U-M AD Manuel named chair of CFP committee
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Heather Dinich, ESPN Senior Writer
After a tumultuous but successful season that culminated with a national championship, Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel has been named the chair of the College Football Playoff selection committee for the first season of the 12-team playoff, the CFP announced Thursday.
“We are delighted that Warde will serve as chair,” CFP executive director Bill Hancock said in a statement. “He has been a valuable member of the committee 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, a former defensive end at Michigan, will replace NC State athletic director Boo Corrigan, whose term has expired after serving as the group’s chair for the past two seasons. The CFP also announced six new members to the 13-member group tasked with selecting the teams for the playoff, including former Minnesota Vikings great Randall McDaniel, one of the most decorated offensive linemen in NFL history.
Other new committee members include Washington State athletic director Pat Chun; former Toledo and Missouri coach Gary Pinkel; Baylor athletic director Mack Rhoades; Virginia athletic director Carla Williams; and Arkansas athletic director Hunter Yurachek.
The new members will begin their three-year terms this spring. They will replace Corrigan, Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart, Utah athletic director Mark Harlan, Kansas State athletic director Gene Taylor, former Hall of Fame coach Joe Taylor and former Notre Dame linebacker and tight end Rod West, whose terms have expired. The CFP extended the term of former All-American Nebraska lineman Will Shields for an additional year.
In addition to running the weekly meetings this fall, Manuel’s role as the committee chair places him in the kind of public role he has typically shied away from, as he is often reluctant to take the spotlight away from the coaches and athletes in his program.
Manuel has been unable to avoid the public eye recently, though, as his program was simultaneously the No. 1 team in the country and under two separate NCAA investigations, which are ongoing. He also just emerged from one of the most high-profile coaching searches in the country, as former coach Jim Harbaugh left to become the head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers.
Manuel promoted offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore to the head-coaching job, but the entire athletic department is still under the cloud of the NCAA’s dueling investigations. The first is for alleged recruiting violations under Harbaugh during the COVID-19 recruiting dead period, and the second is for allegations of a widespread cheating scandal from prohibited off-campus scouting and sign stealing. The two have so far amounted to Harbaugh being suspended for half of the 2023 regular season.
As controversial as Michigan’s season was last year, the unprecedented allegations against a CFP team with its leader on the committee didn’t impact the group’s discussions last fall. The CFP reiterated that as long as Michigan was eligible for the postseason, it was eligible to be ranked by the committee. Manuel missed only one CFP meeting last fall because of the sign-stealing scandal. Per CFP policy, he also recused himself from the room when voting and debates about Michigan took place.
As the committee chair, Manuel will be the sole voice in the group permitted to speak on the record about the committee’s process during a season of enormous change. Unlike in the four-team playoff, which has existed for the past decade, the 12-team field will likely include the five highest-ranked conference champions and the next seven highest-ranked teams. The four highest-ranked conference champions will earn the top four seeds and a first-round bye. The seeding and final bracket could look different from the committee’s ranking — a new process of explanation for Manuel.
“My first two years on the committee have been a great experience,” Manuel said in a statement. “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.”
Although the playoff field and format have changed, the selection committee’s role has not. The new members will continue to use mostly the same protocol to determine their weekly top 25 ranking and ultimately the final teams on Selection Day. If there are any changes to the way the teams are selected, it will be determined at the CFP’s annual spring meeting in April.
Incoming committee member Chun, who is entering his sixth year as athletic director at Washington State, is representing the remains of the Pac-12 and a school that has been part of the CFP’s inability to formally approve a 5+7 model. Conferences take turns nominating committee members, and the dwindling league is down to Washington State and Oregon State after a mass exodus of conference realignment. Washington State president Kirk Schulz is on the CFP’s board of managers, which consists of 11 presidents and chancellors who have the ultimate authority over the playoff. They need a unanimous vote to approve the 5+7 model, and although it is expected eventually, it hasn’t happened yet because of the Pac-12’s precarious position.
