College football has finally joined the rest of the sports world with a move to a postseason playoff system in 2014-15, but there are still several details to be worked out in terms of its operation.
On Wednesday, the College Football Playoff released additional information regarding procedures pertaining to the new Selection Committee and their role following the conclusion of meetings in Dallas.
"The College Football Playoff marks a new era in which a group of college football experts will decide the best four teams which will compete for the national championship," Bill Hancock, executive director of the College Football Playoff, said in a statement. "The members of the Selection Committee are an outstanding group of people with high integrity and excellent judgment, and ultimately the decision will be theirs. The information released today will help fans, the media, and others in the college football community better understand how the committee will conduct its deliberations. Our top priority is to make sure the new playoff is the best it can be, and that fans have every detail possible about how it will operate."
Among the notable items the College Football Playoff settled on:
» Selection Committee members will have to recuse themselves from voting on a particular school if they or an immediate family member receives compensation from that school. The recusal policy is similar to that of the NCAA basketball tournament selection committee and there remains an option to add other policies if "special circumstances" arise.
» The Selection Committee will meet in person seven times during the season in Dallas on Monday and Tuesday of each week.
» The committee will release a total of seven weekly rankings of the top 25 teams on Tuesday night, starting on Oct. 28, 2014.
» ESPN will exclusively reveal the committee's rankings on a half-hour show every week from Oct. 28 through Dec. 2. Committee chairman Jeff Long will discuss the results and give insight as to why the committee seeded teams like they did.
» Selection Committee members will have access to video, statistics and other tools to help them select the best college football teams in the country. They will not rely soley on any one mathematical formula to help pick teams.
» All votes will be conducted by secret ballot and be done by seeding groups of six teams until a top 25 has been completed.
The inaugural College Football Playoff semifinals will be held New Year's Day at the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl, while the first national championship game under the new system will take place on Jan. 12, 2015 at AT&T Stadium, which is the home stadium of the Dallas Cowboys.
Follow Bryan Fischer on Twitter @BryanDFischer.
