Kirby Smart tells people he worries about everything, and anyone who has been around the Georgia coach for the past decade can verify that. And yet Smart, whose team will be impacted heavily by the College Football Playoff committee, said this week that he doesn’t even know who’s on the committee.
“I don’t even know the makeup,” Smart said. “I don’t know the exact number of coaches versus administrators, who all is in there or who should be. It’s not something that I concern myself with because I don’t have a lot of control over it.”
Perhaps he’s being coy: One of the members is Virginia athletic director Carla Williams, who worked with Smart at Georgia between 2016-20. Or perhaps Smart was being honest, which probably would put him in line with everyone else.
By now, most people can identify the face of the committee: Warde Manuel, the athletic director at Michigan, who each Tuesday comes forward to answer — or avoid — questions about the committee’s thinking. Fairly or not, it gives the impression the committee is thinking as one, rather than going through a complicated process oriented around a voting procedure.
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Because Manuel is an administrator, and one in the Big Ten, it may lead fans to assume some wrong things about the background of committee members. In fact, there’s a strong presence of former coaches and players.
First, the basics: There are 13 members, and their bios are available on the CFP website.
Four are former coaches:
• Gary Pinkel, most notably Missouri’s coach from 2001-15.
• Mike Riley, Oregon State and Nebraska coaching stints and played for Bear Bryant at Alabama.
• Jim Grobe, longtime Wake Forest coach and before that Ohio.
• Chris Ault, Nevada’s coach for 23 years.
Two more members are notable former players:
• Randall McDaniel, All-Pro Minnesota Vikings offensive lineman who played at Arizona State from 1984-87.
• Will Shields, Pro Football Hall of Famer who played guard for the Kansas City Chiefs and played at Nebraska.
Six members are sitting athletic directors:
• Manuel.
• Williams.
• Arkansas’ Hunter Yurachek.
• Navy’s Chet Gladchuk.
• Baylor’s Mack Rhoades.
• Miami of Ohio’s David Salyer.
Finally, there is a former media member:
• Kelly Whiteside, who covered college football for USA Today for 14 years and was the first female president of the Football Writers Association of America.
Of note: Manuel and Gladchuk played college football, respectively at Michigan and Boston College, so most of the committee members played the sport. So if the perception is these are intellectuals only looking at data, that’s probably wrong.
Committee members only leave the room when a school that compensates them or a family member is involved. In the case of Williams, for instance, she leaves the room when Virginia is being discussed but not Georgia, even though she is an alum of the school.
In fact, among the teams contending for a Playoff spot, there is only one recusal for this year’s committee: Yurachek whenever South Carolina is discussed because his son Ryan is the assistant tight ends coach for the Gamecocks.
But Riley can talk about Alabama, his alma mater. Given the transient nature of some careers, it would be too complicated to have someone leave any time they had a connection somewhere. The deliberations are secret, of course, so the public can come to its conclusions on what biases become involved or what criteria were leaned on the most.
“While we have an abundance of statistics to rely on, the committee is subjective by design,” Manuel said. “We consist of 13 experts. Each person on the committee watches the games, studies the stats, debates the merits of each team, and ultimately casts their vote. Our job is to get it right.”
(Photo of Warde Manuel: Junfu Han / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