Before his arrival at Washington State, Chun spent 5½ years as athletic director at FAU and the previous 15 years at his alma mater, Ohio State. Chun, a native of Strongsville, Ohio, earned his bachelor’s degree from Ohio State and a master’s degree from Duquesne.
McDaniel was an All-American guard and four-year starter (1984-87) for Arizona State and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2008. He was selected by the Vikings in the first round of the 1988 NFL draft and made an NFL-record 12 consecutive trips to the Pro Bowl at left guard. He is a member of the Vikings Ring of Honor and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2009.
Although there are several former coaches and players in the group, seven sitting athletic directors representing seven conferences (including one from each Power 5 league) make up the majority. Williams is in her seventh year at Virginia but also has extensive experience as a former athlete. She was a three-year starter and All-SEC guard for the Georgia women’s basketball team (1987-89). She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Georgia and a doctorate from Florida State.
Yurachek is in his seventh year at Arkansas and is also a member of the NCAA’s football oversight committee, a role he has held since 2021 after serving on the football competition committee. Yurachek earned his bachelor’s degree at Guilford College in 1990, where he was a four-year letter winner in basketball. He earned his master’s degree in sports administration from Richmond in 1994.
Rhoades, who is entering his seventh year as Baylor’s athletic director, graduated from Arizona and earned his master’s degree from Indiana. He was previously athletic director at Missouri (2015-16), where fellow committee member Pinkel coached from 2001 to 2015. Pinkel has the most wins of any head coach in the history of both Toledo and Mizzou. Pinkel, who has since retired, was a tight end at Kent State. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2022.
The other returning committee members are former Nevada coach Chris Ault, Navy athletic director Chet Gladchuk, former Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe, Miami (Ohio) athletic director David Sayler, former sportswriter Kelly Whiteside, Manuel and Shields.
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Ryan S. Clark
Many of Mikko Rantanen’s greatest moments have come in a Colorado Avalanche sweater. It’s just that the most defining moment of his career came at their expense.
It wasn’t enough that the Dallas Stars were trailing by two goals. It was also the fact that Rantanen scored a hat trick in a string of four unanswered goals that saw his current team, the host Stars, eliminate his old team, the Avalanche, in a 4-2 win Saturday in Game 7 of the Western Conference quarterfinals at the American Airlines Center.
“Obviously, the feeling was incredible to win a series,” Rantanen said in his postgame media availability. “This series was not exactly what I expected. I expected a seven-game series, even before Game 1. The ups and downs in the series. … Belief was there with the group the whole time. Obviously, I was able to make a pay to get the first one and the crowd started to roll.”
The Stars, attempting to reach the conference finals a third straight time, will advance to the semifinal round in which they will await the winner of series featuring the St. Louis Blues and Winnipeg Jets. That encounter will be decided Sunday in Game 7 in Winnipeg.
Soon, the Stars’ collective focus will shift to another Central Division foe. But for now? The attention before, during, and after the game, was on Rantanen.
Part of what made the Avalanche-Stars series arguably the most intriguing first-round series in either conference was the fact it placed two 100-point teams that are in championship window against each other. But, it also came with several subplots with the notable being the team that traded quite a bit to land Rantanen — with the hope he could win them a Stanley Cup now — needed him to defeat the team that he won a championship with back in 2022.
With one assist through the first four games, there was a discussion about if the Stars could manage to win with a sputtering Rantanen on top of the fact they were already without two of their best players in defenseman Miro Heiskanen and forward Jason Robertson.
Rantanen responded with a three-point performance in Game 5, and a four-point performance in Game 6 only to then have a hand in each goal on Saturday. His first goal came on the power-play with 12:12 remaining in the third period when he found enough space to fire a wrist shot that beat MacKenzie Blackwood.
