The College Football Playoff (CFP) Management Committee has appointed Baylor University Athletics Director Mack Rhoades as selection committee chair for the 2025 football season, announced today by Rich Clark, executive director of the CFP. Rhoades replaces Warde Manuel, the athletics director at the University of Michigan, who served as chair last season.
Clark also announced that the Management Committee has appointed Mark Dantonio, former head coach at the University of Cincinnati and Michigan State University; Damon Evans, athletics director at the University of Maryland; Ivan Maisel, former sportswriter for The Atlanta Constitution, Sports Illustrated, the Dallas Morning News, Newsday, ESPN and On3; Chris Massaro, athletics director at Middle Tennessee State University; and Wesley Walls, former All-American tight end from Ole Miss, to the CFP Selection Committee.
The new members will begin three-year terms starting this spring. They will replace Chet Gladchuk, Jim Grobe, Manuel, Will Shields and Kelly Whiteside, whose terms have expired. Due to other commitments, Gary Pinkel stepped down following the completion of his first year on the committee. All six departing members will join a distinguished group of alumni.
Clark also announced that the management committee has asked Steve Wieberg, former CFP Selection Committee member (2014-17) and longtime writer for USA TODAY, to return for a one-year term.
“The additions of Mark, Damon, Ivan, Chris and Wesley will bring some great new voices to the selection committee as we enter our 12th season,” Clark said. “Each of them has tremendous knowledge, passion and dedication to college football, along with outstanding character and integrity. Their skills and wide variety of experiences—from coaches and athletes to university leaders and journalists—will ensure that they will transition in with our returning members successfully. We also appreciate Steve returning for the upcoming season. His understanding and wisdom from his previous term will be a real benefit to the group.”
“Finally, we are pleased that Mack will serve as chair,” Clark added. “He was an outstanding member of the committee last year, and his demeanor and personality will serve him well in leading the group.
“I am truly honored to be asked to serve as chair of the selection committee, Rhoades said. “It was a privilege to join such a dedicated group of individuals last year, and I look forward to continuing that work again this fall. Each and every member of the committee is passionate about college football and focused on ensuring the integrity and excellence of the playoff process."
Mack Rhoades is in his eighth year at Baylor as its Vice President & Director of Athletics. NACDA’s 2019-20 Under Armour AD of the Year and Sports Business Journal’s 2021 Athletics Director of the Year, Rhoades has helped direct the Bears to 24 Big 12 championships and eight national crowns. He has hired three football coaches who led their respective teams to New Year’s Six bowl games and saw the Baylor men’s basketball team claim the 2021 NCAA Championship. His vision of “Preparing Champions for Life” at Baylor seeks to enrich the student-athlete experience through academic achievement, athletic success, character formation and spiritual growth.
Rhoades has also helped revamp the campus through a bevy of facility projects, including the opening of the new Paul and Alejandra Foster Pavilion, a $212.6 million dollar basketball facility on the banks of the Brazos River. In the fall of 2024, the Bears opened the Fudge Family Development Center, a building that serves as the home of the Baylor football program.
Rhoades previously served as athletics director at Missouri (2015-16), vice president for athletics at Houston (2009-15) and athletics director at Akron (2006-09). He began his career at Yale before spending time at Marquette and UTEP. Rhoades graduated from the University of Arizona and earned a master’s degree from Indiana University.
Mark Dantonio served as the head coach at the University of Cincinnati from 2004-06 and Michigan State University from 2007-19, compiling a career record of 132-74. In his 13 seasons at Michigan State, he led the Spartans to 12 bowl games, three Big Ten Conference titles and a berth in the 2015 College Football Playoff. His 114 career wins in East Lansing made him the winningest head coach in Michigan State history, and in 2015, he became the first head coach in Big Ten history to win at least 11 games in five of six seasons. Based on these career accomplishments, Dantonio was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame and the Michigan State Ring of Honor in 2024.
Dantonio began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Ohio University before making stops at Purdue, Ohio State (where he served two years under Earle Bruce) and five years on Jim Tressel’s staff at Youngstown State. In 1991, he joined Glen Mason’s staff at Kansas before Nick Saban became the head coach at Michigan State in 1995 and brought Dantonio on staff. In 2001, Dantonio reunited with Tressel at Ohio State as the Buckeyes’ defensive coordinator for three seasons, including a national championship campaign in 2002.
