UF’s Scott Stricklin named to College Football Playoff Committee

Florida Athletic Director Scott Stricklin will be one of six new members named to the College Football Playoff Committee. Stricklin will replace former Arkansas AD Jeff Long as the SEC’s representative on the 13-person committee.

“Jeff did a wonderful job serving as the SEC representative on the committee and I hope to continue that legacy,” Stricklin said in a press release from the College Football Playoff. “The College Football Playoff has become a special part of our sport and the committee’s job is to pick the best teams and to represent the game with integrity.”

Stricklin’s term will run through 2020 but he, as with any representative of a university, would recuse himself if and when Florida were to be discussed by the committee. Stricklin, 47, is joined by five other newcomers, Joe Castiglione, Ken Hatfield, Todd Stansbury, Ronnie Lott and Paola Boivin.

Castiglione has been the Oklahoma’s president for intercollegiate athletics program since 1998. Hatfield is a former coach. After playing at Arkansas he coached at Air Force, Clemson, Rice and Arkansas. Stansbury took over as Georgia Tech’s athletic director in 2016. Lott played at Southern California before a 14-year, Hall of Fame career in the NFL. Boivin is a journalist who works in the sports journalism program at Arizona State University.

The 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 selection committee meets in-person beginning late in the football season and produces a ranking of the top 25 teams each week, leading up to its final selections.

Nick de la Torre
A South Florida native, Nick developed a passion for all things sports at a very young age. His love for baseball was solidified when he saw Al Leiter’s no-hitter for the Marlins live in May of 1996. He was able to play baseball in college but quickly realized there isn’t much of a market for short, slow outfielders that hit around the Mendoza line. Wanting to continue with sports in some capacity he studied journalism at the University of Central Florida. Nick got his first start in the business as an intern for a website covering all things related to the NFL draft before spending two seasons covering the Florida football team at Bleacher Report. That job led him to GatorCountry. When he isn’t covering Gator sports, Nick enjoys hitting way too many shots on the golf course, attempting to keep up with his favorite t.v. shows and watching the Heat, Dolphins and Marlins. Follow him on twitter @NickdelatorreGC