IRVING, Texas – The College Football Playoff (CFP) Management Committee has appointed Doug Gillin, athletics director at Appalachian State University, to the CFP Selection Committee, it was announced today by Rich Clark, executive director of the CFP.

Gillin will replace Dr. Bryan Maggard, who recently became the deputy athletics director/COO at the University of Missouri after serving as Louisiana's athletic director.

"We are pleased to welcome Doug to the selection committee," Clark said. "He is a highly respected leader who brings tremendous experience, sound judgment and a deep commitment to college football and student-athletes. We look forward to the contributions he will make as a member of the committee."

Entering his 12th year in Boone, Gillin has overseen the rise of App State Athletics as a nationally recognized program at the highest level of college sports, highlighted by App State football's multiple conference championships and a top 25 final CFP ranking in 2019 since ascending to the FBS level.

Gillin was hired as the school's Director of Athletics in February 2015, during the early stages of App State's transition from the NCAA's Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) to the Sun Belt Conference at the FBS level. He was named one of four national Under Armour Athletics Directors of the Year in 2019-20 and served on the NCAA Division I Football Oversight Committee from 2020-23.

App State was the first college football program to win bowl games in each of its first six eligible FBS seasons (2015-20), and the program's 98 wins since 2015 rank in the top 15 nationally. The Mountaineers won four straight Sun Belt championships from 2016-19, and the 2019 squad that went 13-1 became the first Sun Belt or North Carolina FBS school to win 13 games. Between winning Sun Belt division titles in 2021 and 2023, the Mountaineers followed a 17-14 win at No. 6 Texas A&M in 2022 by hosting ESPN's College GameDay for the first time.

Gillin, who served on the NCAA Division I Football Oversight Committee from 2020-23, was previously the deputy director of athletics at Missouri from 2012-15. He also spent time early in his career on college campuses at Lehigh, New Mexico, and Syracuse, while holding senior leadership positions at ISP Sports/IMG College from 2002-12.

The Binghamton, N.Y., native was a four-year letterman in ice hockey at SUNY Cortland. He graduated from SUNY Cortland in 1991 with a B.S. in physical education and earned a master's degree in physical education from Ohio University.

The CFP selection committee is responsible for ranking the top 25 teams. 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 competition that crowns the true national champion in college football. The format of the CFP is built on a 12-team bracket. The 12 participating schools are the conference champions from the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten Conference, Big 12 Conference, Southeastern Conference and the highest-ranked team from the American, Conference USA, Mid-American Conference, Mountain West, Pac-12 Conference or Sun Belt Conference, along with the next seven highest-ranked teams. The University of Notre Dame will be included in the playoff if it is ranked among the top 12 teams in the final CFP rankings. Four CFP First-Round games are played on host campuses, followed by the CFP Quarterfinals and CFP Semifinals, which 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. The CFP National Championship will be on Monday, January 25, 2027, at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada. For additional information on the CFP, visit CollegeFootballPlayoff.com.