In the hours that have followed the next-to-last selection show before the final College Football Playoff field is announced Sunday, everyone from athletics directors to coaches of some of the top programs in the country have been weighing in with their team's respective resumes on social media to whoever will listen.
While it has made for some entertaining debates, it solidifies a passionate stance I have been biting my tongue on regarding the makeup of the College Football selection committee.
The current College Football Playoff Selection Committee is made up of 13 individuals.
- 6 current or former athletic directors
- 4 former college head coaches
- 2 College Football Hall of Fame players
- 1 veteran college football writer
That's right. The current roster of the selection committee includes just four former college head coaches: Chris Ault (Nevada), Jim Grobe (Ohio, Wake Forest and Baylor), Gary Pinkel (Toledo and Missouri) and Mike Riley (Oregon State and Nebraska).
If the ultimate goal is to get the best 12 teams in the field - not the biggest brands or who can bring in the most viewers (as the brand bias debate been alleged far and wide) - why aren't there more former coaches on the committee?
Who better to identify the 12 best teams in the country than coaches who understand the strategy, personnel, and intricacies of the game?
That leads me to my idea to overhaul the process to absolutely ensure the best teams get in.
Every year, accomplished coaches with a wealth of experience decide to retire or are forced to step away from the game for one reason or another. It's my belief that the committee should be made up, almost entirely, of coaches who recently decided departed from the sidelines.
Coaches, let's say we start at the Division I level, who decide to retire or simply enjoy their buyout for a period of time, should be presented with the opportunity to serve a term on the College Football Playoff Committee.
Taking the past two cycles, guys like Hue Jackson, Nick Saban or Buddy Pough, or perhaps former Wyoming and NDSU head coach Craig Bohl (now heading the AFCA), Northern Iowa's Mark Farley, former Fresno State head coach Jeff Tedford, Central Michigan's Jim McElwain, former UMass head coach Don Brown, or former Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher are all guys that have dedicated their lives to football and could step into a role moving forward.
We could even go a bit further back and include Urban Meyer, Steve Spurrier, or look to the NFL ranks with Mike Vrabel, Pete Carroll, and Bill Belichick.
As one lands a job, there a retired coach waiting in the wings to get plugged in and serve his term.
There's little doubt in my mind each one of these guys would enjoy the hell of of watching film of each potential playoff team to find who the best teams are to put in the field.
Sure, they'd also take into account stuff like strength of schedule, and quality of wins, but those shouldn't be the main points of the debate. Right now it seems like numbers and data points are dominating the conversation, and we've lost track of why the field expanded - to give opportunities to the very best teams. Period.
Allowing ball coaches to watch film on their own and then get in a room to hash out the most deserving teams seems like a no-nonsense, no-brainer.
Floating this idea is not to say that the rest of the committee is unqualified in any way. Guys like Randall McDaniel are in the College Football Hall of Fame and made the Pro Bowl an impressive 12 times, and the accomplishments of the current and former athletic directors on the committee (Chet Gladchuk, Warde Manuel, Mack Rhoades, David Sayler, Carla Williams, and Hunter Yurachek) are too long to list.
I'm also not saying the committee should be entirely comprised of accomplished former head coaches (although I certainly think an argument could be made for that). I do think there's room at the table for an "outside perspective" much like Condoleeza Rice brought to the table with her appointment on the committee in 2013 with an unquestioned background in leadership and politics.
No system will be perfect and leave zero room for some healthy debate, and while that is certainly considered part of the fun, I'm a big believer that there's a better way and coaches having a larger presence is where that conversation should start.
They're the ones most uniquely qualified to watch the film and see if a 3-loss Ole Miss team, led by Lane Kiffin deserves one of the final spots over a first-year Kalen DeBoer Alabama squad, who also has three losses. Or it Miami -- who has lost two of their last three, both to unranked opponents at the time. Or perhaps it's South Carolina, who you could argue is the hottest team in college football right now.
As coaches like to say, "the film never lies." Let them hash it out and come to a conclusion that will be tough(er) to argue with. While the committee took a lot of heat for leaving Florida State out of the playoff last year following the injury to standout quarterback Jordan Travis, I think a committee made up by coaches would have come to the same conclusion - they weren't a top four team without their signal caller.
The late Mike Leach put it best seven years ago when he made fun about how some felt a committee was the right approach to make a decision on a four-team playoff, and I couldn't agree more.
But if we're going to have a committee designed to find the best 12 teams in football, we have a duty to stock that room with the most qualified people possible to make that decision - coaches.