College Football Roundtable: Makeup of a selection committee will be interesting discussion

At the College Football Roundtable, we ask members of the coverage staff for their opinions about a topic in the sport.

This week's question: It looks more and more as if there will be a selection committee used to select the four "best" teams for a playoff field. What should the selection committee look like?

Mike Huguenin's answer: I think it should look a lot like the basketball tournament selection committee, which has 10 members. I would prefer an 11-person committee, with one representative from each of the 11 FBS leagues. I also think there should be some type of mathematical "formula" that is used by the committee, like the RPI with the NCAA tournament committee. The formula should be made public and only be used as a guide, but I think it should be provided nonetheless. Forget media members, former coaches and current coaches; it's obvious the NCAA and its member schools like the selection committee format, as it is used in every other college sport. Don't make the football committee too small or too large, though; an 11-person committee sounds just right.

[Mike Huguenin: USC QB Matt Barkley leads early Heisman Trophy talk]

Steve Megargee's answer: I don't like restricting the selection committee to a handful of former coaches who might have conflicts of interest. What if Bobby Bowden had to choose between Florida and Florida State at the end of the season? Or what if Vince Dooley were on the selection committee and he had to select among Georgia (his old team), Tennessee (his son's team) and a Pac-12 or Big Ten program. For that reason, I'd prefer a much larger committee of former players, coaches, writers, officials, etc. And I'd also like to include some computer ratings that wouldn't have the biases that often arise from human voters. Frankly, as much as I favor a playoff, I'd like the selection committee to look a whole lot like the current system in place that combines computer services with human voters. I'd just prefer better human voters. My problem with the Harris Poll isn't the concept itself. It's just that every year it seems reports come out showing that a number of Harris Poll voters have faint connections to college football or haven't paid much attention to what's going on that particular season. And current coaches shouldn't be involved at all in determining who reaches a playoff. Their biases are all too apparent.

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