told him why.

Tim Stephens·
Diehard Countdown No. 98 — Boise State’s blue field
Top StoriesGroup of Six

100 Days, 100 Reasons G6 Football Matters

No. 98: The Blue — Boise State’s Home Turf

Tim Stephens·
100 Days, 100 Reasons G6 Football Matters — No. 99: App State Over Michigan
Top StoriesGroup of Six

100 Days, 100 Reasons G6 Football Matters — No. 99: App State Over Michigan

September 1, 2007. Appalachian State 34, Michigan 32. In the Big House. The upset that gave every G6 fan base a permanent answer.

Tim Stephens·
Play the Damn Games — A map of in-state Group of 6 vs Power 4 college football rivalries that are dormant, dead or never existed
CommentaryGroup of Six

Play the Damn Games

James Madison just scheduled a trip to Virginia in 2028. Good. Now do the rest of them.

Tim Stephens·
Ryder Burton passes during the Blazers’ upset of then-No. 22 Memphis
Player SpotlightUAB

Ryder Burton Has the Swagger. Now He Needs the Stage.

After three schools in three years, UAB’s redshirt junior quarterback upset No. 22 Memphis the first time he started a college football game. Now he’s finally the guy — and the people around him believe it.

Tim Stephens·
Bishop Davenport celebrates in the end zone at Hancock Whitney Stadium
Player SpotlightSouth Alabama

Bishop Davenport Went From Fourth String to South Alabama’s Foundation. Now Comes the Hard Part.

The redshirt senior’s journey from emergency duty at Utah State to a full season as the Jaguars’ starter is one of the best quarterback stories in the Sun Belt. In 2026, he has to turn it into wins.

Tim Stephens·
NIL enforcement storycard showing FAU lawsuit details
CommentaryGroup of Six

Your Best Player Just Left. His Contract Says He Owes You. Good Luck Collecting.

NIL buyout clauses may be the only retention tool Group of 6 programs have against the transfer portal. No court has ruled on the merits.

Tim Stephens·
100 Days, 100 Reasons G6 Football Matters — No. 100: MACtion
Top StoriesGroup of Six

100 Days, 100 Reasons G6 Football Matters

No. 100: MACtion

Tim Stephens·
Diehard Sports Network banner featuring Troy, South Alabama, UAB and Jax State mascots with all six Group of 6 conference logos
Top Stories

We cover your team. For you.

Why I'm building Diehard Sports Network — and why it starts here

Tim Stephens·
The G6 Was Never Allowed to Compound — Diehard Sports Network storycard showing G6 helmets, players being extracted by Power 4 conferences, and the CFP trophy behind locked gates
CommentaryGroup of Six

The G6 was never allowed to compound

If the College Football Playoff had started with 24 teams in 2014, 21 of 80 qualifying programs would have come from the Group of 6. Every one of them was denied the chance to build on it.

Tim Stephens·
Ray Harper, Jacksonville State head basketball coach
RecruitingJax State

THE BOARD: Jacksonville State Basketball

Ray Harper enters his 11th year with a 600-win career, a gutted roster and the same pitch he's always made: minutes, development and a track record.

Tim Stephens·
Map of Alabama showing football connections between UAB, Troy, Jacksonville State and South Alabama
Top StoriesGroup of Six

Alabama has four G6 football programs. It's time they acted like it.

Tim Stephens·
South Alabama head coach Richie Riley cuts down the nets at Mitchell Center
RecruitingSouth Alabama

THE BOARD: South Alabama Basketball

Richie Riley lost 35.9 PPG and went global to replace it — eight signings from six competitive levels across three continents

Tim Stephens·
Adam Howard holds a Troy Trojans No. 30 jersey at his introductory press conference, flanked by AD Kyle George and Chancellor Jack Hawkins Jr.
RecruitingTroy

THE BOARD: Troy Basketball

Adam Howard returns to Troy after back-to-back championships, a coaching exodus and 50.7 PPG lost to the portal. The rebuild starts now.

Tim Stephens·
The Door That Only Opens From the Inside — a Diehard Sports Network feature tracing the BCS-to-CFP access battle from 2003 to 2026
Top Stories

The door that only opens from the inside

In 2003, Tulane’s president told Congress the system was rigged. Twenty-three years later, the same argument is being made by the people who thought they were on the other side.

Tim Stephens·
UAB Portal King graphic showing Andy Kennedy's roster rebuild checklist
RecruitingUAB

THE BOARD: UAB Basketball

Andy Kennedy rebuilds the roster — again. The Portal King adds 12 players in a month.

Tim Stephens·
Rob Higgins, CEO of athletics at the University of South Florida, at his introductory press conference
Top Stories

USF’s Rob Higgins is building something different in Tampa — and the fan base is buying in

The only CEO of athletics in college sports has made three major coaching hires, added a Hall of Fame COO and broken ground on a $348.5 million stadium. His fan base approves at 95 percent.

Tim Stephens·
Pac-12 Conference finances infographic showing revenue collapse from $566.6M to $111.5M and the rebuild projections
Conference Realignment

The Pac-12’s tax return is a snapshot of the divide between Power 4 and everyone else

Revenue dropped from $566.6 million to $111.5 million. The rebuild projects $13.2 million per school. The gap between P4 and G6 is structural.