Dantonio grew up in Ohio as an all-state safety before becoming a three-year letterman as a defensive back at the University of South Carolina. He received his bachelor’s degree from South Carolina and his master’s degree from Ohio University.
Damon Evans is in his seventh year at the University of Maryland as its Director of Athletics. During Evans’s entire 11-year tenure at Maryland, the Terrapins have claimed 49 Big Ten championships and tournament titles, the third-most of any conference institution during that span, and seven national championships. In October of 2021, Evans was named to the NCAA Transformation Committee, which is charged with making recommendations to the NCAA Board of Directors on how to address Division I's most significant challenges and more effectively meet the needs of current and future student-athletes.
Evans originally joined the staff at Maryland in December 2014 as Executive Athletic Director and Chief Financial Officer prior to his appointment as Director of Athletics in 2018. Before arriving to College Park, he made previous stops as managing partner at Evolution Sports Partners, vice president of fundraising at IMG College, and vice president of business development at the Markley Group.
Evans served as the director of athletics at the University of Georgia from 2004-10. The Bulldogs won 13 national championships and 19 SEC titles during Evans’ tenure. A four-year starter on Georgia’s football team, Evans played in three bowl games under legendary head coach Vince Dooley. He earned a bachelor’s degree in finance in 1992 and a master’s degree of education in sports management in 1994, both from Georgia.
Ivan Maisel is an acclaimed sportswriter with over four decades of experience covering college football. A graduate of Stanford University, Maisel began his career at The Atlanta Constitution in 1981, where he covered Clemson’s run to the national championship. Sports Illustrated hired him as a reporter the following year. He began covering national college football in 1987 for the Dallas Morning News, then moved to Newsday in 1994. He rejoined Sports Illustrated in 1997. In 2002, ESPN.com hired him as its first college football writer.
Maisel’s work at ESPN extended beyond traditional writing, as he contributed coverage through podcasts, radio appearances and multimedia projects. He played a key role in launching ESPN’s College Football Daily podcast and served as the Editor-at-Large of ESPN College Football 150, the multi-platform project commemorating the 2019 sesquicentennial of the sport. In that role, Maisel served as the writer and host of “Down & Distance”, a podcast series, as a producer of “The American Game” and “The Greatest”, two 11-week series, and as a producer of “Saturdays in the South,” an eight-week series on the SEC Network.
In 2021, Maisel helped launch On3 Media and spent two years writing for its website.
Maisel has been honored nine times for Best Story by the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA), most recently for a 2022 remembrance of the late football coach Mike Leach. The FWAA honored Maisel in 2016 with the Bert McGrane Award, the organization’s Hall of Fame.
Chris Massaro has spent the past 20 years as the Director of Athletics at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU), the fifth-longest tenured AD in the FBS. Under his leadership, the Blue Raiders have brought home 87 conference championships (including 45 in the Sun Belt and 42 in Conference USA) and three individual national championships. The 42 CUSA titles are the most by any school since the Blue Raiders entered the league in 2013.
Along with growing the Middle Tennessee athletic program, Massaro has been instrumental on numerous national boards and committees. He was appointed to the NCAA Football Issues Committee in March 2008, served as a member of the prestigious NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Committee for the 2010-11 season, and was appointed to the NCAA Division I Leadership Council.
Before joining MTSU, Massaro spent nearly two decades in various administrative roles at the University of South Carolina, beginning in the ticket office and rising through the ranks to senior associated athletics director during that time. Massaro earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Northern Colorado and his master’s degree from Ohio University. At UNC, Massaro was a five-year football team member.
Wesley Walls was an All-American tight end as a senior at the University of Mississippi in 1988 after excelling as a linebacker and defensive end his first three seasons in Oxford. For his outstanding play at Ole Miss, he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2014 and the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame in 2016.
Selected by the San Francisco 49ers in the second round of the 1989 NFL Draft, Walls’ rookie season ended with a Super Bowl XXIV victory over the Denver Broncos. He spent the 1994-95 seasons with the New Orleans Saints before joining the Carolina Panthers in 1996. Over seven seasons in Carolina, Walls became the franchise's all-time leader in touchdowns for a tight end, earning five Pro Bowl selections and three All-Pro honors along the way. Walls spent the 2003 season with the Green Bay Packers and finished his 15-season career with 450 receptions, 5,291 receiving yards, and 54 touchdowns. In 2019, the Carolina Panthers inducted Walls into the team's Hall of Honor.
