It is insightful to know where the CFP Committee members are from.
It's not an exact science, because they're all sports or journalism professionals who have held jobs across the country: in college, in the pros (not just football, other sports), and in the media. But if you read their bios, you get a pretty good feel for where their hearts might be now.
I'll give just two examples of the complexity involved: Gary Pinkel played football at Kent State in Ohio; then bounced as an assistant coach from there to Washington, back to Ohio at Bowling Green, and back to Washington. His longest stint in those days was 6 years at Washington. Then as a head coach, he was with Toledo 10 years, then Mizzou for 15. Mizzou is where he retired from coaching.
Hard to say which of those holds his heart foremost, but his lifetime footprint is mostly in the Mid-west, from Ohio across to Mizzou. The time out west in Washington is the outlier. BECAUSE my suspicion is that the SEC is way under-represented in the Committee, I went with Mizzou as Gary Pinkel's first love. But it could be Toledo.
Second example: Kelly Whiteside. She was a student at Rutgers, then Columbia, studying journalism. She has served as a journalism professor at Columbia and Montclair for a decade and a half, and has written mostly for USA Today (14 years) but also for Newsday, Sports Illustrated, and the New York Times. So her footprint is all over the northeast. She probably thinks of herself as a New Yorker. I put her star at Rutgers, in Jersey.
The 13 committee members map out like this:
Chris Ault -- Nevada
Chet Gladchuk -- Navy or Boston College (charted him Navy)
Jim Grobe -- Wake Forest or Virginia (charted him Wake)
Warde Manuel -- Michigan
Randall McDaniel -- Arizona State
Gary Pinkel -- Mizzou or Toledo (charted him Mizzou)
Mack Rhoades -- Baylor
Mike Riley -- Oregon State or Nebraska (charted him Oregon St)
David Sayler -- Miami
Will Shields -- Nebraska
Kelly Whiteside -- USA Today writer; Rutgers or Columbia (charted Rutgers)
Carla Williams -- Virginia
Hunter Yuracheck -- Arkansas
On a map, that looks like this:
Three of the 13 are from the Pacific/Mountain West area ... Three are mid-western ... one is B12 ... and five are Atlantic Coast footprint. Only one, Arkansas, is SEC. Well, two if you count Mizzou. Most of us probably don't, lol.
That big, open nothing from the SEC part of Texas, across Louisiana, all across the deep south plus up into South Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky, that could be a sign of SEC under-representation.
The Committee might counter that two of its members played sports in the SEC (Mike Riley, the Oregon State star on the map, was a Bama football player; and Carla Williams, the Virginia star, was an UGa women's BBall athlete). That's not where their hearts seem to be based on a lifelong career.
Is this a problem? Dunno. Maybe it's something for Sankey to spend more time on, or maybe it's not as anemic for our conference as it seems.
Just thought it was worthy of us being aware of it.
Go Vols!
