The College Football Playoff has been in effect for over 10 years. For the first 10 years, the playoffs consisted of just four teams, but in the 2024-2025 season, the playoffs expanded to 12 teams for the first time ever. With the four-team playoff, in order to get in, teams practically had to have an undefeated season or have only one very high-quality loss. Now with a 12-team playoff, it opens the door for more teams with all different types of resumes.
The College Football Playoff Selection Committee is a group of executives and former coaches from around college sports that come together to try and unbiased select the teams to play in the playoff. Of course, every year there is also a controversy of a team that didn't get in, or a did that did get in when they shouldn't have, and the selection committee is always the center of that.
Well, as we get ready for the 2025-2026 football season, the committee will be under a large microscope as the playoff has made some changes to automatic qualifiers and other small things. This year's committee will have a lot to look at and will almost undoubtedly upset some people.
So, here is a list of every person on the College Football Playoff Selection Committee for the 2025-2026 season.
Chris Ault
Chris Ault is a former college football coach who spent 28 years coaching at the University of Nevada at three different times, first from 1976 to 1992, then from 1994 to 1995, and finally from 2004 to 2012. Overall, Ault had a 234-108-1 record with the Wolfpack and helped the program move from Division II to Division I-AA in 1978 and then to Division I-A in 1992.
After leaving Nevada, Ault spent two seasons as a consultant for the Kansas City Chiefs and then two seasons coaching in the Italian Football League. Ault has a vast knowledge of college football since he has been coaching it for over 40 years.
Troy Dannen
Troy Dannen is currently the athletics director for the University of Nebraska and is in his second year in the position. His first season in the position was a great success, with many programs having solid seasons, a few conference championships were achieved, and many teams competed at a high level, including a Final Four appearance by the volleyball team and the wrestling team being a national runner-up.
Dannen was once a member of the NCAA Constitution Committee and the Division I Transformation Committee from 2021 to 2023. He was also the chair of the NCAA Football Competition Committee and an executive member of the Football Oversight Committee.
Before heading to Lincoln, Dannen was the athletic director at the University of Washington, helping the Huskies with their transition to the Big Ten and reach their first CFP appearance. Danned was also the athletics director at Tulane from 2015 to 2023 before heading to Washington. Before coming to Tulane, Dannen started his career at the University of Northern Iowa, where he worked from 2008 to 2015 as the athletics director.
Mark Dantonio
Mark Dantonio is another head coach on this selection committee, as he was the head coach at Cincinnati from 2004 to 2006 and Michigan State from 2007 to 2019. Dantonio's career record at both Cincinnati and Michigan State of 132-74. Dantonio led the Spartans to the College Football Playoff in 2015, the first ever berth in the playoff and the only in program history.
Dantonio had a long coaching career, starting at Ohio University and also coaching a Purdue, Ohio State, and Youngstown State. The longtime coach also played college football at South Carolina as a three-year letterman at the defensive back position.
Jeff Long
This is not Jeff Long's first time on the College Football Playoff selection committee. Long spent four years on the committee from 2014 to 2018 and was the committee's initial chairman in the 2014-2015 season, the first year of the playoffs.
Long has truly had a long career in college athletics, working in each Power Five conferences. Most recently, Long spent three years at the University of Kansas from 2018 to 2021, before that was at the University of Arkansas from 2008 to 2017, before that was at the University of Pittsburgh from 2003 to 2007, and it all started at Eastern Kentucky University from 1998 to 2001.
Long also worked a lot in the NCAA, serving with numerous groups including the NCAA Management Council, the NCAA's Sports Wagering Task Force, adn the NCAA Championships/Sports Management Cabinet. He is also a member of the Executive Committee of the Division I-A Athletic Directors' Association. Along with all of that, he also worked as an athletic administrator at Virginia Tech, Rice, and Oklahoma.
Ivan Maisel
Ivan Maisel is a very accomplished sports writer with over 40 years of writing about college football. Maisel also worked for ESPN, along with his sports writing, working with podcasts, radio appearances, and multimedia projects. He was a key contributor to launching the College Football Daily podcast and was an Editor-at-Large of ESPN College Football 150.
In 2021, Maisel was key in helping launch On3 Media, a huge college sports publication, and spent two years writing for the website.
Chris Massaro
Chris Massaro is best known for being the fifth-longest tenured athletics director in FBS, as he has been the Director of Athletics at Middle Tennessee State for the last 20 years. The Blue Raiders have had a lot of success under Massaro, winning 87 different conference championships, 45 in the Sun Belt, and 42 in the Conference USA.
Massaro has also worked on a lot of national boards and committees, as he was appointed to the NCAA Football Issues Committee in 2008 and is a member of the prestigious NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Committee for the 2010-2011 season, and lastly was appointed to the NCAA Division I Leadership Council.
Before becoming the Director of Athletics at MTSU, he worked in different administrative roles at the University of South Carolina.
