College Football Playoff

Kelly Whiteside spent 14 years at USA Today as a national college football writer and also specialized in reporting on the Olympics and World Cup. She has covered seven Olympic Games, nine World Cups (men's and women's) as well as the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and multiple college sports. Whiteside was the first female president of the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA). Before joining USA Today, she was a Newsday reporter and a Sports Illustrated staff writer. Her work has also appeared in The New York Times.

Whiteside has been a Professor in Sports Media and Journalism at Montclair State University since 2014 and has taught at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and Rutgers University.

She is a graduate of Rutgers University and the Columbia Journalism School.