Iowa AD Gary Barta chairs new College Football Playoff committee

The new College Football Playoff committee was announced yesterday, and the new chairman hails from Iowa.

In a statement made Wednesday, the committee announced the addition of three new members to serve on three-year terms: former Penn State center John Urschel, Colorado athletic director Rick George and Wyoming athletic director Tom Burman.

Additionally, Iowa athletic director Gary Barta, who just finished his first year on the committee, has been promoted to be the new chairman and will now be the primary source of angst among college football fans each Tuesday evening in November and December.

Previous chairmen include Jeff Long of Arkansas, Kirby Hocutt of Texas Tech, and of course the infamous Rob Mullens of Oregon. No one has said that they are rotating that position by conference, but it sure seems that way. If that’s the case, expect someone from the ACC to take over in a couple of seasons.

Of course, it really won’t matter who is in charge unless the committee considers some sort of advanced metrics outside of wins against ranked teams. Rob Mullens repeatedly talked about “not incenting margin of victory,” and it seems that they took that to mean that a one point win on a missed two point conversion, which both Clemson and Oklahoma had last year, is equal to a dominant win over the same team.

That line of thinking gives the appearance of interest in Cinderella stories over pitting the very best teams against one another, and it waters down the field. Perhaps Mr. Barta will lead a group that looks a little deeper.

Hope for the best.

Roll Tide.