Michigan football greet fans as national champions at Crisler Center
Michigan Athletics athletic director Warde Manuel enters during a celebration of Michigan football’s national championship at Crisler Center in Ann Arbor on Saturday, Jan. 13, 2024.Jacob Hamilton | MLive.com
Warde Manuel will serve his final year on the College Football Playoff selection committee in the biggest seat possible.
The Michigan athletic director on Thursday was appointed to the role of selection committee chair for 2024, charged with leading the 13-member selection committee in their week-by-week rankings of America’s college football teams.
Their goal, of course, is to determine the playoff field. But Manuel’s new role will coincide with major changes coming to the CFP, with the field set to expand from four teams to 12 this fall.
He takes over the committee chair role from North Carolina State athletic director Boo Corrigan, whose three-year term expired.
“My first two years on the committee have been a great experience,” Manuel said in a statement issued Thursday. “I have so much respect for the time and effort each committee member puts in each week because of their commitment to the game. I’m honored to be asked to serve as committee chair.”
Also on Thursday, the CFP management committee announced the appointments of six new members to the selection committee:
• Patrick Chun, Washington State athletic director
• Randall McDaniel, former Arizona State All-American defensive lineman
• Gary Pinkell, former head coach at Missouri and Toledo
• Mack Rhoades, Baylor athletic director
• Carla Williams, Virginia athletic director
• Hunter Yurachek, Arkansas athletic director
Will Shields, a former All-American lineman at Nebraska, also had his term extended for a year. Rounding out the 2024 committee are longtime head coach and AD at Nevada Chris Ault, Navy athletic director Chet Gladchuk, longtime head coach Jim Grobe, Miami University athletic director David Sayler and Montclair State University professor and longtime sportswriter Kelly Whiteside.
“We are delighted that Warde will serve as chair,” Bill Hancock, executive director of the CFP, said in the statement. “He has been a valuable member of the committee (over the) last two years and that experience will serve him well in leading the group.
“As a former student-athlete, he will also be a good spokesperson to let fans know how the committee reached its rankings.”
Manuel’s Wolverines are coming off an unblemished 15-0 season, one that saw Michigan capture a Big Ten title and win the College Football Playoff national championship. But the program was also mired in controversy for much of 2023 thanks to dueling NCAA investigations into potential rules violations.
The probes included a back-and-forth with the Big Ten that even prompted Manuel to miss a selection committee in November. Head coach Jim Harbaugh wound up suspended for three games anyway while the conference said Michigan violated its sportsmanship policy.
Nevertheless, CFP officials stood behind Manuel. Hancock said the Michigan athletic director “brought credibility to the committee, and he still has it.”
This fall, Manuel will serve as the face of the playoff committee.
