Lt. General Richard Clark isn’t intimidated by much — not as a career military man who flew more than 40 bombing missions in the Mideast. In a joint assignment with Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine troops, Clark’s unit was mortared during a ground mission. As COVID-19 raged across the Air Force Academy campus four years ago, superintendent Clark moved into the cadet dorms during a mandated lockdown.
The move was so, well, out of the box in the button-downed military that he garnered the attention of the folks at the Pentagon.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Clark recalled one the Air Force vice chief of staff saying.
The same question might be asked in Clark’s new role as College Football Playoff executive director. He was the non-traditional candidate chosen to run the sport’s expanded postseason armed with loads of organizational experience but also able to flash a Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, a Bronze Star and Distinguished Flying Cross.
So … how hard could running the CFP be?
“For my whole 38 years [in the Air Force] I thought about war every day and preparing for combat every day,” Clark said over the summer as he made the rounds through various media days. “I thought about the worst days America could have. I thought about it as a day that I hoped would never come, but it was something I was passionate about because I knew it was my job to do it, and that’s what I did.
“Now I get to think about college football every day.”
A three-star general deciphering “data points” and “game control” in a room full of college football coaches, administrators and one retired media member seemed about as far away from retirement as you can get. But three days after retiring from those 38 years in the Air Force on June 1, Clark began oversight of the 10-year-old CFP in transition.
He couldn’t have known everything that is in store because, in some ways, there is no playbook for this expanded playoff debuting in the 2024 season. Let’s have a look at some of the unorthodox scenarios that have popped up.
- Halfway through the season, it has become obvious it is possible Alabama-Georgia, Oregon-Ohio State and Army-Navy could each meet three times if you include a possible CFP meeting.
- After a boffo debut in 2014 for the CFP, TV ratings have generally declined over the years. That was one key reason for tripling the field. That and the money that came along with it. The 12-team CFP has to deliver.
- There is a budding struggle — perhaps a full-on contretemps — regarding strength of schedule with the SEC and Big Ten. (more on that below)
But first the question is where he stood on the biggest CFP controversy to date: an undefeated Power Five conference champion (Florida State) being left out of bracket last season.
“Personally, I thought they got it exactly right,” Clark said of the selection committee’s decision. “I was in the room. They agonized … over that decision. We were up until 2 in the morning.”
What happened next might be a precursor to what Clark is walking into. One selection committee source told CBS Sports that FSU “couldn’t win a national championship with the team they had” after the injury to quarterback Jordan Travis. The potential ability for a team to win a national championship is not part of the CFP’s selection protocol, by the way.
Clark told CBS Sports this week that speaking about the details of the discussion in public “was not appropriate.”
There is also an ongoing investigation into the CFP by the Florida attorney general’s office over Florida State being left out last season.
“I think we’re in a pretty good place right now [with the investigation],” Clark said without offering details.
Now, about the man.
After spending four years as Air Force superintendent and four decades in the service, Clark was more than ready to retire. What else is there to do when you’ve got more flight combat hours (400) than Nick Saban has victories?
“I’ll be honest, I wasn’t [interested],” Clark told CBS Sports.
As Air Force superintendent, Clark had served on the Mountain West board of directors. Commissioner Gloria Nevarez said Clark was especially valuable during conference realignment. Clark had played linebacker and nose guard for Fisher DeBerry and Ken Hatfield at Air Force in the mid-1980s. He didn’t have much more football administrative experience than other candidates to oversee the CFP, but Clark was asked to apply by Daniel Parker, vice president of the Parker executive search firm.
Clark was told the CFP was looking for that non-traditional candidate. An Air Force general met that criteria. It’s clear the CFP presidents chose an executive director whose credibility couldn’t be questioned, but there is a difference between the military and milling around the halls during selection committee breaks hoping to get everything right.
“I don’t have a lot of experience with media rights agreements,” Clark said upon taking the job last year.
Those he beat out for the job absolutely do, which made it clear the CFP was going in a different direction.
By hiring Clark, the presidents may have signaled they don’t particularly want a change agent — they want a manager. Tell that to Clark. He likes to “murder board.” That’s a corporate and military term for throwing an idea up on the white erase board and letting staff pick it apart. Some form of that will happen in the CFP offices.
“You take your plan, and you get an audience of experts,” Clark said. “You brief it and you let them murder you on the stage. They pick it apart. The smallest details, they murder board it …
“It’s the old Mike Tyson quote, ‘Everybody’s got a plan until they get punched in the mouth.'”
The other top candidates — identified through several sources — all had connections to the game; Fox Sports executive vice president Jordan Bazant, Texas A&M AD Trev Alberts, Orange Bowl executive director Eric Poms and former Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick emerged as more appropriate candidates, on paper.
“What we do is not rocket science,” one FBS commissioner said. “[Clark] was able to pick up the nuances of the process. You don’t have to have all the answers, but you have to know how you’re going to bring the organization through.”
