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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA DAYS

July 17, 2019

Bill Hancock

Birmingham, Alabama

BILL HANCOCK: Hello, everybody. It's good to be here. I want to congratulate Commissioner Sankey and the staff for doing a great job with Media Days as always.

I have a friend who was fond of saying he was a recovering attorney. Well, I'm a recovering newspaper person. And I now that recovering means I loved it when I was doing it and sometimes I still wish I was.

This week and next week, as you know, reporters and coaches and players and administrators will get together from all ten conferences to talk about the upcoming season at Media Days. The Media Days for me are the beginning of the best regular season in sports.

As you all know, football began 150 years ago at a game invented by college students for college students, and I don't think we should ever move away from that. And I want to dispel a rumor right now that Larry Templeton was on the field that day in 1869.

This regular season will culminate 180 days from now to the sixth College Football Playoff championship game in New Orleans, one of the great destination cities which will be another great host for the CFP.

Last month we noted the anniversary of the CFP, the birth of the CFP, which the university presidents created on June 26th of 2012. Man, those years have gone by fast. That day in Washington, D.C. when the playoff was created was one of the most significant milestones in the history of college football, and it's been a great five years of the playoff for the sport that we all love so much.

By every measure, the CFP has been highly successful. And that's in significant part because it is firmly rooted in the context of higher education. Our championship game feels like college football.

Now, the phrase "feel like college football" may be hard to define for some, but not for the people in this room and not for us, those of us who get to manage it. We brought a campus atmosphere to five iconic pro football stadiums through the years of the CFP. We have marching bands at halftime, we have decor featuring the two teams and stadiums full of compassionate fans with no large blocks of neutral people sitting in the middle. Personally, I'm very proud of that.

And something else innovative we've done is with the process of selecting the two teams. If you think about it, this -- for the first time in the history of sports, in any sport, any college sport, journalists are represented at the table. As they would say in Hamilton, they are in the room where it happens. I'm proud of that. So are university presidents. And those two groups bring a unique perspective to join with the former players, former coaches, and the sitting athletic directors in making the selections of the teams. That perspective has been very helpful to all of us.

One of the strongest barometers of the success of the CFP has been the respect that those 13 committee members have for the process, for each other. And they're deeply honored to volunteer to be a part of the committee. They receive no compensation, as you know. They come to Dallas for six weeks in a row to meet, debate, talk about college football. It's a job that they cherish and, for many of them, something they look forward to their entire careers.

We welcome four new members to the committee this year, as you know. The terms have expired for four exceptional classes of committee members already, and 30 people have served on the committee. The group's culture of hard work, integrity, and dedication, has paid off. These are people who are devoted to getting it right.

We will continue to help folks understand the process by hosting mock selection exercises. This fall there will be six of those, including one for reporters. These have been enormously popular. Many in this room have participated.

Actually, the roster for the mock is filling up for the media mock, but if you're interested, please see me before we leave today or send an e-mail to Gina in our office, and we'd love to get you on the list of people being considered to participate in this year's mock.

What's ahead for CFP? More success. As for the future, I want you to know, I want to emphasize that the conference commissioners and university presidents, who are my bosses, are pleased with the CFP. It works, and it works well.

I think there will always be talk about the format. That's just human nature. And the discussion will continue. It's just good and responsible management to talk about how you can make yourselves better. Don't read too much into that. As Mark Keenum noted after our meeting in San Jose this year, we're all quite happy with what we have, but we need to make sure we're doing it as best as we possibly can. The CFP works, and my bosses are proud of it.

Lastly, I want to take just a minute and remind you about the College Football Playoff Foundation which honors and supports K-12 teachers across the country. We are not just about football. Many teachers and thousands of students have benefited from the funds provided by Extra Yard for Teachers. Watch for this program to grow and grow as time goes by.

And I ask that you please write about Extra Yard and, if you are able and willing, contact the teacher who made a difference in your life and thank that person. I did it with mine last winter, and the reward was all mine, believe me.

Education is the most important thing we have going in this country, particularly K-12 education, and teachers make that engine go. And we are just proud and honored to be involved with teachers nationwide. They are the true unsung heroes of our culture, but unfortunately all too often they are underappreciated. The CFP is doing something about that.

In conclusion, I want to just thank you for your interest in what we're doing with the CFP, in particular, and, in general, college football and thank you for your professionalism, your diligence, and for shining a light on all of us who need it.

Please understand that those of us who are lucky enough to be a part of administering this great event, including us former journalists, are honored to do so, and we're easily anticipating round six of the CFP. Anything can happen.

I'm going to be around today, and I look forward to visiting with you at your convenience, certainly also by telephone or by e-mail or by text any time. I believe you know how to reach me. Thank you for listening, thank you for your attention, and thank you for your paying so much heed to college football. Kevin, thank you.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Bill.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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