The contestants in the new College Football Playoff that will go into effect next season will be chosen not by polls or computer programs, but rather by a selection committee — similar to the system used in college basketball.
The committee has yet to be officially announced, but a preliminary roster of members was leaked to ESPN and USA Today on Friday, and it is chock full of high-profile names.
Reportedly included on the committee — which one source called “an all-star cast” — are Hall of Famer Archie Manning, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese, former NCAA executive vice president Tom Jernstedt and five current athletic directors — Pat Haden (USC), Barry Alvarez (Wisconsin), Jeff Long (Arkansas), Oliver Luck (West Virginia) and Dan Radakovich (Clemson).
The addition of Rice was first reported by The Associated Press.
“We need to know about all these people,” College Football Playoff executive director Bill Hancock recently told USA Today. “We know them. You know them. But we need to know everything we can about them because we don’t want to make any mistakes, and we won’t. These are all people of high integrity.”
“If they’re gonna be scrutinized the way they’re gonna be scrutinized, we’ve got to be ultimately careful and do every bit of due diligence,” Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany told the newspaper. “You can expect that media — new media, old media — when someone says, ‘Oh, that guy voted that way for that reason,’ they’re gonna be under a fine-tooth comb. We’ve got to make sure, for everybody’s sake, that we’ve done everything we need to do to understand that.”
No current coaches or conference commissioners will serve on the committee, according to ESPN’s source. The 12-to-18 member team will reportedly be finalized by the end of this season.
