It is only March and the College Football Playoff Selection Committee has already made a great decision for the 2025 season.
In adding long-time journalists and FWAA members Steve Wieberg and Ivan Maisel to its group, the CFP made its best move--ever.
Here's why.
First in full disclosure mode, Steve and Ivan are long-time friends of this columnist.
But that does not lessen their skills for this job at this time.
Throughout its history, the CFP has been filled by administrators and former coaches who have full-time jobs and agendas.
That always has been a factor.
Their main job, however, has not been to analyze what happens each weekend during the college football season, which means breaking down what happened, how it happened and why it happened.
Wieberg and Maisel have spent more than 80 years doing that for a living. And doing a good job of that.
Wieberg also has filled another role. He was the first media member selected to be part of the selection committee a dozen years ago.
It was done with great reluctance, with an extra push from former CFP executive director Bill Hancock, who recognized the opposition to opening up the selection process to the media to that extent.
In essence, he was the "George Washington'' of the CFP in terms of media.
If Steve had bombed out during his first stint, rest assured there would have been no Paola Boivin or Kelly Whiteside – each who did a superb job.
Wieberg immediately gained respect among his new brethren for the way he went about his business with a relentless attention to details.
"Steve was respected because he had everything broken down in such detail,'' aid former Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese, a fellow CFP member during Wieberg's three-year term.
Having known and worked against Wieberg for many years on various stories, I can attest to the bulldog nature of his preparation and attention to detail.
Wieberg will be back for his second stint--which is also ground breaking and it will be for a one-year term.
Maisel is in it for a three-year ride.
Again, I say this with a tilted viewpoint. But after all, Maisel is a former FWAA President and Bert McGrane recipient (FWAA Hall of Famer) and Wieberg is a former FWAA Beat Writer of the Year, another Bert McGrane recipient, and very well decorated as a USA Today National Writer in college sports. He was Joe Lunardi before anyone knew who Joe Lunardi even was.
They both have the credentials.
In the world of college football, if you do not know Ivan Maisel--from commissioners to coaches, to athletic directors to coaches to assistant coaches to players, if you do not know Ivan Maisel – or know of him – you are not connected.
He grew up in Alabama, went to Stanford, and has worked for national publications, websites as well as a newspapers which has taken him from Orlando to Dallas to Long Island.
College football is his wheelhouse.
That he gathers his information in a quiet, dignified manner, not looking for sound bites for spotlights, makes him even more effective.
Oh, he has some flaws. He has been known to head in the wrong direction down a highway for a few hours before realizing he had made a mistake.
And Wieberg sometimes seems to enjoy riding the bus more than driving a bus, in which he chose the destination
So there we have it.
A major move by the CFP under its new head Rich Clark with a pair of members to the selection committee who will add the one ingredient vital to any such process – credibility.
FWAA Board Member and Past President Mark Blaudschun writes a regular column about current college sports topics.