Fans Will Have To Wait An Extra Week In 2019 For Committee Rankings, Bowl Pairings, Championship Game

January 31, 2019 by CFP Staff

Blame the calendar, but virtually everything in college football in 2019 will run a week behind.

Conference championship games won't be played until Friday, December 6 and Saturday, December 7. As a result, the committee's first rankings get pushed back to November 5, with the Final Four pairings and bowl games announced on Sunday, December 8. This past season, "Selection Sunday" was December 2.

The national championship game for the 2019 season will take place at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans on Monday, January 13, a whopping 16 days after the semifinal games which are scheduled to be held at the Peach and Fiesta Bowls on December 28. Typically, there has only been a 7-10 day wait between the semis and the final. It will be interesting to how the extra wait will affect the line at your favorite top online casino.

Thankfully, the kickoff of the regular season will still be centered around Labor Day weekend, with an August 31st slate that includes Florida playing Miami in Orlando, Alabama vs. Duke in Atlanta, Auburn vs. Oregon in Arlington, and Florida State vs. Boise State in Jacksonville. On Labor Day Monday, Notre Dame visits Louisville, but the Irish will already have a game under their belt as Notre Dame and Navy clash in Dublin, Ireland on August 29. If you're looking for an early season best-bet, https://www.worldbookies.com/ says the Alabama-Duke game should produce an absolute destruction of the Blue Devils by the Tide.

Additionally, the playoff committee says 'adios' to three of its committee members whose 3-year term has expired - Jeff Bower, Herb Deromedi and Bobby Johnson. Taking each of their respective places are Terry Mohajir, Ray Odierno and R.C. Slocum.

Mohajir has been the director of athletics at Arkansas State since September, 2012. A football student-athlete at Arkansas State from 1988-91, Mohajir went on to the University of Kansas where he served as a graduate assistant coach and assistant offensive line/game-day special teams coach for the Jayhawks from 1993-96. He shifted his career toward administration prior to leaving KU in 1997 to become assistant athletics director at the University of Missouri, Kansas City (1997-2004) and then senior associate athletics director at Florida Atlantic University (2004-11). Mohajir returned to the University of Kansas as its senior associate athletics director in 2011, before accepting his current role with his alma mater. The current Chairman of the Sun Belt Conference Athletic Director’s Committee, was appointed as the Sun Belt’s representative on the inaugural CFP Athletics Directors Advisory Group and has also held positions on the NCAA Division I Championships Cabinet, the NCAA Division I Football Issues Committee, and the NCAA Division I Football Ad Hoc Recruiting Working Group.

Odierno culminated a nearly 40-year military career as the 38th Chief of Staff of the United States Army from 2011-15. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1976 where he played football in 1972-73. He later received a master’s degree from North Carolina State University. Odierno is also a graduate of the Army and Navy War Colleges and holds a master’s degree from the Naval War College. General Odierno served in Europe as a battalion executive officer and division artillery executive office, including deployment for Operations DESERT SHIELD and DESERT STORM. He later commanded 2nd Battalion, 8th Field Artillery, 7th Infantry Division and the Division Artillery, 1st Cavalry Division. During the War in Kosovo in 1998, Odierno was the Deputy Commanding General for Task Force Hawk in Albania. He went from there in 2003-04 to command the 4th Infantry Division, which was responsible for the capture of Iraq’s deposed dictator, Saddam Hussein, during Operation IRAQI FREEDOM. From 2006-08, he served as the Commanding General, Multi-National Corps – Iraq (III Corps), the operational commander of the surge forces, before his time as the Commanding General, Multi-National Force – Iraq, and, subsequently, United States Forces – Iraq, from 2008-10. Following the successful transition of command in Iraq from 2010-11, General Odierno was the Commander of the United States Joint Forces Command. Other significant assignments include Arms Control Officer, Office of the Secretary of Defense, and Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, where he was the primary military advisories to former U.S. Secretaries of State Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice (a former CFP selection committee member). Gen. Odierno is chairman of USA Football and was named the National Football Foundation’s “Distinguished American” award recipient in 2013, joining the likes of past winners such as Vince Lombardi, Bob Hope, and Alan Page.

Slocum was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2012. The winningest head coach in Texas A&M history, he led the Aggies to a record of 123-47-2 from 1989-2002. Slocum earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees from McNeese State, where he played football from 1963-67. Upon graduation, he began his career as a football coach at Lake Charles High School in Louisiana, before transitioning to the college ranks at Kansas State from 1970-71. Slocum then was hired by Texas A&M as an assistant coach, where he spent the 1972-80 seasons prior to becoming the defensive coordinator at the University of Southern California in 1981. He returned to College Station in 1982 as the defensive coordinator, until assuming the head coaching position in December 1988. In his 14-year head coaching career, Slocum never had a losing season and won four conference championships, including the Big 12 title in 1998. Under Slocum, the Aggies became the first program in Southwest Conference (SWC) history to post three consecutive perfect conference seasons, including four years without losing a SWC game and the highest winning percentage in SWC history (.865). Slocum is a member of the Texas Sports Hall of Fame, Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans and served on the board of the American Football Coaches Association.

Mohajir, Odierno and Slocum join committee holdovers Frank Beamer, Paola Boivin, Joe Castiglione, Ken Hatfield, Chris Howard, Ronnie Lott, Eugene "Gene" Smith, Todd Stansbury and Scott Stricklin. Rob Mullens one again serves as Chair.