Then came the game-tying goal and the significance it carried. The Stars went on the power play went Avalanche forward Jack Drury was called for holding. Drury part of the trade package the Carolina Hurricanes used to get Rantanen in late January before they would trade him to the Stars.
Drury’s penalty opened the door for Rantanen to score a game-tying goal that might be one of, if not, his signature salvo. Rantanen skated into the Avalanche zone in a 1-on-3 before he split two players before going around the net for a wrap-around goal that went off the skate of Samuel Girard with 6:14 left.
Three minutes later, the Stars received another power-play opportunity that saw Rantanen along with another former Avalanche forward in Matt Duchene work together to find Wyatt Johnston for the game-winning goal.
In the final minute, the Avalanche pulled Blackwood in the attempt to grab a late goal and force over time. Instead? Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger withstood a barrage that officially ended when Stars forward Tyler Seguin got the puck out of the zone only for Rantanen to skate in on an open net for the hat trick with three seconds left.
“I couldn’t care less who scored for them, I really couldn’t,” Avalanche captain and left winger Gabriel Landeskog said when asked about what it was like to watch Rantanen score a hat trick. “Mikko is one of my best friends and I love him, but I couldn’t care if he scored or if somebody else scored.”
For eight full seasons, Rantanen was part of a homegrown movement that saw the Avalanche go from finishing with what was then the worst record in the salary cap era back in 2016-17 to become a perennial favorite to win the Stanley Cup, which did they did in 2023, while also becoming a model for the need to build through the draft.
Building through stars such as Cale Makar, Nathan MacKinnon, Landeskog and Rantanen allowed the Avalanche to become a success. As did the moves they made to get other key figures like Valeri Nichushkin and Devon Toews.
Like all teams in a championship window, the Avs were facing the prospect of possibly making a difficult decision. They had yet to agree to a new contract with Rantanen, who was a pending unrestricted free agent. Then, came the blockbuster trade that few throughout the league saw coming.
The Avalanche traded Rantanen in a three-team trade that saw them get Martin Necas and Drury along with two draft picks. Rantanen’s time with the Carolina Hurricanes was limited to just two goals and six points in 13 games.
Despite the fact the Hurricanes are also among that cadre of championship contenders, Rantanen struggled to find cohesion in Raleigh. Rather than run the risk of watching leave for nothing in free agency, the Hurricanes put out feelers to a few teams with the Stars being one of them.
A long-time admirer of Rantanen, the Stars packaged two first-round picks, three second-round picks and former prized prospect Logan Stankoven to get Rantanen. They then signed him to an eight-year contract worth $12 million annually.
“It’s two things: It’s where our team’s at, and it’s Mikko Rantanen,” Stars general manager Jim Nill told ESPN back in March.
Rantanen finished the regular season with five goals and 18 points in 20 games prior to the showdown with his former team.
Not only did Rantanen’s hat trick condemn his former team to their second first-round exit since winning the Stanley Cup, but it continued a theme of former Avalanche eliminating their previous employers.
The Avalanche and Stars faced each other in last season’s Western Conference semifinal that saw Duchene, a former Colorado first-round pick, score the game-winning goal.
A year later, it was another former Avalanche first-round pick who delivered the devastating blow.
“It seems pretty fitting,” Johnston said about Rantanen. “Obviously, we want to win for each other and I think that goes a little extra when it’s a guy like that who is such a big part of our team and was there for a long time and everyone knows the trade that went on. It’s so awesome. We’re so happy as a group for him.”
As if Rantanen scoring a hat trick in a four-goal comeback wasn’t enough, there’s also the fact that this is now the ninth consecutive Game 7 that Stars coach Peter DeBoer has won his career.
DeBoer’s nine wins in Game 7s broke a tie with Darryl Sutter for the most in NHL history. It was also DeBoer’s third game 7 wins with the Stars.
“I felt something was going to happen,” DeBoer said. “But I could not have predicted that.”
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