College Football Playoff officially unveils 13-member selection committee
Arkansas’ Jeff Long will be the chair of the College Football Playoff selection committee. (Beth Hall/USA Today Sports)
The College Football Playoff officially unveiled the first selection committee that will select teams to participate in new postseason format, which will go into effect starting next season.
The 13-member committee will be comprised of the following individuals:
• Jeff Long, vice chancellor and director of athletics, University of Arkansas-Fayetteville (chair)
• Barry Alvarez, director of athletics, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Lieutenant General Mike Gould, former superintendent of the United States Air Force Academy
• Pat Haden, director of athletics, University of Southern California
• Tom Jernstedt, former NCAA executive vice president
• Oliver Luck, director of athletics, West Virginia University
• Archie Manning, former University of Mississippi quarterback and all-pro NFL quarterback
• Tom Osborne, former head coach and director of athletics, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• Dan Radakovich, director of athletics, Clemson University
• Condoleezza Rice, Stanford University professor, former Stanford provost and former United States Secretary of State
• Mike Tranghese, former commissioner of the Big East Conference
• Steve Wieberg, former college football reporter, USA Today
• Tyrone Willingham, former head coach of three FBS institutions
College Football Playoff executive director Bill Hancock said in a statement that the finalized committee has the pedigree to adequately serve college football.
“We wanted people of the highest integrity for this committee, and we got them. Every one of them has vast football knowledge, excellent judgment, dedication and love for this game,” said Hancock. “They will no doubt have one of the hardest jobs in sports. But their skills and wide variety of experiences — from coaches and athletes to university leaders and journalists — will ensure that they will be successful. And they are committed to investing the time and effort necessary for this endeavor. We are grateful that they will be serving this terrific game of college football.”
The College Football Playoff selected its committee members using five main areas of criteria: People with experience as coaches, student-athletes, administrators, journalists and/or sitting directors of athletics. In general, the committee members will serve three-year terms, with some terms longer and some shorter to achieve a rotation.
The management committee gave careful consideration to the standards for membership and identifying individuals who matched the criteria. The top-priority criterion was integrity. Among the other valued attributes was football expertise, objectivity, ability to carefully evaluate and discern information, and experience in making decisions under scrutiny. Prospective members were asked to commit significant time to the endeavor.
Selection committee members are given the freedom to use “whatever data they believe is relevant” when selecting the playoff’s four participating teams, a removal from the BCS’ use of computer rankings and human polls. The committee tentatively plans to release four or five rankings of 25 teams beginning in the middle of each season starting in 2014. But while Hancock stressed transparency with the committee, he did say the committee will not release individual ballots.
Hancock said will make process as transparent as possible. Will release collective Top 25, not individual ballots—
Brett McMurphy (@McMurphyESPN) October 16, 2013
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Radakovich was directly responsible for unethical, major violation at Georgia Tech, which involved countermanding a direct order by revealing confidential data he had a duty NOT to relay. And then, even after having been reprimanded by the NCAA for "tainting" and "hindering" an investigation, denying that he'd done anything wrong. See
NCAA Decision Shows Clemson AD Dan Radakovich Would “Taint” Football Championship Selection Committee, http://wp.me/p15xE1-tSLooks like just another poll to me...only selected members can vote! By the way what is Tyrone Willingham, a failed coach who was fired at three (3) FBS schools, doing on a selection committee. Think he might have an ax to grind if one of the schools that fired him comes up for a vote?
Needs more Finebaum.
As a BAMA fan, I don't like the idea of the AD of USC being on the committee. Bill Battle, the current UA AD was a head coach at TENN and a very successful businessman. Take your team ball cap off and you night see the logo tag of his former company. Since money seems to be the driving force here, I think he would be uniquely qualified for a spot on this committee. That said, I know a lot of people would not want the AD at BAMA sitting on the committee just as I don't like USC having a representative. I guess we have to be thankful the the AD of Notre Dame is on there.
We go from bytching about a BCS computer to bytching about humans,,,,,,there will never be a total non-biased way.
Mike Tranghese former Commish of the Big East ,Oliver Luck AD at WVU. Can these two men be unbiased regarding the ACC ? The first watched as John Swofford of the ACC looted BC,Miami,VT,Syracuse and Pitt from his league.He used many words not spoken in polite company to describe these actions. The second saw after Marylands departure to the B10 that Swofford favored L'ville over West Virginia to replace the Terps. Mr. Luck then chose to cancel a contract with ACC member FSU for a game in September of 2012 in April of that year, making it impossible to find another AQ replacement. Will they recuse themselves from any decision regarding an ACC team when the playoff teams are voted on ?
So when do we get a real playoff where you win your conference to make the playoffs? This is just another glorified poll system.
Ballots should be online and available to the public at all times. If they have something to hide then this system is no better.
@crimsonmastodon Actually it seems to me that the goal for the committee was to have an AD from each of the Big 5 conferences. Haden from the PAC-12, Long from Arkansas, Alvarez from the Big 10, Luck from the Big 12, and Radakovich from the ACC. One must simply hope that these gentleman can approach this process with impartiality instead of making decisions that might benefit their school or conference. Having one rep from each of the conferences is at least the right move, I think.
@crimsonmastodon i agree, there's 2 AD's and if USC is on the bubble which way is haden leaning duh. haden's a great man but they really need people that don't have a horse in the race
@yehonala04 All of the panel has a history. None of this is done in a vacuum. You cannot have a competent panel otherwise. I'm sure that the different biases will cancel each other out.
@josephfinn Shhh. Stop ruining the fun (delusion).
@Rickapolis @yehonala04 The Tooth fairy was my favorite childhood memory .