In a year of enormous change in college football, the playoff committee has set the table for the specifics of one of the biggest changes. So as the college football playoff committee addresses the expanded playoffs with its new timeline and schedule, it is time to take in the biggest of all the changes.
With the new and expanded 12-team playoff format, the committee will allocate five spots for the highest-ranked conference champions. So the simple “conference champion” as part of the criteria, as it was in the past as a tiebreaker, is now stricken from the committee protocols.
There will be six ranking announcements this Fall. The first will be on November 5th at 7 pm Eastern. Updated rankings will then be issued over the next four consecutive Tuesday nights. Since they will all be carried on ESPN, the committee is working around the TV network’s programming. Thus the times vary from 7p-9p Eastern. The final rankings and the playoff pairings will be announced on Sunday, December 8th at noon Eastern. That is the day after the conference championship games.
The People Making the Call
Warde Manuel, the athletic director at Michigan is the chair of the current selection committee.
The other committee members are,
Chris Ault (former head coach and athletics director, University of Nevada)
Chet Gladchuk (athletics director, U.S. Naval Academy)
Jim Grobe (former head coach, Ohio University, Wake Forest and Baylor)
Randall McDaniel (College and Pro Football Hall of Fame member)
Gary Pinkel (former head coach, University of Toledo and University of Missouri)
Mack Rhoades (athletics director, Baylor University)
Mike Riley (former college head coach, Oregon State and Nebraska)
David Sayler (athletics director, Miami University, OH)
Will Shields (College and Pro Football Hall of Fame member)
Kelly Whiteside (professor in Sports Media and Journalism, Montclair State University; longtime sportswriter, USA Today, Sports Illustrated and Newsday),
Carla Williams (athletics director, University of Virginia)
Hunter Yurachek (athletics director, University of Arkansas)
Please Leave the Room
As in the past, a voting member must recuse themselves from the conversation if any team with which they have a part or current association comes up for a vote. That sounds simple enough, but a review of the members and their backgrounds shows recusal rarely means one school, and it includes even indirect ties to a university.
Chris Ault will have to recuse himself in the unlikely event Nevada comes into the conversation. But he also must leave the room if UCLA comes up as Bruins baseball coach John Savage is married to his daughter. Hunter Yurachek leads the recusal count with three schools; Arkansas, SMU, and South Carolina.
The connective strings can get complex. So much so that the committee overlooked at least one. There is no recusal listed for Mike Riley and Nebraska. They have a few months to refine their system.
