What will be Utah athletic director's role on College Football Playoff selection committee?

Utah athletic director Mark Harlan is back on the College Football Playoff selection committee after serving in a similar role for the final month of the 2025 season.

The College Football Playoff announced Monday that Harlan, along with several athletic directors, former coaches and a former media member, will make up the 13-person committee responsible for picking which 12 teams qualify for the 2026-27 postseason.

Harlan, who served on the committee late last season after Baylor athletic director Mack Rhoades took a leave of absence for "personal reasons," is one of six athletic directors on the committee, joining Arkansas' Hunter Yurachek, Louisiana’s Bryan Maggard, Nebraska’s Troy Dannen, Middle Tennessee State’s Chris Massaro and Virginia’s Carla Williams. Yurachek also returns as the committee's chair.

Gus Malzahn, Jeff Tedford, Mark Dantonio and Mike Riley are part of the committee as former coaches. Randall McDaniel and Wesley Walls are two former players on the committee, while Ivan Maisel makes up the rest of the committee as a former media member.

Here's a deeper look at Harlan's role with the College Football Playoff selection committee.

Ranking the Top 25 Teams

The selection committee's main goal is to select the 25 best teams in college football, rank the ones for inclusion in the playoff, assign those teams to the bracket and then determine their bowl sites. Examining strength of schedule, head-to-head results and performances against common opponents are part of the rankings process. The committee's rankings are revealed weekly on ESPN during the latter part of the regular season.

The committee orders the top 25 after going through a "listing step" and a "ranking step." In the listing step, committee members first select a pool of teams to be considered. The teams that receive the most votes then move on to the ranking step. After each committee member ranks those teams, a composite ranking is developed.

There are seven rounds of ballots the committee goes through, with the first round focusing on the top four teams that receive first-round byes. Then comes teams ranked Nos. 5-8, then Nos. 9-12, and so on until all 25 are ordered. The five highest-ranked conference champions and the next seven highest-ranked teams will make up the 12-team field.

Statistical data and game film are available to the committee as its members decide which teams are playoff worthy. However, the four principles the committee utilizes include strength of schedule, head-to-head competition, comparative outcomes against common opponents and availability of key players and coaches.

Each committee member is expected to evaluate the data on their own, though the group does engage in "thorough discussion" during the ranking process, according to the official College Football Playoff website.

Role of the Athletic Director

Involving school officials — especially ones who have essentially full control over their institution's athletic department — in the process of determining which programs get to reap the benefits that come with being in the College Football Playoff could easily come across as potentially being a conflict of interest.

However, the committee has guidelines in place to deter athletic directors from swaying the group's opinion in their favor. According to the College Football Playoff website, athletic directors are "recused from voting and discussing their schools." That means Harlan, as well as the other five athletic directors serving on this year's committee, are not allowed to bring up their respective schools during committee meetings.

Instead, the College Football Playoff views the presence of athletic directors as strengthening the group's knowledge of the sport.

Like the rest of the committee members, athletic directors are chosen based on their football expertise, objectivity, ability to evaluate discern information and experience in making decisions under scrutiny, according to the College Football Playoff website.

Term Length for Committee Members

Each committee member serves a three-year term. Harlan, however, can exceed that given he served last season in a partial term.