Selection Committee for CFB Playoff Expected to Be Finalized by End of 2013

The committee tasked with selecting four teams as part of the new playoff system beginning in 2014 should be finalized by the end of the current season, according to this report by Adam Rittenberg of ESPN.

In the last year of the BCS, only the Top 2 teams will make the national championship game, a formula that has had mixed results to say the least. Soon, however, the number of teams vying to win it all will extend to four, and the decision over who those teams should be will fall in the hands of a selection committee.

The list will ultimately be narrowed down to 12-18 members, and Hancock says the group will meet anywhere between three and five times during the regular season to come up with rankings.

Not unlike the NCAA basketball tournament, the college football committee will simply make a decision based on their own set of criteria, and the numerous polls will not be part of the consideration.

That set of criteria, while not fully established, is sure to be a hot topic amongst fans.

BCS/College Football executive director Bill Hancock says that head-to-head matchups, common opponents and conference championships will all factor in, and that members of the committee will have "every bit of data on every team."

It might not seem like a major undertaking to come up with a selection committee, but these are people who will be heavily scrutinized by fans and media alike. It's important for prospective candidates to be fully aware of what the job entails and to understand the various issues that may arise.

So far, however, the search appears to be going well.

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"We are making calls to prospective members to gauge their interest," Hancock said during the conference commissioners' meeting at Big Ten headquarters. "And those are going very well. We have invited some people to participate. The response has been remarkable. A hundred percent has been excited to get the call, honored to get the call and wants to give something back to the game."

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According to the report, Hancock and the conference commissioners are expected to meet again on Nov. 11 in Washington, D.C.