Former Kansas City Chiefs and pro Football Hall of Famer offensive lineman Will Shields, who also won the Outland Trophy while in Nebraska, and Virginia Union athletic director Joe Taylor, one of the most successful coaches in HBCU history , was the head of five new committees for College Football Playoff, members announced Tuesday.
Kentucky Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart, State Athletic Director Boo Corrigan and Texas Athletic Director Chris Del Conte begin their three-year term on the 13-member committee with Shields and Taylor.
They replace Oklahoma Athletic Director Joe Castiglione, former coach Ken Hatfield, former USC All-American Ronnie Lott, Georgia Athletics Director Todd Stansbury, and Florida Athletic Director Scott Stricklin, whose terms have expired.
“Mitch, Boo, Chris, Will and Joe will continue the integrity that has been the hallmark of the committee during the seven seasons,” CFP executive director Bill Hancock said in a prepared statement. “Their knowledge, experience and character, coupled with their love of the sport of college football, will make the transition seamless.”
The CFP steering committee, which consists of the ten FBS commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick, has also extended the term of Iowa athletics director Gary Barta as chairman of the selection committee for a second season. Barta, who has been Iowa AD since 2006, joined the committee in January 2019 and was appointed chairman a year later.
“We are pleased that Gary will return as chairman,” Hancock said. “He was a valuable leader because the committee followed up on a unique and challenging year. We look forward to working with the other 12 members in what we hope will be a more traditional season in 2021.”
Shields, a former consensus All-America guard in Nebraska, played for the Cornhuskers from 1989 to ’92 and is one of the only 16 players in school history to retire his jersey. In 2011, Shields was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
He was a third-round pick for the Chiefs in the 1993 NFL draft, and he never missed a game in 14 seasons; he started 231 consecutive games on real hats and earned a team record of 12 Pro Bowl appearances from 1995 to 2000. in 2015 inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Taylor, who has worked at Virginia Union since 2013, has had a 41-year coaching career, including 30 as head coach. During his administrative term in Richmond, the school won 15 division, conference and regional championships.
As head coach, Taylor’s teams have won five national championships of black colleges, won ten conference titles and made ten playoff games. Taylor won a lifelong record of 233-96-4 and is third in career victories in HBCU history. Taylor was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2019 and the Black College Football Hall of Fame in 2020. He also served as president of the American Football Coaches Association.
Barnhart, who has been Kentucky’s athletics director since 2002, is the longest-serving athletics director in the SEC and was named chairman of the SEC Athletics Managers in 2017. He was also a member of the NCAA Division I basketball and baseball committees.
Corrigan, who has spent eight years as athletics director at Army, has held the same position in the NC State since April 2019. He was named 2017 Athletics Director of the Year by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics. While in West Point, Army won 20 Patriot League regular championships or tournaments and sent 14 teams to the NCAA National Season.
Del Conte was appointed Texas athletics director in December 2017 after making a name for himself during his eight-year tenure as AD at TCU, where he oversaw the school’s entrance to the Big 12 conference. He was also an athletic director at Rice from 2006 to 2009.