Phantom Island – Details, episodes & analysis

Phantom Island, a new show from Steven Godfrey and Ryan Nanni, is coming to this feed soon, as our several other projects from Steven and Ryan. This, however, is not one of those projects, but merely a placeholder to give you a feed to subscribe to. REAL episodes will be longer than two minutes and usually have at least one word by Steven, unless you tell us you want no words from Steven. The market is never wrong!

In 2022, a new competitor to the PGA emerged: LIV. Three years, many hundreds of millions of dollars, and a lot of bitter golf feelings later, has the alternative league succeeded as an entertainment product, a revolutionary force in the sport, or a sportswashing enterprise? Ryan presents these questions to Steven on the first episode of Phantom Island, presented by Homefield Apparel and produced by Michael Surber.

Early in the 2025 NCAA men's basketball tournament, Will Wade was connected with the open job at NC State. Critics complained this distraction was unfair to Wade's players at McNeese State – and then they beat five-seed Clemson. Steven and Ryan discuss the grudges still held against Wade, how the NFL restricts hiring during the playoffs, and evolving notions of etiquette. Phantom Island is presented by Homefield Apparel and produced by Michael Surber.

Welcome to the debut of "Numbers & Words," in which we take a single, anecdotal idea from sports and borrow a smart person to prove its empirical value. On this episode, Parker Fleming (@statsowar) stops by to help Godfrey walk through an idea about the newfound interchangeability of college football linemen in the NIL and portal era. Phantom Island is presented by Homefield Apparel and produced by Michael Surber.

Steven returns to answer listener questions about expectation for Sonny Dykes, the future of Northern California's college football programs, the steady creep of gambling into sports coverage, and a whole lot more as The Single Wing makes its triumphant return. Presented by Homefield Apparel and produced by Michael Surber.

The NFL schedule for 2025 is out, and Steven Godfrey is not happy with how many prime slots went to the Dallas Cowboys. So he and Ryan sat down, with some numbers, to figure out whether or not America's team actually gets more choice television placement than their record merits and uncover which team isn't getting the TV love that it should. Phantom Island is presented by Homefield Apparel and produced by Michael Surber.

The Jordan Bulls dominated the NBA and the sports cultural landscape in the 1990s, but fans have spent the last 25 years watching an organization swinging between mismanagement, heartbreak, and mediocrity. Maggie Hendricks, Ricky O'Donnell, and Jack Silverstein join the show to share their favorite Bulls memories, explain the dreaded GarPax, and discuss where Bulls struggles fall in the general angst of Chicago sports. Presented by Homefield Apparel and produced by Michael Surber.

The New York Knicks came two wins away from playing in the 2025 NBA Finals, but they still made the somewhat surprising decision to can the coach who'd helped turn the franchise around, Tom Thibodeau. Host Ryan Nanni brings on Neil Paine, writer for ESPN, NASCAR, and his own Substack, to look at what the numbers say about teams that have bailed on successful coaches in hopes of improving their fortunes even further. Why does this move work better in some sports, and will we see impatient college football teams try this tactic in the near future? Neil also helps Ryan learn whether a trend he noticed in the 2025 NBA Playoffs is real or not.

This is a preview of the full episode, which is available to paid subscribers – go to phantomisland.show to sign up today. Phantom Island is presented by Homefield Apparel and produced by Michael Surber.

The map of college hockey champions and teams that claim titles in baseball and softball don't overlap very much, and that gives Steven some questions to bring to Ryan. Does the regional nature of these sports put a limit on their potential success? Should we live in a world with more Arizona States starting hockey teams? And will the traditional Big Ten teams ever take baseball seriously again? Phantom Island is presented by Homefield and produced by Michael Surber.

Steven tackles listener questions on three different ACC-related topics, considers an impossible Ohio State or Kent State theoretical, gives you a brief overview of his evolving habits as a moviegoer, and much more. Presented by Homefield Apparel and produced by Michael Surber.