Varsity is the free Official Digital Magazine of Wisconsin Athletics, covering Badgers football, basketball, hockey and more each week.
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W BEHIND THE DESK BY BARRY ALVAREZ // UW DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS Serving on selection committee a true honor hen Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany approached me about being on the College Football Playoff selection committee ― at the behest of executive director Bill Hancock ― I was honored. I knew it could be a hassle and there could be some issues. But I felt I owed it to college football. I've been committed to the sport my whole life and I feel like I have an obligation to give back. I told the commissioner, "I'd be honored to be the one representing the Big Ten.'' Not everyone felt like I did. I listened to Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley say there was no way he would go on the selection committee. He painted a pretty ugly picture of what could happen. He talked about how your emails are going to blow up, how you're going to have people staking your house out and how you're going to have threats. Maybe some of that does happen. I had a talk with Cindy about it. Quite frankly, I told her this is going to be very time-consuming; I don't know how much time, but I'm going to be tied up with a lot of film watching, et cetera. There also could be a lot of criticism. She said, "You owe it to college football. I'll support you 100 percent. You need to do this.'' I needed to hear that from her, I really did. I will say this, Jeremy got my antenna up. You ask yourself, "Do you 16 // VARSITY October 17, 2013 need the aggravation?" In our position as athletic directors, we get enough criticism as it is. We make a lot of decisions and, with every decision we make, you'll have people who disagree and voice their own opinion. I'm not going into this blind; I've been around a long time. I know you've got to have thick enough skin where you can handle the criticism because that's coming right along with it. YOU MAKE TOUGH DECISIONS EVERY DAY AS A FOOTBALL COACH; YOU MAKE TOUGH DECISIONS EVERY DAY IN THIS JOB AS AN ATHLETIC DIRECTOR. THERE ARE GOING TO BE SOME TOUGH DECISIONS MADE ON THIS COMMITTEE. But someone has to do it and I feel like I'm qualified. I bring knowledge of the game; I bring a true understanding of watching a team and being able to evaluate it. I bring a coaching perspective. I've been a decision maker. You make tough decisions every day as a football coach; you make tough decisions every day in this job as an athletic director. There are going to be some tough decisions made on this committee. There are going to be cases where you're going to have to make a decision between a one-loss team and a no-loss team. Who's the better team? When you put all the criteria together, somebody has got to look at the film and say, "Wow, this team is off the charts" or "This team is better than that team." I think I bring that to the table. When I watch a game today and someone else watching the same game sees a good run, I see someone missing a gap responsibility. That's the way I was taught, that's the way I was trained to watch a game. I just don't sit there and watch the ball. The people who sit in my suite at Camp Randall know that. I'll do my due diligence; I'll do my work on the committee. But Wisconsin is still my first priority. As I understand it, I won't miss any of our games. I would not have taken this if I had to be gone every weekend. I couldn't have done that. I like the makeup of the committee. I don't know Condoleezza Rice, but I know of her. The first thing I think about is integrity and honesty and somebody that can make decisions. I know she's interested in football; she's a very avid fan and her father was a football coach. That's huge. She understands winning and losing. She understands the type of commitment that a coach must make to be successful. I look forward to working with her. I think she'll be outstanding. Overall, I'm intrigued to be on the selection committee. It's a big deal. Like I said earlier, I'm honored.