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This is the year of the playoff. The BCS has died and gone away. Now instead of objective computers mixed with subjective polls, we have moved to a group of people who will subjectively select the four best teams in the country, based on their opinion. It will certainly not end all the debate and bellyaching at the end of the season as coaches and fans state their case for why their team should be included over a different team. Will it be better? We don’t know yet.
Committee Memebers:
Jeff Long – Chairman
Barry Alzavrez – AD Wisconsin
Lieutenant General Mike Gould – Former Superintendent Air Force Academy
Pat Haden – AD University of Southern California
Tom Jernstedt- Former NCAA Executive Vice President
Oliver Luck – AD West Virginia
Archie Manning – Legend
Tom Osborne – Also Legend
Dan Radakovich – AD Clemson
Condoleezza Rice – Stanford Professor, Former Secretary of State
Mike Tranghese – Former Big East Commissioner
Steve Weiberg – Former USA Today CFB writer
Tyrone Willingham – Former Head Coach
This week, we’ll profile the Chairman, Jeff Long.
Jeff Long is currently the Vice Chancellor and Director of Athletics at the University of Arkansas. He has over 35 years of football experience spanning 3 division levels. He started as a player, quarterbacking for Ohio Wesleyan as well as playing defensive back. After his playing days were over he moved on to coaching, starting at Miami of Ohio then moving on to NC State, Duke, and Michigan before switching over to the administrative side of things. He became the assistant to the athletic director at Rice University. After his stint at Rice, he worked his way up through the ranks until becoming the Athletic Director at Eastern Kentucky University. From there he moved on to Oklahoma as the Senior Athletics Director until 2003. His next post was at Pittsburg, also as Athletic Director. From there he became a member of the NCAA Management Council as one of the athletic administrators overseeing the operations and regulation for Division I.
Hot Seat Questions We Would Totally Ask If We Had A Sponsored Hot Seat Segment:
*answers are what we think they would probably say when given the chance
How excited are you to get this playoff thing off the ground?
Real excited. This literally has zero chance of failing. I mean, now that there are four teams involved I don’t see how anyone could complain about being left out with a bunch of people, some with rooting interests, are selecting the teams.
What do you think about that whole Pat Haden thing, huh? Pretty crazy, right?
Yeah, I gotta say that was an interesting decision on his part. I have no idea what he was thinking. There is now this whole group of people that don’t think he could objectively choose football teams because he made the bonehead move of running on to the field during a game to argue with officials. I mean, the real question should be, can an active athletic director be objective when evaluating teams to play in the playoff.
Seriously, what’s the deal with John L. Smith? Was that a practical joke?
The only defense I have, is what else was I supposed to do? Other than the crazy press conferences, and pretty much any other time he spoke, was it really that bad? I mean, come on. Ol Petrino left me in a pretty tough spot. If I had to do it again, I would totally do something else, but hey, you can’t live in the past.
Worked for the internet in Los Angeles before being lured back to Florida by SEC football and the promise of a bourbon bar. When he's not internetting or watching football, he's probably out giving himself 4-footers on the golf course.
