IRVING, Texas – The College Football Playoff (CFP) Management Committee has appointed Mike Riley, former head coach at Oregon State and Nebraska, to the CFP Selection Committee, it was announced today by Bill Hancock, Executive Director of the CFP.
Riley will replace Pat Chun, who recently stepped down when he became the new athletics director at the University of Washington.
“We are pleased to have Mike join the committee,” Hancock said. “He has significant experience as a player and coach, and he loves college. He will bring a unique perspective to the committee. Plus, he is a delightful human being.”
Riley spent 48 years as a coach at the collegiate and professional levels, serving as the head coach at Oregon State from 1997-98 and 2003-14 and at Nebraska from 2015-17. He has also been the head coach of teams in five different professional leagues: the Canadian Football League (CFL), World League of American Football (WLAF), National Football League (NFL), Alliance of American Football and the United State Football League (USFL).
Riley spent the first eight years of his coaching career as a college assistant before moving to the CFL. Later, his first head coaching position came in 1987 with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, which he would lead to Grey Cup titles in 1988 and 1990. After a head coaching stint with San Antonio in the WLAF and time as an assistant at Southern California, he became the head coach at Oregon State in 1997. In 1999 he was named head coach of the San Diego Chargers, serving in that role for three seasons. After a year as assistant head coach with the New Orleans Saints, Riley returned to Oregon State as head coach in 2003. He spent the next 12 seasons in Corvalis and ultimately collected 93 career wins in his combined 14 seasons as head coach, the most in school history. Riley moved to Nebraska after the 2014 season and coached the Cornhuskers for three years. Most recently he was the head coach of the USFL’s New Jersey Generals for the 2022-23 seasons.
Riley graduated from the University of Alabama where he was a defensive back on coach Paul Bryant’s 1973 national championship team. He later earned his master’s degree at Whitworth while an assistant coach.
The CFP selection committee is responsible for ranking the top 25 teams, then assigning the 12 teams to the playoff bracket. The committee meets in-person beginning in early November and produces a ranking of the top 25 teams each week leading up to its final selections.
About the College Football Playoff
The College Football Playoff (CFP) is the event that crowns the national champion in college football. The CFP Selection Committee ranks the top 25 teams at the end of the season, and the 12 playoff participants consist of the five highest-ranked conference champions, plus the next seven highest-ranked teams. The four highest ranked conference champions will be seeded one through four and receive a first-round bye. The schools seeded five through eight will host those seeded nine through 12 in first-round games. The quarterfinals and semifinals rotate annually among six bowl games – the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic, Vrbo Fiesta Bowl, Capital One Orange Bowl, Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, Rose Bowl Game presented by Prudential and the Allstate Sugar Bowl. This year’s quarterfinals will take place on Dec. 31, 2024, and January 1, 2025, while the semifinals will be January 9-10, 2025. The College Football Playoff National Championshipwill be Monday, January 20, 2025, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. For additional information on the College Football Playoff, visit CollegeFootballPlayoff.com.
OUR MISSION
Oregon State Athletics strives to Build Excellent Authentic Visionary Student-Athletes (Go BEAVS).
