Haden named to playoff council
College football is setting out to reform the oft-criticized BCS system currently in place — and USC Athletic Director Pat Haden will be a part of the solution.
On the spot · USC athletic director Pat Haden is part of a group that will certainly be scrutinized for its choices of NCAA football playoff teams. – Ralf Cheung | Daily Trojan
The NCAA is set to reform how it decides the nation’s college football champion with a playoff system that will go into effect next season.
Rumors had been flying about the specific members who will be a part of the selection committee, but the entire group of 13 was formally announced on Wednesday — and it includes Haden.
Haden will join the likes of former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and “father of football” Archie Manning, father of NFL quarterbacks Peyton and Eli, in the group that will be responsible for the seeding and placement of the top teams into the year-end playoffs.
“We went in looking at five groups of people because we wanted a broad representation,” College Football Playoff Executive Director Bill Hancock said in a media teleconference on Wednesday. “We have coaches, former players, administrators, journalists … They represent the top level of education.”
Haden, a former Rhodes Scholar, won two national championships during his time as a USC quarterback and also won a Super Bowl with the Los Angeles Rams. He served on USC’s Board of Trustees from 1991 until 2010 before his eventual appointment to oversee the entire athletic program.
Though Haden is undeniably a symbol of USC football, he will not be able to discuss the Trojans when they enter the seeding discussion — assuming, of course, that he’ll remain employed at USC for the entirety of his term on the committee. He will, however, be allowed to discuss the other teams in the Pac-12.
“The committee members do not represent any conference or regions of the country,” Hancock added. “We represent college football.”
Each committee member will be asked to follow a specific conference and gather data about those teams. Most would assume that Haden would then be responsible for the Pac-12, the conference he clearly is closest to, but that does not seem like it will be the case.
“Within the process we will assign many members to gather data about a particular conference,” Hancock said. “Typically it will not be a conference they were associated with.”
Haden already has one of the most difficult athletic positions in the nation, serving as the head of the athletics at USC, a school with much lore and history. The Trojans are in a difficult place right now, with the football program still trying to climb its way out of NCAA sanctions with no permanent head football coach currently in place.
To top that off, he is joining what will most assuredly be one of the most-dissected committees in the history of college athletics.