OSU Athletic Director Gene Smith named to College Football Playoff committee

Posted: Jan 17, 2017 / 02:36 PM EST

Updated: Jan 17, 2017 / 02:36 PM EST

IRVING, TX (WCMH) — Ohio State Athletic Director Gene Smith is one of three new members of the College Football Playoff Committee.

Smith begins his three-year term on the committee this spring.

Also named to the committee were Frank Beamer and Chris Howard. The three new members replace Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former Michigan coach Lloyd Carr.

Gene Smith is currently in his 12th year as Athletic Director of the Ohio State University.

Before his tenure at Ohio State, he served as Director of Athletics for three FBS programs – Arizona State, Eastern Michigan and Iowa State.

A past president of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA), he has also served on the NCAA Management Council, NCAA Committee on Infractions, NCAA Executive Committee, NCAA Football Rules Committee, NCAA Men’s Basketball Selection Committee, President’s Commission Liaison Committee and National Football Foundation Honors Court, among others. He currently serves on the NCAA Men’s Basketball Oversight Committee. Smith is a past winner of the National Association for Athletics Compliance’s Carl Maddox Sports Management Award, and the Sport Business Journal Athletic Director of the Year award. In June 2008 he was named to NACDA’s inaugural “Legends Class” and was also named Athletic Director of the Year by the Black Coaches Association. Smith is a two-time winner of the Sports Business Journal Athletic Director of the Year award (2010 and 2016); in 2016, he was also selected by NACDA as the 50^th James J. Corbett Memorial Award recipient, the highest honor one can achieve in collegiate athletics administration. He was the first sitting A.D. to receive this prestigious honor.

Smith received his bachelor’s degree in business administration from Notre Dame in 1977 and was a member of the 1973 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team that won the AP National Championship. After graduation, he joined the Notre Dame coaching staff under Dan Devine and remained in that capacity until 1981.