Post-retirement, Walls has been involved in business ventures and charitable work in the Charlotte community and his home state of Mississippi, cementing his legacy both on and off the field. An academic All-American, Walls earned a Bachelor of Engineering degree from the University of Mississippi.
Steve Wieberg was a “founder” of USA TODAY as a member of its startup staff in 1982 and spent 30 years covering college football and basketball and NCAA issues until his departure in 2012. He also covered eight Summer and Winter Olympics, three baseball World Series and such major non-sports stories as the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City; tornado devastation in Kansas, Oklahoma and Joplin, Missouri.; and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Wieberg covered 18 college football national championship games and every men’s basketball Final Four from 1983-2012. During his career, he served as president of the U.S. Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) from 1996-97, on the board of directors of the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) and on the honors courts (selection committees) of both the College Football Hall of Fame and the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
During his career, Wieberg won more than two dozen national writing awards from the FWAA, the USBWA and Associated Press Sports Editors. He was inducted into the USBWA Hall of Fame in 2008 and was awarded the Bert McGrane Award for distinguished service to the FWAA, the organization’s highest honor.
A graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, Wieberg began his career at The Mexico(Missouri) Ledger in 1976. He moved to TheSpringfield (Missouri) News-Leader as a sports reporter and Sunday sports editor in 1981 before being recruited to help launch USA TODAY. After 36 years in journalism, he spent 10 years as a senior writer and editor in the public affairs department of the Kansas City (Missouri) Public Library.
The CFP selection committee is responsible for ranking the 25 teams in the playoff and assigning the top 12 participants to the playoff bracket. The committee meets in-person beginning late in the football season and produces a ranking of the top 25 teams each week leading up to its final selections. The other returning selection committee members are Chris Ault (longtime head coach and athletics director, University of Nevada), Randall McDaniel (former All-American offensive lineman, Arizona State University), Mike Riley (former head coach, Oregon State Univeristy and the University Nebraska), David Sayler (athletics director, Miami University, Ohio), Carla Williams (athletics director, University of Virginia; and Hunter Yurachek(athletics director, University of Arkansas).
Clark also announced that the Management Committee has appointed Mark Dantonio, former head coach at the University of Cincinnati and Michigan State University; Damon Evans, athletics director at the University of Maryland; Ivan Maisel, former sportswriter for The Atlanta Constitution, Sports Illustrated, the Dallas Morning News, Newsday, ESPN and On3; Chris Massaro, athletics director at Middle Tennessee State University; and Wesley Walls, former All-American tight end from Ole Miss, to the CFP Selection Committee.
The new members will begin three-year terms starting this spring. They will replace Chet Gladchuk, Jim Grobe, Manuel, Will Shields and Kelly Whiteside, whose terms have expired. Due to other commitments, Gary Pinkel stepped down following the completion of his first year on the committee. All six departing members will join a distinguished group of alumni.
Clark also announced that the management committee has asked Steve Wieberg, former CFP Selection Committee member (2014-17) and longtime writer for USA TODAY, to return for a one-year term.
“The additions of Mark, Damon, Ivan, Chris and Wesley will bring some great new voices to the selection committee as we enter our 12th season,” Clark said. “Each of them has tremendous knowledge, passion and dedication to college football, along with outstanding character and integrity. Their skills and wide variety of experiences—from coaches and athletes to university leaders and journalists—will ensure that they will transition in with our returning members successfully. We also appreciate Steve returning for the upcoming season. His understanding and wisdom from his previous term will be a real benefit to the group.”
“Finally, we are pleased that Mack will serve as chair,” Clark added. “He was an outstanding member of the committee last year, and his demeanor and personality will serve him well in leading the group.
“I am truly honored to be asked to serve as chair of the selection committee, Rhoades said. “It was a privilege to join such a dedicated group of individuals last year, and I look forward to continuing that work again this fall. Each and every member of the committee is passionate about college football and focused on ensuring the integrity and excellence of the playoff process."