When Bill Hancock was promoted to run the old BCS in 2009, its rep was not good. The system never really gained traction because so many deserving teams were left out and the metrics sometimes lacked credibility.
But at least those metrics were public. The CFP’s are not. Clark told CBS Sports the CFP is working on presenting the strength of schedule components in “bands as well as rankings” to allow the selection committee to “drill down in more detail.”
At the time of his promotion, Hancock hired former George W. Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer to “spiff up” the image of the BCS. Fleischer took on critics calling a playoff proposal by then-president Barack Obama a “scheme.” Fleischer remains in that role now promoting that scheme.
The job isn’t the same as it was, however. Hancock, who retired in earlier this year, was everybody’s best friend, the pride of Hobart, Oklahoma, who also rode herd over 13 rotating selection committee members in any given year. He could diffuse controversy with his smile.
“It’s totally changed,” said a former member of the selection committee. “It seems as though the human element is slowly being squeezed out … Now it looks as though Greg and Tony [SEC commissioner Greg Sankey and Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti] are trying to set up a system where the only thing that matters is the strength of schedule. They want to be able to have a baseline argument.”
That baseline argument is where the conference argues an 8-4 or 9-3 SEC team should be considered superior a 10-2 team from the ACC or Big 12. CBS Sports addressed that looming discussion over the summer.
The strength of schedule component will become increasingly important in 12-team playoff. Not so much for the last team in but how many teams get in from the SEC and Big Ten. There are already rumblings of the two power conferences demanding automatic qualifying spots. In one iteration presented earlier this year, a 14-team playoff was to include three AQs each from the SEC and Big Ten with their champions earning an automatic bye.
That was met with strict opposition from the conferences. What’s changed? Perhaps after the SEC and Big Ten summit meeting last week, those conferences are at the point of leveraging their ultimate option: conducting a playoff among themselves.
CBS Sports reported late Monday the Big Ten and SEC are in discussions to play a series of nonconference games against each other. Such an agreement would further separate the two leagues financially from the rest of FBS.
“All conferences aren’t equal,” Clark said before that news broke. “[But] I want it to be a fair and legitimate process so fans trust it.”
Strength of schedule is not just being pushed by the Big Ten and SEC. The men’s basketball committee had the foresight a few years ago to institute the NET rankings. You may disagree with the math, but it is at least something you can touch, feel and read.
Clark was asked if there was a metric that could be shared publicly. Hey, college basketball hasn’t melted down since fans, players and coaches can see the NET rankings.
“I shy away from that because when you start putting hard numbers down, you take the art of it [away],” Clark said. “There’s a science and an art, right? It’s got to be a balanced. That human element you don’t want to tie that down with metrics. You want those members to use their experience … You’ve got to untie them a little bit.
“The data is there and it is presented to them. It is so amazing the way it is presented.”
One of the data sources used by the committee is SportSource analytics, a respected Atlanta-based sports research platform. The firm just recently expanded in player evaluation and recruiting information. Its database is so vast that athletic directors use the company’s research to evaluate coaching candidates.
Its information is not available to the public, though, and Its “football data services” range from $12,500 to $50,000. Co-founder Drew Borland was asked about the strength of schedule component.
“They all have limitations,” Borland said. “I’ve probably researched 30 of them in-depth. As much as they are models and mathematical, there is a fair amount of subjectivity you have to put in building the model.”
Borland added there is a chicken or the egg aspect to all strengths of schedules. Someone or some machine has to rank teams before ranking schedules.
Borland is one of many who speak glowingly about Clark.
“You can’t just rank the schedules without ranking the teams,” Borland added. “There is no universal way to rank teams by computer … The goal has always been to create something that is useful, not perfect.”
Something is going to have to change dramatically with the CFP. As part of the House v. NCAA settlement, Judge Claudia Wilken is expected to appoint a special magistrate to oversee the proceedings. That could be a prelude to the CFP overseeing FBS itself.
“That’s a massive responsibility,” that former selection committee member said.
The Knight Commission, a college sports watchdog, has already called for an FBS governing body separate from the NCAA. The CFP could be that separate body. In the future, Clark may need to be responsible for a whole new staff. The current one specializes in selecting the teams and putting on an event. The new look of the CFP would include those from the professional ranks familiar with salary caps and those familiar with policing those who violate the salary cap.
The current job is hard enough. Last season, members of the selection committee were assigned security protection after threats surfaced following FSU’s omission.
At least one FBS commissioner was forced to obtain his own security.
“When we start threatening people’s lives we have crossed the line. It’s a bright beacon of a red line,” Clark said.
The CFP has changed so much that Clark told CBS Sports the playoff has “security contingencies to ensure the protection of our committee members” after last season’s threats. He did not elaborate on the level of security or where it will be stationed since committee members live all over the country.
“If they were to happen … ,” Clark said of future threats, “we’re ready to respond to that.”
Maybe that’s exactly what you want in a CFP executive director — an Air Force general who is not easily intimidated.
