The Josh Innes Show - My Dying Love Of College Football

Episode Date: August 20, 2025

First off, the CFP has announced it will use new metrics to help determine the CFP rankings. Super. It's still people making decisions and people have biases. Also, I finished watching the SEC show on Netflix and I had a moment of clarity as it relates to my college football fandom. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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No matter the stage of business you're in, visit TD.com slash small business advice to find out more or to match with a TD small business banking account manager. All right, let's see here. I see a headline that reads College Football Playoff Selection Committee to use enhanced metrics. Ooh, I wonder what enhanced metrics are. What is that in your determination and what you're using to determine who is going to be in the college football? football playoff. This is exciting. Enhanced metrics. Wow. Let's play a couple commercials and then let's get into what enhanced metrics are for the college football playoff. When planning for life's most important moments, sometimes the hardest part is simply

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using enhanced metrics to help evaluate schedule strength and how teams perform against their slings. late, the CFP announced on Wednesday. In the current schedule strength metric, more weight will be put applied to games against strong opponents, as it should be. A new added metric of record strength will help the committee determine how teams performed against their schedule, rewarding those that beat high-quality opponents while minimizing the penalty of losing to one. These changes will also provide minimal reward for beating a lower-quality opponent while

imposing a greater penalty for losing to one. So that makes sense, but how do you truly gauge what makes somebody a strong opponent? Like what metric is being used? How do you determine that? How do you come to the conclusion that one team is strong and what is it? It's all based on your own metrics. Your metrics create how strong the team your beating is or how, like say LSU beats Florida, well, whether or not that's a good win is determined by metrics created by the college football

playoff, right? Like, that's the metrics they're using. So, like, that's the thing that sucks about college football. There is no definitive answer to who is good and who is not. It's all still based on opinion and in this case, metrics, right? Like, you know what the beauty of the NFL is? In the NFL, you play 17 games. You know the number of games you need to win essentially to make the playoffs.

You know that you need to win your division to make the playoffs. You know that you need to be a wild card to make the playoffs. And that's that. Like, when the Kansas City Chiefs play the Chargers in week one, if they lose that game, they know they lost a division game and now they are 0-1 over on their 0-1 in the division. It's not, well, they lost that, but at least we got to give them credit for playing a good team like the Chargers.

That's the part that sucks about college football. That's the part that sucks about the drama around college football. Or you can argue that's what makes it great, the conjecture. Like there are some people that would make that argument. You'd say, well, the thing that's great is you get rewarded for playing tougher teams. But at the end of the day, it still comes down to the opinions of a selection committee, a group of people are still using their own created metrics to determine who should be in a playoff. There should be a designed way.

There should be an easier way to determine who gets into these things, a set way that does it. You know, I don't like the fact. Like, good. In theory, it sounds great that if you're an SEC school that beating a team of the SEC is better than beating ball state. That's great. But let me ask you this. when you're determining strength of schedule, and I don't know that any of this is or not this a legit question,

how much of it is the strength of schedule is determined by a preseason ranking, right? The opinions of people. So later in the season, right, if you're playing a team that's ranked in the college football playoff, so after November 4th, whenever they've got the college football playoff rankings, let's say you play a team on November 11th or November 10th or whenever you play a team, and they happen to be a top 10 team in the college football playoff,

Well, they're a top 10 team in the college football playoff as determined by the college football playoff committee, which are people. So does that really prove that you're being a good team because some people that are determining that they're a top 10 team, that people who, the people determining they're a top 10 team? I don't know. The whole system annoys me. Historically, the selection committee typically has evaluated in this manner, but adding it to a computerized metric should help codify the process publicly. It could also incentivize athletic directors to continue to schedule marquee matchups between Blue Blood programs without fear of being penalized for a loss in the committee meeting room. You should not be punished for playing tougher teams. I agree with that.

