Despite Castiglione, still scant Big 12 influence on committee
The College Football Playoff announced its newest members Wednesday, including OU athletic director Joe Castiglione. And the new members fill openings with similar jobs and geographic affiliations.
Which means no additional Big 12 influence.
In the first four years of the playoff, the committee has been mostly void of Big 12 representation. The conference is guaranteed a sitting athletic director, thus Castiglione’s appointment.
The 13-person committee includes five athletic directors. So there are eight other slots. The closest Big 12 tie has been former Kansas City-based writer Steve Wieberg.
Joining Castiglione as new committee members are Georgia Tech athletic director Todd Stansbury, Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin, former Arizona Republic writer Paola Boivin, former coach Ken Hatfield and former NFL star Ronnie Lott.
Joe C. replaces Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt, Stansbury replaces Clemson AD Dan Radakovich and Stricklin replaces former Arkansas AD Jeff Long. Boivin replaces former USA Today writer Steve Wieberg as the media representative. Hatfield replaces former Notre Dame, Stanford and Washington coach Tyrone Willingham. And Lott replaces former NCAA executive Tom Jernstedt as an at-large representative.
“These are high integrity people who know and love college football,” said Bill Hancock, executive director of the College Football Playoff. “Each one of them has built a distinguished career based on diligence and doing things the right way. We’re delighted that they will be joining the committee.”
Boivin recently left the Arizona Republic to take a job in the sports journalism program at Arizona State University. She also worked for the Los Angeles Daily News. Boivin is a graduate of the University of Illinois.
Hatfield, an AllSouthwest Conference player at Arkansas, was head coach at Air Force, Arkansas, Clemson and Rice.
Lott was an All-American safety at Southern Cal and an eight-time All-Pro with the San Francisco 49ers. He now is a businessman in the San Francisco Bay area.
Todd Stansbury was a football player at Georgia Tech. He’s been athletic director at Central Florida and Oregon State, before returning to his alma mater.
Stricklin previously was athletic director at his alma mater, Mississippi State, and also has worked at Kentucky, Baylor, Tulane and Auburn.
Castiglione, as you know, has been AD at Oklahoma for 20 years. He previously was AD at Missouri and is a Maryland graduate.
Remaining on the committee are Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith, Robert Morris University president Chris Howard, Oregon athletic director Rob Mullens and former coaches Frank Beamer of Virginia Tech, Bobby Johnson of Vanderbilt, Jeff Bower of Southern Mississippi and Herb Deromedi of Central Michigan.
So each Power 5 conference is represented by an athletic director. Among the five former coaches on the committee, none have a Big 12 background, though Bower was offensive coordinator at Oklahoma State back in the Big Eight days. Those coaches primary background are ACC (Beamer), SEC (Johnson), Mid-American (Deromedi), mid-majors (Bower) and a mixed-bag (Hatfield).
The additions of Boivin and Lott give the committee more of a Western tint.