The NCAA Division I Football Oversight Committee exists to, in the NCAA's legalese way of spelling things out, oversee issues related to Division I football. The NCAA itself defines the committee's purpose as:
The Football Oversight Committee will ensure that appropriate oversight of football for both the Football Bowl Subdivision and Football Championship Subdivision is maintained; enhance the development of the sport and make recommendations related to regular-season and postseason football.
The Football Oversight Committee is the group that straightened out the process of certifying 5-7 teams for bowl games last season and, with issues ranging from autonomy to RPO regulation to satellite camps to player health bubbling to the surface, it's safe to say this conclave of representatives will only see their influence grow in the coming years.
And it's a group with precisely one coach on its panel: Dan Mullen.
"It's a great honor for me," Mullen told Adam Rittenberg of ESPN. "One of the most important things is to try to bring the voice of coaches or how coaches are going to approach things. As a coach, everyone gets in a very competitive mindset. You have to put that aside and look at what's best for the game."
Mullen replaces Mark Richt as the SEC's representative, who forfeited his seat upon accepting the Miami job.
The full roster of voting members on the oversight committee:
- Blake James, Miami AD
- Ray Anderson, Arizona State AD
- Shawn Eichorst, Nebraska AD
- Jon Steinbrecher, MAC commissioner
- Bob Bowlsby, Big 12 commissioner (chair)
- Bret Gilliland, Mountain West associate commissioner
- Paul Rogers, SMU faculty athletics representative
- Dan Mullen, Mississippi State head coach
- Alfred White, Conference USA senior associate commissioner
- Evan Tatford, Louisiana-Lafayette tight end (student-athlete representative)
- Lisa Campos, Northern Arizona AD
- Victoria Chun, Colgate AD (vice-chair)
- Kyle Kallander, Big South commissioner