Michigan AD Warde Manuel shares clear stance on College Football Playoffs selection process

Warde Manuel will no longer be leading the College Football Playoff selection committee when it reconvenes in December. The management committee has replaced the Michigan athletic director with his Baylor counterpart, Mack Rhoades, as chairman for the 2025 season.

However, that hasn’t deterred Manuel from pushing back against the narratives surrounding the committee’s decision-making process following the inaugural 12-team playoffs. Strength of schedule has been a bone of contention after some SEC teams missed out last season.

In his appearance on a recent installment of “The Triple Option” podcast, Warde Manuel firmly rejected the idea that weaker non-conference games would improve a team’s chances of making the playoffs. Nebraska coach Matt Rhule made a case for that on a prior edition of the podcast.

“I don’t agree with some of my colleagues who think that (not) playing a tough non-conference opponent is the right way to go, that you’re better off,” Warde Manuel said. “I think the committee values those games. There’s no doubt about it that we understand when teams play tough opponents and they have a loss.

“If you look at it, Alabama was the highest ranked three-loss team because they had a very tough schedule and they won some tough games. But they were 11th in the last ranking because they also had some bad losses. So there was a balance there.”

Warde Manuel shrugs off criticism around Indiana’s selection

One of the common criticisms of last year's selection was Indiana securing a spot ahead of Alabama, Ole Miss and South Carolina, which all had three regular season losses. The Hoosiers made it to the playoffs as the No. 10 seed after finishing the regular season with an 11-1 record.

However, Warde Manuel argued that Indiana, which narrowly missed out on the Big Ten championship game on a tie-breaker, deserved a playoff spot. He further explained how complicated those situations could be while making the selections.

“It’s hard because of the increase of the number of teams in these conferences," Manuel said. “You're not always getting top teams either playing each other or playing other teams that are playing well in that particular year.”

“That is, I think, the thing that really sort of complicates the ability to have resumes in front of you when you’re judging a team that plays a light schedule and wins – and wins either in a big way or just wins – and a team that plays a tougher schedule but may have some losses to tougher teams.”

Indiana was eliminated from the playoffs in the first round after falling 27-17 to Notre Dame in South Bend. While their inclusion continues to be questioned by a section of college football fans and analyst, the Hoosiers undoubtedly caught a lot by surprise with their performance in 2024.