You should be rewarded. That's how college basketball is. That's why you see better out-of-conference matchups in college basketball. Now, you still see LSU play ULM and you still see, you know, teams play shitty schools, but you also get to see fun tournaments and you also get to see these things and you get reward. for playing them. Now, you get rewarded more for winning them, but at least playing them gives you that opportunity. It gives you the opportunity to be rewarded for playing those types of games. And the team should. What we've discovered in the college football playoff era, which will eventually be expanded to however many games it's going to be expanded to,

but what we've learned in the 12-team era is that even teams with three losses are in the mix down the stretch because of who they have played and how close they have played those teams, right? So like South Carolina was in the mix last year towards the end. I don't think they deserve to be in, but you can make a case for South Carolina. You can make a case for Ole Miss, right? And like you're in it until the end. So there's no reason why you should avoid playing a high-end school like that. There's no reason why you shouldn't see Marquis out of conference matchups. There's no reason why you shouldn't see a Texas in Michigan or an LSU in Clemson. Of course you should see these things or Texas and Ohio State. You should

see these types of matchups every year because playing them should not punish you. Now, you've got to win some of them. Like, you can't play four good teams and lose to four good teams and be eight and four and four and four and go, oh, we played four good teams, right? But this team over here, like, there has to be a point where you're like, hey, they played a bunch of good games and finished eight and four, didn't win any of the games against good teams, but if a team's 11 and one at a power conference and they didn't play as tough a schedule, like ultimately they won 11 of their fucking games.

If you lose four games, you should not be in the college football playoff. really if you lose two or three you probably shouldn't be in but that's part of the problem part of the problem we run into is that like is these situations like this is the issue that we're dealing with right now the issue that we're dealing with right now is it's all based on the opinions of people in a room i don't care what metrics they're using it is still the opinions of people in a room it is a group of people these people have biases go back and look at when LSU won the national championship in 2019. People talk about how LSU played seven ranked teams, right?

Or beat seven ranked teams. They were ranked when they played them, but how many teams were ranked as high as they were when they played LSU at the end of the season? How many teams weren't even ranked at all at the end of the season? Like, I think we put way too much value on stuff like that. Still, it remains a subjective system and none of the major components in the protocol, strength of schedule, common opponents, head-to-head results in other circumstances, such as injuries to keep players are weighted.

Quote, all of these modifications will help the selection committee as they rank the top 25 teams, said Rich Clark, the CFP Executive Director. We feel these changes will help construct a postseason bracket that recognizes the best performance in teams on the field during the regular season. And I want to thank our veteran selection committee members and data analysis groups for helping implement these changes. My problem is, if you just want to put 12 SEC teams in Big Ten, teams, if you think those are the best teams and put them in, then why have these other leagues

in the power for? Why do they even exist? Why are they there if winning your conference means after? Why have conferences if competing for the conference and winning the conference ultimately doesn't mean all that much? Like, why does it matter? I understand that there were guaranteed spots for certain teams winning conferences. But, like, if that's going to be the case, why does it matter?

Just don't have conferences at all. Just play a giant round robin. Why don't even need conferences? I just hate the way college football is now. man. I hate that I feel this way about college football because I love college football and I love LSU and like, but I'm watching this SEC show. We watched the last episode of it last night. There was a fine show. It was a solid little show. And I'm watching a scene where Tennessee plays Vanderbilt. And at the end of the season, they, you know, we don't give a piss or we don't give a damn about Vanderbilt and they're all chanting in the locker room. And I'm looking at these guys and I'm wondering how many of these dudes actually give a shit about the fact that they are Tennessee. and they beat Vanderbilt and how many of these dudes are there because that's the place that paid them most and that that's the team they just played and it helps their chances of moving up in the world and they beat that team and that's always been the case like I get that everybody's

always wanted to go to the NFL and dudes have been paid under the table and I get that but there's something missing about the passion that guys have for the school like I'm watching these dudes sing their alma mater and I'm like you you're not going to graduate from here You're not going to come close to graduating from here. You're a rental player who's here for five months on campus. Like, I'm okay with the existence of it. I'm not anti-N-I-L. I'm not anti-guise transferring from place to place.

