Former Missouri Football Coach Gary Pinkel Named to CFP Selection Committee

Michigan athletic Director Warde Manuel name selection committee chair for the 2024 football season.

Former Missouri Tigers football coach Gary Pinkel has been named to the College Football Playoff selection committee for the 2024-25 season. 

Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel was named the committee chair in a serires of moves announced Thursday. He replaces Boo Corrigan, the athletic director at North Carolina State who had held the position at for two seasons. 

Also named to the committee for three-year terms were Washington State athletic director Patrick Chun, former Arizona State defensive lineman Randall McDaniel, Baylor athletic director Mack Rhoades, Virginia athletic director Carla Williams, and Arkansas athletic director Hunter Yurachek. They will replace Mitch Barnhart, Corrigan, Mark Harlan, Gene Taylor, Joe Taylor and Rod West, whose terms expired.

Pinkel, who coached the Tigers from 2001-15, and was also the head coach at Toledo, was named at an interesting time as the playoff is set to expand from four to 12 teams next season. 

2024-25 CFP Playoff Info

• The CFP Selection Committee ranks the top 25 teams at the end of the season, and the 12 playoff participants consist of the six highest ranked conference champions, plus the next six highest ranked teams. 
• The four highest ranked conference champions will be seeded one through four and receive a first-round bye.
•  The schools seeded five through eight will host those seeded nine through 12 in first-round games. 
• The quarterfinals and semifinals rotate annually among six bowl games – the Cotton Bowl Classic, Fiesta Bowl, Orange Bowl, Peach Bowl, Rose Bowl and the Sugar Bowl. 
• This year’s quarterfinals will take place on Dec. 31, 2024 and January 1, 2025, while the semifinals will be January 9-10, 2025.
• The CFP National Championship will be Monday, January 20, 2025, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

The coach had a career record of 191-110-3. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2022, has the most wins of any head coach in the history of both the Toledo Rockets and Missouri Tigers football programs, making him one of only three coaches to hold the distinction at two Division I programs. At the time of his retirement, he stood 20th on the Football Bowl Subdivision all-time wins list.

At Missouri, Pinkel led the Tigers to 10 bowl games in 15 years. In 2007, he led his team to a No. 1 AP Top 25 ranking at the end of the regular season after finishing the year 11-1. The Tigers fell to Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championship, but beat Arkansas in the Cotton Bowl Classic to complete the season ranked No. 4 in the final AP Poll. He took Missouri back to the 2014 Cotton Bowl, where the Tigers defeated Oklahoma State and finished the year ranked No. 5.

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