Meet the College Football Section Committee

The four teams will be picked by a 13-person selection committee. The committee is made up of current and former college football people, many of whom are athletic directors (the full list of members is below).

The selection committee will meet once a week, and start releasing a weekly top-25 ranking on October 28th. The 13-person committee will meet, discuss, and rank the teams from one to 25. The top-four teams in the final ranking will make the playoff.

This season the two semifinals will be held at the Rose Bowl (Pasadena, California) and the Sugar Bowl (New Orleans, Louisiana) on January 1. The committee will put the higher-seeded team in the more convenient location with respect to geography and potential homefield advantage. So if Florida State finishes No. 1, they will get to play in New Orleans rather than Pasadena. If Oregon finishes No. 1, they will get to play in Pasadena rather than New Orleans.

The winners of those two games will play the championship game on January 12 at AT&T Stadium in Dallas. Where the Cowboys play.

The selection committee will rank 25 teams throughout the season, including the final four teams that will advance to the first College Football Playoff. The group will first choose the teams to be placed in the playoff, and will then select teams for the contract bowls (Rose, Orange and Sugar) before finishing with the Cotton, Fiesta and Peach bowls.

Members of the selection committee will recuse themselves from the discussion if a school they are associated with is involved. The members are as follows: 

• Jeff Long, vice chancellor and director of athletics, University of Arkansas-Fayetteville (chair)

• Barry Alvarez, director of athletics, University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Lieutenant General Mike Gould, former superintendent of the United States Air Force Academy

• Pat Haden, director of athletics, University of Southern California

• Tom Jernstedt, former NCAA executive vice president

• Oliver Luck, director of athletics, West Virginia University

• Archie Manning, former University of Mississippi quarterback and all-pro NFL quarterback

• Tom Osborne, former head coach and director of athletics, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

• Dan Radakovich, director of athletics, Clemson University

• Condoleezza Rice, Stanford University professor, former Stanford provost and former United States Secretary of State

• Mike Tranghese, former commissioner of the Big East Conference

• Steve Wieberg, former college football reporter, USA Today

• Tyrone Willingham, former head coach of three FBS institutions

College Football Playoff executive director Bill Hancock said in a statement that the finalized committee has the pedigree to adequately serve college football.