What is The Inside Zone?

The Inside Zone is your go-to source for quality independent college football coverage. Matt Fortuna will take you inside the world of this sport as only he knows how, providing information, insights, commentary and much more, all of it coming from boots-on-the-ground reporting and relationships that have been cultivated across a decade-plus career of coverage at the highest level.

Who is Matt Fortuna?

Matt Fortuna is the founder of The Inside Zone, a new community dedicated to year-round coverage of college football. Matt started this venture after 12 seasons of covering the sport for ESPN (2011-16) and for The Athletic (2017-22). At ESPN, he wrote about Notre Dame and ACC football, and he regularly appeared on “SportsCenter,” “College Football Live” and other network platforms. From there, Matt became part of the original team of writers who helped launch The Athletic’s college football vertical in 2017. He covered the sport at a national level, delivering behind-the-scenes stories such as how Brian Kelly abruptly left Notre Dame (co-authored with Pete Sampson) and how the Big Ten covertly added UCLA and USC (co-authored with Nicole Auerbach). Additionally, Matt regularly broke college football news, most recently by being the first to report that Northwestern had fired legendary coach Pat Fitzgerald amid a hazing scandal.

In 2019 at the age of 30, Matt served as the president of the Football Writers Association of America, becoming the youngest president in the FWAA’s 80-year history. The FWAA and its basketball arm, the United States Basketball Writers Association, have honored him 15 times in their annual Best Writing Contest. Matt’s work has been recognized by the Associated Press Sports Editors in each of the past two years as well.

Matt regularly appears on a number of Chicago-based television and radio stations, and is an in-season analyst and co-host on Stadium, the national multi-platform sports network with distribution to more than 20 million homes.

What do I receive with a subscription?

For $50 per year, or $6 per month, you will receive comprehensive year-round coverage of America’s wildest sport. That includes:

  • “Fortuna Files,” a weekly in-season package bringing you inside the conversations happening at the sport’s highest levels: coaching whispers, realignment chatter, scouting intel on upcoming games and much more

  • Breaking news stories and analysis

  • Coaching candidates for every open job

  • Regular game coverage and columns

  • Deeply reported features on the biggest names (and issues) surrounding the sport

  • Mailbags answering readers’ questions

Your subscription goes directly toward supporting coverage, and membership leads to direct contact with this entire community, creating an intimate, frank and friendly discussion about college football.

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Matt Fortuna takes you inside the world of college football as only he knows how, providing information, insights, commentary and much more.

People

Matt started The Inside Zone after 12 years at ESPN and The Athletic. Here, he brings you information, insights, commentary and much more, creating a new online college football community.