Mack Rhoades is in his eighth year at Baylor as its Vice President & Director of Athletics. NACDA’s 2019-20 Under Armour AD of the Year and Sports Business Journal’s 2021 Athletics Director of the Year, Rhoades has helped direct the Bears to 24 Big 12 championships and eight national crowns. He has hired three football coaches who led their respective teams to New Year’s Six bowl games and saw the Baylor men’s basketball team claim the 2021 NCAA Championship. His vision of “Preparing Champions for Life” at Baylor seeks to enrich the student-athlete experience through academic achievement, athletic success, character formation and spiritual growth.
Rhoades has also helped revamp the campus through a bevy of facility projects, including the opening of the new Paul and Alejandra Foster Pavilion, a $212.6 million dollar basketball facility on the banks of the Brazos River. In the fall of 2024, the Bears opened the Fudge Family Development Center, a building that serves as the home of the Baylor football program.
Rhoades previously served as athletics director at Missouri (2015-16), vice president for athletics at Houston (2009-15) and athletics director at Akron (2006-09). He began his career at Yale before spending time at Marquette and UTEP. Rhoades graduated from the University of Arizona and earned a master’s degree from Indiana University.
Mark Dantonio served as the head coach at the University of Cincinnati from 2004-06 and Michigan State University from 2007-19, compiling a career record of 132-74. In his 13 seasons at Michigan State, he led the Spartans to 12 bowl games, three Big Ten Conference titles and a berth in the 2015 College Football Playoff. His 114 career wins in East Lansing made him the winningest head coach in Michigan State history, and in 2015, he became the first head coach in Big Ten history to win at least 11 games in five of six seasons. Based on these career accomplishments, Dantonio was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame and the Michigan State Ring of Honor in 2024.
Dantonio began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Ohio University before making stops at Purdue, Ohio State (where he served two years under Earle Bruce) and five years on Jim Tressel’s staff at Youngstown State. In 1991, he joined Glen Mason’s staff at Kansas before Nick Saban became the head coach at Michigan State in 1995 and brought Dantonio on staff. In 2001, Dantonio reunited with Tressel at Ohio State as the Buckeyes’ defensive coordinator for three seasons, including a national championship campaign in 2002.
Dantonio grew up in Ohio as an all-state safety before becoming a three-year letterman as a defensive back at the University of South Carolina. He received his bachelor’s degree from South Carolina and his master’s degree from Ohio University.
Damon Evans is in his seventh year at the University of Maryland as its Director of Athletics. During Evans’s entire 11-year tenure at Maryland, the Terrapins have claimed 49 Big Ten championships and tournament titles, the third-most of any conference institution during that span, and seven national championships. In October of 2021, Evans was named to the NCAA Transformation Committee, which is charged with making recommendations to the NCAA Board of Directors on how to address Division I's most significant challenges and more effectively meet the needs of current and future student-athletes.
Evans originally joined the staff at Maryland in December 2014 as Executive Athletic Director and Chief Financial Officer prior to his appointment as Director of Athletics in 2018. Before arriving to College Park, he made previous stops as managing partner at Evolution Sports Partners, vice president of fundraising at IMG College, and vice president of business development at the Markley Group.
Evans served as the director of athletics at the University of Georgia from 2004-10. The Bulldogs won 13 national championships and 19 SEC titles during Evans’ tenure. A four-year starter on Georgia’s football team, Evans played in three bowl games under legendary head coach Vince Dooley. He earned a bachelor’s degree in finance in 1992 and a master’s degree of education in sports management in 1994, both from Georgia.
Ivan Maisel is an acclaimed sportswriter with over four decades of experience covering college football. A graduate of Stanford University, Maisel began his career at The Atlanta Constitution in 1981, where he covered Clemson’s run to the national championship. Sports Illustrated hired him as a reporter the following year. He began covering national college football in 1987 for the Dallas Morning News, then moved to Newsday in 1994. He rejoined Sports Illustrated in 1997. In 2002, ESPN.com hired him as its first college football writer.
Maisel’s work at ESPN extended beyond traditional writing, as he contributed coverage through podcasts, radio appearances and multimedia projects. He played a key role in launching ESPN’s College Football Daily podcast and served as the Editor-at-Large of ESPN College Football 150, the multi-platform project commemorating the 2019 sesquicentennial of the sport. In that role, Maisel served as the writer and host of “Down & Distance”, a podcast series, as a producer of “The American Game” and “The Greatest”, two 11-week series, and as a producer of “Saturdays in the South,” an eight-week series on the SEC Network.