Randall McDaniel
Randall McDaniel's involvement in college sports started back in 1984 when he was an All-American guard and a four-year starter at Arizona State University. He was a part of the 1986 Rose Bowl team, which was the first appearance in program history for the Sun Devils. He was a College Football Hall of Fame inductee in 2008.
After his college career, McDaniel was selected by the Minnesota Vikings in 1988 in the first round and was a 12-time Pro-Bowl and an All-Pro nine times. McDaniel spent 14 years in the NFL and is known as one of the best offensive linemen to ever play the game. He is a part of the Viking Ring of Honor and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2009.
Mack Rhoades (Committee Chairperson)
Mack Rhoades is another administrator who is still currently working in college sports, as he is in his seventh year as the Baylor Vice President and Director of Intercollegiate Athletics. Rhoades won the NACDA Under Armor AD of the Year award in the 2019-2020 season and the Sports Business Journal Athletics Director of the Year in 2021.
Rhoads has hired three of Baylor's last head football coaches, who have led the Bears to three New Year's Six bowls and were also a part of when the Bears won the National Championship in Men's Basketball in 2021.
Before working for Baylor, Rhoades was the athletics director at Missouri from 2015 to 2016 and the vice president for athletics at Houston from 2009 to 2015. He spent 2006 to 2009 as the AD at Akron, but it all started at Yale, and he also spent time at Marquette and ETEP.
Mike Riley
Mike Riley is a long-time coach who has coached at both the collegiate and professional levels for 48 years. Riley began his career as a college assistant before moving to the Canadian Football League, and his first coaching position came in 1987 with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, winning the Grey Cup title in 1988 and 1990.
Riley went back to the United States and was the head coach in San Antonio in the World League of American Football and then an assistant at USC before becoming the head coach at Oregon State in 1997. Riley's career really took off as he was the head coach for the San Diego Chargers for three seasons, then an assistant for the New Orleans Saints for a season before moving back to college coaching.
Riley returned to Oregon State in 2003 and was there until 2014, collecting 93 wins in 14 seasons. After his second stint at Oregon State, Riley spent three seasons at Nebraska from 2015 to 2017. He finished his coaching career with the United States Football League, coaching the New Jersey Generals for two seasons, finishing in 2023.
David Sayler
David Saylor has been the athletic director at Miami University since 2013, and during his time, Miami (Ohio) has won the Cartwright Award three times, which recognizes the nation's best athletics department in the Mid-American Conference.
Before working at Miami (Ohio), Saylor was the Director of Athletics at South Dakota for two years, and before that, spent time at Oregon State, Bowling Green, Rice, Hartford, Georgia, Houston, and UConn.
Wesley Walls
Wesley Walls is another former college football and NFL player on this committee. Walls was an All-American tight end at Ole Miss in his senior season in 1988 after playing both linebacker and defensive end in his first three seasons. In 2014, Walls was inducted to the College Football Hall of Fame and the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame in 2016.
Walls was drafted in the second round of the 1989 NFL Draft by the San Francisco 49ers and was a Super Bowl Champion in his rookie season when the Niners beat the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXIV. Walls made the move to the New Orleans Saints in 1994 and spent two seasons there before playing for the Carolina Panthers in 1996. Walls spent seven seasons in Carolina and became the franchise leader in touchdowns for a tight end, becoming a five-time Pro-Bowler and a three-time All-Pro selection. He spent his final season with the Green Bay Packers in 2003.
In 2019, Walls was inducted into the Carolina Panthers Hall of Honor.
Carla Williams
Carla Williams is the only woman on the selection committee for this upcoming season. Williams is currently the Director of Athletics at the University of Virginia, and during her seven years, the Cavaliers have won numerous National Championships in sports, including men's basketball (2019), men's lacrosse (2019 and 2021), women's swimming and diving (2021, 2022, and 2023), and men's tennis (2022 and 2023).
Williams was also a former collegiate athlete back in 2987 to 1989 when she was a three-year starter at the University of Georgia for the women's basketball team. When her playing career ended, she worked as an assistant coach for the team before moving to the administrative side of things as Georgia's assistant director of compliance. After her time at Georgia, Williams worked positions at Florida State and Vanderbilt.
In 2004, Williams returned to Georgia, where she worked up the ranks to deputy director of athletics before leaving for Virginia.
Hunter Yuracheck
Hunter Yuracheck is the final member of the selection committee and the final active athletics director on the committee. Yuracheck is currently in his seventh year at Arkansas, where the Razorbacks have had a lot of success under his watchful eye. The Razorbacks have been competitive in one of the toughest conferences in college sports, a part of the SEC with 33 conference championships in the last six years and 25 titles in the last four years.
Before making his way to Arkansas, Yuracheck worked as the Director of Athletics at Coastal Carolina from 2010 to 2015 and the University of Houston from 2015 to 2017. Before those positions, Yuracheck worked in administrative roles at Virginia, Akron, Vanderbilt, Western Carolina, and Wake Forest.