What does Rick George's appointment to the CFP Selection Committee mean for CU?

BOULDER — University of Colorado athletic director Rick George will serve a three-year term on the College Football Playoff Selection Committee, the committee announced Wednesday morning.

The committee is tasked with ranking the top 25 college football teams each week, beginning the first week of November and culminating with the final rankings five weeks later. The final rankings dictate who will play in the College Football Playoff semifinals and the other New Year’s Six bowl games.

Each of the 13 committee members, including George, serves a three-year term. The committee is comprised of one athletic director from each Power Five conference and eight at-large members, which are typically former players, former coaches, former athletic directors or people from similar backgrounds.

The committee’s job is simple but the process of ranking college football’s elite is complicated. Here’s how it works:

1. Each of the committee’s 13 members lists — not ranks — the team’s he or she believes are the 30 best. Every team mentioned on at least three of the members’ lists is eligible to be ranked.
2. Each of the members then lists the six eligible teams he or she believes belong in the top six. The six teams that are mentioned on the most lists are included in the first round of rankings.
3. In the first round, each committe member ranks the six teams. For each first place vote a team recieves, the team gets one point. Second place votes are worth two points, etc. A perfect score, since there are 13 members, would be 13.

   The team with the fewest points is ranked No. 1, the second-fewest is ranked No. 2 and the third-fewest is ranked No. 3. The other three teams remain in the ranking pool.

4. Next, the committee members each pick the six teams they believe are the best, excluding those that have been ranked and those that are still in the ranking pool. The three teams mentioned on the most lists join the three remaining in the ranking pool.
5. Committee members then rank those six teams from best to worst and points are assigned again. The top three become No. 4, No. 5 and No. 6, and the other three remain in the ranking pool.
6. This process repeats until all eligible teams are ranked.
7. Once all teams are ranked, a committee member can ask to re-rank any three-team or larger section of the rankings — for example, 8-10 could be re-ranked, as could 9-15. At least four members must vote to do so.

Since Colorado’s athletic director is on the Selection Committee, it’d seem as though the Buffs would have an advantage. In reality, there are rules in place to avoid taking advantage of the system.

A member is recused from steps of the voting process if the step includes a school that the member has ties to. Ties can mean working for the school, having played for the school, having children who attend the school or many other things.

George, of course, will be recused from listing Colorado as a team to enter the pool and from participating in the ranking step if Colorado is one of the six teams in the pool.

The members also hold discussions between each step to talk through which teams are most deserving to be recognized. Then each member submits his or her confidential ballot.

Colorado could gain an advantage if George talks up CU during the discussions but, again, the protocol prevents unethical members; if a member is recused from ranking a team, he or she cannot be present when that team is being discussed.

Essentially, there’s no way to work the system.

The Pac-12’s representative athletic director would likely promote Pac-12 teams in the discussions, since what’s best for the conference is typically what’s best for its member schools. George can’t talk about Colorado though, so he’ll likely be stuck pumping up the other 11 teams in CU’s conference.

That’s not to say George assuming a position on the College Football Playoff Selection Committee is a bad thing.

It isn’t.

George’s new position sill provide more positive attention to CU and earning the nomination from Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott is a massive vote of confidence. If he becomes the chair sometime in the next few years, that’d be even better.

But while landing George on the committee is incredible for the university and its athletics department, it doesn’t necessarily mean you should expect Colorado to see a bump in the rankings.