In 2021, Maisel helped launch On3 Media and spent two years writing for its website.
Maisel has been honored nine times for Best Story by the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA), most recently for a 2022 remembrance of the late football coach Mike Leach. The FWAA honored Maisel in 2016 with the Bert McGrane Award, the organization’s Hall of Fame.
Chris Massaro has spent the past 20 years as the Director of Athletics at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU), the fifth-longest tenured AD in the FBS. Under his leadership, the Blue Raiders have brought home 87 conference championships (including 45 in the Sun Belt and 42 in Conference USA) and three individual national championships. The 42 CUSA titles are the most by any school since the Blue Raiders entered the league in 2013.
Along with growing the Middle Tennessee athletic program, Massaro has been instrumental on numerous national boards and committees. He was appointed to the NCAA Football Issues Committee in March 2008, served as a member of the prestigious NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Committee for the 2010-11 season, and was appointed to the NCAA Division I Leadership Council.
Before joining MTSU, Massaro spent nearly two decades in various administrative roles at the University of South Carolina, beginning in the ticket office and rising through the ranks to senior associated athletics director during that time. Massaro earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Northern Colorado and his master’s degree from Ohio University. At UNC, Massaro was a five-year football team member.
Wesley Walls was an All-American tight end as a senior at the University of Mississippi in 1988 after excelling as a linebacker and defensive end his first three seasons in Oxford. For his outstanding play at Ole Miss, he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2014 and the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame in 2016.
Selected by the San Francisco 49ers in the second round of the 1989 NFL Draft, Walls’ rookie season ended with a Super Bowl XXIV victory over the Denver Broncos. He spent the 1994-95 seasons with the New Orleans Saints before joining the Carolina Panthers in 1996. Over seven seasons in Carolina, Walls became the franchise's all-time leader in touchdowns for a tight end, earning five Pro Bowl selections and three All-Pro honors along the way. Walls spent the 2003 season with the Green Bay Packers and finished his 15-season career with 450 receptions, 5,291 receiving yards, and 54 touchdowns. In 2019, the Carolina Panthers inducted Walls into the team's Hall of Honor.
Post-retirement, Walls has been involved in business ventures and charitable work in the Charlotte community and his home state of Mississippi, cementing his legacy both on and off the field. An academic All-American, Walls earned a Bachelor of Engineering degree from the University of Mississippi.
Steve Wieberg was a “founder” of USA TODAY as a member of its startup staff in 1982 and spent 30 years covering college football and basketball and NCAA issues until his departure in 2012. He also covered eight Summer and Winter Olympics, three baseball World Series and such major non-sports stories as the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City; tornado devastation in Kansas, Oklahoma and Joplin, Missouri.; and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Wieberg covered 18 college football national championship games and every men’s basketball Final Four from 1983-2012. During his career, he served as president of the U.S. Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) from 1996-97, on the board of directors of the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) and on the honors courts (selection committees) of both the College Football Hall of Fame and the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
During his career, Wieberg won more than two dozen national writing awards from the FWAA, the USBWA and Associated Press Sports Editors. He was inducted into the USBWA Hall of Fame in 2008 and was awarded the Bert McGrane Award for distinguished service to the FWAA, the organization’s highest honor.
A graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, Wieberg began his career at The Mexico(Missouri) Ledger in 1976. He moved to TheSpringfield (Missouri) News-Leader as a sports reporter and Sunday sports editor in 1981 before being recruited to help launch USA TODAY. After 36 years in journalism, he spent 10 years as a senior writer and editor in the public affairs department of the Kansas City (Missouri) Public Library.
The CFP selection committee is responsible for ranking the 25 teams in the playoff and assigning the top 12 participants to the playoff bracket. The committee meets in-person beginning late in the football season and produces a ranking of the top 25 teams each week leading up to its final selections. The other returning selection committee members are Chris Ault (longtime head coach and athletics director, University of Nevada), Randall McDaniel (former All-American offensive lineman, Arizona State University), Mike Riley (former head coach, Oregon State Univeristy and the University Nebraska), David Sayler (athletics director, Miami University, Ohio), Carla Williams (athletics director, University of Virginia; and Hunter Yurachek(athletics director, University of Arkansas).
