ATHENS — The College Football Playoff selection committee will have a new look for the 2025 season, the final year of the currently structured 12-team format, and it will feature some Georgia flavor.
Baylor athletic director Mack Rhoades will replace Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel as the CFP committee chairman and five other new members will join the 13-member team that determines the rankings used to seed the 12-team playoff format.
Rhoades was a member of the committee last year.
Damon Evans, a former Georgia athletic director (2004-10) and player (1988-91) who is now the athletic director at Maryland, will be among the five new members on the committee.
The CFP Management Committee, headed by executive director Rich Clark, made the announcement on Tuesday via press release.
The new members of the committee (with current affiliation) are:
• Damon Evans (AD, Maryland)
• Mark Dantonio (Retired, Michigan State, Cincinnati)
• Ivan Maisel (Media, Sports Illustrated, ESPN, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Dallas Morning News)
• Chris Massaro (AD, Middle Tennessee State)
• Wesley Walls (Former Ole Miss tight end).
The new members will begin a three-year term beginning this spring and replace Manuel, Chet Gladchuk, Jim Grobe, Will Shields, Kelly Whiteside and Gary Pinkel.
The changeover at the top of the CFP committee will likely be well-received by SEC types after a controversial year with Manuel as chairman of the process.
Clark, a retired 38-year Air Force veteran, had said before the first set of rankings were released last year that strength of schedule would factor heavily into the rankings.
“That is a very important metric, it’s not the only metric, (but) it’s one that cross-cuts across conferences and team schedules,” Clark said, “and it gives us a look so we can compare teams more accurately based on their strength of schedule. It helps us to look at teams in a more fair manner.
“Record matters,” Clark said, “but we’re not trying to pick the most deserving teams, we’re trying to pick the best teams.”
The committee chaired by Manuel, however, appeared to lean more heavily toward won-loss record throughout the process, mitigating what proved to be a very deep, balanced SEC.
“Our depth is beyond anything that I’ve experienced, the strength of our teams,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said last season. “The number of teams we’ve had ranked throughout the year, and I think that’s a sign of respect.
“I believe that part of that loss column is more about the depth of talent and the strength of competition than necessarily about the team that bears that loss, because some of these games have been incredibly close.”
Manuel pointed to the consistency of some of the Big Ten teams being better than those in the SEC — without regard to overall schedule difficulty — and dismissed the concept of applying the so-called “eye-test” to hypothetical head-to-head comparisons.
SEC Network analyst Paul Finebaum commented after the final CFP rankings were released following the conclusion of the conference championship games that Manuel “completely blew it,” and that “Alabama got jobbed” when ACC runner-up SMU was selected over the Tide — as well as 3-loss SEC teams South Carolina and Ole Miss — for the final at-large spot in the 12-team playoff.
SMU lost to Penn State, 38-10, in the first-round of last year’s College Football Playoffs.
Clark said in the release he’s confident in the new members on the committee.
“The additions of Mark, Damon, Ivan, Chris and Wesley will bring some great new voices to the selection committee as we enter our 12th season,” Clark said. “Each of them has tremendous knowledge, passion and dedication to college football, along with outstanding character and integrity.”
Steve Weiberg, a former CFP selection committee member (2014-17), a longtime USA Today college football writer, will return for a one-year term as Pinkel stepped down with a year left on his term.
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