Do what you've got to do. If it's helping you get a job and make your cash, go ahead. But as a consumer of it, and as someone who has a passion for one particular school, there is a part of me that really despises the fact that the guys who are coming to the school, many of them are not invested in the school. And I say school as if I care that it's a place of higher learning. I don't. But the institution, the team, the fact that they come to LSU,

and I feel like there were dudes who wanted to stay somewhere for three or four years and were committed to that school and love that school and love that team and love the fan base, and they become ingrained in that fan base. It just doesn't happen that way anymore, and that bothers me. And maybe I sound old and maybe I sound like a dope, and that's totally fine. But I watch these things now, and I view these guys as more just commodities than dudes who are committed to LSU or Florida, Alabama. And it feels empty. It rings hollow.

Like you go to an LSU game and at the end, the fans are singing the alma mater, many of whom never went to LSU. I mean, the majority of people at most schools that root for them did not go to the university. That's why I love when people shit on people. Like, I'm here in Detroit, how many people are Walmart, Michigan fans that didn't even go to the school? Well, that's everywhere, bro. most people that root for schools in states because they're the state school and that's who they grew up rooting for didn't go to the school or graduate from the school shut the fuck up you're annoying right but like you see the fans and they're all singing the alma mater and whether they went to LSU or not they've been committed to the school and have loved the school and have loved the school and have loved purple and gold for as long as they can remember and then there are dudes on the field singing this alma mater and there are dudes that might be there for five months and only are there because LSU paid them the most money or there are guys who signed there thinking they loved LSU But then in a year, going to leave because they didn't get the playing time they wanted and they're going to bounce from place to place. And it just feels empty.

It just, like, it sucks. Like, it's weird that pro sports teams, you feel more commitment to guys because at least they're forced to stay somewhere for a contract. They sign a deal when a dude in the NBA signs a deal, that's like a five, six year deal. He's there. And the NFL dudes are more than likely going to be there. Like, the Saints suck. But I know that DeMario Davis has been with the Saints for, what, six, seven, eight years. and I love DeMario Davis, and I feel like DeMario Davis has a commitment and a love for New Orleans and the Saints,

and that's why I respect that guy, and that's why I love that guy. Alvin Kamara, yes, they're all commodities. Yes, they wouldn't give a shit about me if they wouldn't piss on me if I were on fire. I get all that. I'm not trying to sound overly optimistic Pauliana guy here, but there is a reality to this that those guys, when they sign a contract with a team, there is a commitment to that team. And they have to honor that commitment. We're in college, none of these guys do.

like in theory when a guy signs a seven year deal in the NFL he's going to play for a team for seven years and he wanted to be there he's your guy that didn't happen in college guy signs a deal to come to a school within a year he could transfer and he's gone like i don't know everything just feels weird and different and you can say i'm naive and you can say that i'm being a dope and i totally you want to go at me for that that's fine i just don't feel the same love for it the way i used to because i feel like it's changed a ton. And I feel like the guys who come to your school could not give two shits about it. They're just there because they're going to the highest bidder. And you could argue that's how it's always been and recruiting and bags under the

table. Yes. Totally. But at least there was a facade. It might have been bullshit, which facades are, but it was a facade, but I was into it and I bought it. Now, maybe it's because I'm an adult. I'm 40 years old.

damn near now and it's different for me but you know the same reason that nick sabin got out of it just kind of the same reason i feel like i'm not as into it as i used to be so change your committee stuff all you want and make it a beauty contest and play more good teams and that's all great but like i want to feel like the people who are going to lSU are going to lSU because they love lsu as much as you do and it's not true and you know it's not true but fucking lie to me you know When you're plowing some chick and you're going out of it as hard as you can, she's probably not enjoying it because you're a fat slob on top of her. But you know what?

If she loves you, she'll pretend that she liked it too. And that's all I want from these guys. You know, I don't like that, you know, like you see these recruiting classes that go to a school. How many of those guys are going to stay there for two years or three years without transferring? Probably not many of them. I don't know. It's weird. There is more loyalty in pro sports.

And I get the guys move around. but they signed deals. Like Kevin Durant might go to four different teams, but when he signs a two-year deal, you know he signs a two-year deal and that's where he is for two years, unless it gets traded. You know when a guy signs a four-year deal.

At college, a guy could sign it to go to your school and can be gone in a month. I don't like that. It just doesn't feel right to me, and it doesn't lead to me being confident or happy or as a fan. It doesn't lead to me having more enjoyment of the sport, if that makes sense.

Maybe I'm a bitch. I don't know.