Tim Stephens·
Rendering of USF’s new on-campus stadium in Tampa
Infrastructure

USF’s $350 million answer to a 30-year problem is going vertical

South Florida has never played a home game on its own campus. A $348.5 million stadium now rising in Tampa changes that in 2027.

Tim Stephens·
Front page of the Dothan Eagle sports section, Oct. 14, 2001, after Troy State defeated Mississippi State 21-9
Back WhenTroy

Back When: The day Troy went to Starkville and announced itself

In their first crack at an SEC team as a I-A program, the Trojans went to Mississippi State as 26-point underdogs and won 21-9.

Tim Stephens·
UAB coach Alex Mortensen watches from the sideline as the Blazers take on UConn at Pratt & Whitney Stadium in East Hartford, Connecticut, on Nov. 1, 2025.
Top StoriesUAB

Alex Mortensen knows the job is hard. He wants UAB fans to know he’s not running from it.

The first-year UAB head coach gave his most detailed interview yet. Here’s what stood out for Blazer fans.

Tim Stephens·
Savior or Surrender? The G6 playoff proposal debate
Commentary

Savior or surrender: The G6 playoff proposal isn’t what it looks like

The White House wants to give the Group of 6 its own playoff. Before you celebrate, look at what they’re asking for in return — and what they’ve done every other time.

Tim Stephens·
Tyler Cappi, Troy offensive lineman
Player SpotlightTroy

He didn’t know what football was. Now he starts for Troy.

Troy Athletics told the story of Tyler Cappi, a walk-on OL born in South Korea who didn’t discover football until age 12.

Tim Stephens·
Kevin Scarbinsky on the Scarbo Knows podcast
PodcastUAB

76 teams, same problem: NCAA tournament expansion won’t help the G6

Kevin Scarbinsky breaks down why the eight new at-large spots will go to 17-and-16 Auburns, not UABs.

Tim Stephens·
David Petitt and Memphis coach Penny Hardaway pose with the Gene Bartow Battle for the Bones trophy outside Bartow Arena
CommentaryUAB

The diehard fan, the Bones and the 911 call

A UAB super fan built a basketball version of the Battle for the Bones trophy, gave it to Penny Hardaway and threatened to call 911 when Memphis wouldn’t give it back.

Tim Stephens·
G6 Rivalries storycard featuring UAB-Memphis rivalry elements
CommentaryUAB

The best rivalries in the Group of 6 — and the ones that should be

The UAB-Memphis beef over a JUCO big man got us thinking. What are the best G6 rivalries? And does the G6 have enough hate to sustain them?

Tim Stephens·
Spencer McLaughlin hosts Locked On College Football podcast
Top Stories

A 24-team playoff sounds great for the Group of Six. Don't get excited yet.

Locked On College Football's Spencer McLaughlin breaks down why more playoff spots might not change anything for the G6 — and why the people making these decisions don't want it to.

Tim Stephens·
Illustration of a rusted-out machine labeled Outdated Funding Model with cash being fed into it, representing the broken NIL funding structure at Group of 6 programs
UAB

They saved the program. Now they're being asked to save it again.

NIL donor fatigue is real at the Group of 6 level. The communities that built these programs are being asked to fund a system that wasn't designed for them.

Tim Stephens·
UAB head coach Alex Mortensen speaks with local media on the field at Protective Stadium
Top StoriesUAB

Alex Mortensen is recruiting Birmingham

The first-year UAB coach is embedding himself in the city, rebuilding recruiting relationships and leaning on nine years with Nick Saban to restore the Blazers.

Tim Stephens·
Jacksonville State wide receiver Alan Bonner fights past Ole Miss safety Johnny Brown for the game-tying touchdown reception in the fourth quarter
Back WhenJax State

Back When: The day Jacksonville State hit the map

On Sept. 4, 2010, the Gamecocks walked into Vaught-Hemingway Stadium as a $300,000 sacrificial lamb. They left with an SEC scalp and a signal that the climb was just getting started.

Tim Stephens·
Diehard Sports Network — Covering the G6
Top Stories

The war never stopped

The current climate feels existential for the G6. But this class war has been raging since the first TV camera pointed at a football field — and I’ve been covering it for three decades.

Tim Stephens·
Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould on the Big Business on Campus podcast with JohnWallStreet and Playfly Sports
Top Stories

Pac-12 commissioner Teresa Gould on rebuilding a conference from scratch: ‘This is about transformation, not transaction’

In a wide-ranging interview, Gould detailed the Pac-12’s startup mentality, Pac-12 Enterprises as a revenue engine, expansion plans and why nobody should underestimate the conference’s will to survive.

Tim Stephens·
G6 Diehard Podcast — hosted by Tim Stephens, Founder and CEO of Diehard Sports Network
Top Stories

The G6 Diehard Podcast is coming

College sports through the lens of the Group of 6 — hosted by Tim Stephens

Tim Stephens·
Roderick Robinson II carries the ball during UAB spring practice
Top StoriesUAB

Roderick Robinson II is ready to be the guy at UAB

The former Georgia four-star spent three years learning behind one of the best defenses in the country. Now he’s bringing that education to a UAB backfield his coaches say could be the best in the American.

Tim Stephens·

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