Four New Members Added to College Football Playoff Selection Committee

Bill Hancock, Executive Director of the College Football Playoff (CFP), today announced that Jeff Bower, Lloyd Carr, Herb Deromedi and Rob Mullens have been appointed to the selection committee. The appointments were made by the CFP Management Committee.

Two are in the College Football Hall of Fame, three were highly successful head coaches at the Football Bowl Subdivision level, and another is one of the nation’s outstanding athletics directors.

The four new members will replace Mike Gould, Pat Haden, Tom Osborne and Mike Tranghese, charter members of the committee whose terms expired after the 2015-16 season. Each of the new members will begin a three-year term this spring.

“We are delighted that Jeff, Lloyd, Herb and Rob are joining the committee,” Hancock said. “Throughout the selection process, it was essential that the four new members have an in-depth knowledge and passion for college football. Each of these four fit that description perfectly. They will continue the high integrity of the committee.”

Jeff Bower spent 29 years at the University of Southern Mississippi as a quarterback, assistant coach and head coach.  He led the Golden Eagles to 14 straight winning seasons, and four Conference USA championships – in 1996, 1997, 1999 and 2003 – and six bowl victories. He was a three-time C-USA coach-of-the-year and, in 2004, the conference named him “Coach of the Decade.”

Bower earned both his undergraduate degree and M.B.A. from Southern Miss. He was an assistant coach (quarterbacks) at Southern Methodist University (1982-86) and Wake Forest University (1987) and served Oklahoma State University as its offensive coordinator in 1989 before heading back to his alma mater as head coach in 1990.

He was inducted into the Southern Miss Sports Hall of Fame in 1988 and named the 2003 Johnny Vaught All-American Head Coach by the All-American Football Foundation.

Former Michigan head coach (1995-2007), Lloyd Carr, brings decades of coaching and playing experience to the committee. He led the Wolverines to a share of the 1997 national championship, five Big Ten titles (1997, 1998, 2000, 2003 and 2004) and six bowl victories. Carr finished his career in Ann Arbor with 122 wins, third most in school history. His extensive award list includes AFCA Coach of the Year, Walter Camp Coach of the Year, Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year and the George Munger and Paul “Bear” Bryant Awards.

A two-sport athlete, Carr played baseball and football for Missouri from 1964-66 before transferring to Northern Michigan where he quarterbacked the Wildcats to an undefeated season in 1967. He earned his bachelor’s degree in education from Northern Michigan in 1968 and his master’s in education administration the same year. He also holds an honorary degree from Albion College.

He also served as defensive backs coach and defensive coordinator at Michigan from 1980 until he was elevated to head coach.

Carr was inducted into the Northern Michigan University Sports Hall of Fame in 1996, named to the College Football Hall of Fame in 2011 and inducted into the University Of Michigan Athletic Hall Of Honor in 2015.

Herb Deromedi spent 38 years at Central Michigan University and retired as the winningest coach in Mid-American Conference history with an overall record of 110-55-10. Named MAC Coach of the Year in 1980 and 1990, Deromedi led the Chippewas as head coach from 1978 to 1993.  During that span, CMU won its conference championship in 1979, 1980 and 1990.

He served as director of athletics at Central Michigan from 1994-2006 and chaired the NCAA Football Rules Committee in 2003.  He has also served on the Football Issues Committee and was a Harris Poll voter.  He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Michigan.

Deromedi is a member of the Central Michigan University Athletic Hall of Fame (2000), the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame (2004), the College Football Hall of Fame (2007) and the Mid-American Conference Hall of Fame (2012).

Rob Mullens, director of athletics at the University of Oregon, has guided the Ducks to tremendous success both on and off the field.  Since being appointed in 2010, Oregon had its best finish ever in the Directors’ Cup, a national assessment of an athletic department’s overall achievements. In addition, Oregon now averages more than 100 academic all-conference selections annually.

Mullens graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business administration from West Virginia University in 1991 and also received his master’s degree in sports management in 1993. After a brief stint working as an accountant for Ernst & Young, he quickly moved up through the ranks in athletic administration, with stops at the University of Miami, Fla. (1994-96), University of Maryland (1996-2002) and University of Kentucky (2002-2010).

The CFP Selection Committee is responsible for selecting the top four teams in the playoff and assigning them to semifinal games as well as placing the next group of teams in the remaining New Year’s bowls. The Committee meets in-person beginning midway through the football season and produces a weekly ranking of the top 25 teams leading up to its final selections.