Former Ole Miss All-American Wesley Walls named member of College Football Playoff selection committee

The College Football Playoff (CFP) Management Committee has appointed Baylor University Athletics Director Mack Rhoades as selection committee chair for the 2025 football season, announced today by Rich Clark, executive director of the CFP. The CFP has also added five new members to the committee — including former Ole Miss All American tight end Wesley Walls.

Rhoades is replacing last year’s chair, Warde Manuel, the athletics director at the University of Michigan.

Joining Walls as the newest members of the selection committee are: Mark Dantonio, former head coach at the University of Cincinnati and Michigan State University; Damon Evans, athletics director at the University of Maryland; Ivan Maisel, former sportswriter for The Atlanta Constitution, Sports Illustrated, the Dallas Morning News, Newsday, ESPN and On3; and Chris Massaro, athletics director at Middle Tennessee State University.

The new members will begin three-year terms starting this spring.

Rich Clark, Executive Director of CFP

The Wesley Walls File

As Rebels know, Walls was an All-American tight end as a senior at Ole Miss in 1988 after excelling as a linebacker and defensive end his first three seasons in Oxford. For his outstanding play for the Rebels, he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2014 and the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame in 2016.

Selected by the San Francisco 49ers in the second round of the 1989 NFL Draft, Walls’ rookie season ended with a Super Bowl XXIV victory over the Denver Broncos. He spent the 1994-95 seasons with the New Orleans Saints before joining the Carolina Panthers in 1996. Over seven seasons in Carolina, Walls became the franchise’s all-time leader in touchdowns for a tight end, earning five Pro Bowl selections and three All-Pro honors along the way. Walls spent the 2003 season with the Green Bay Packers and finished his 15-season career with 450 receptions, 5,291 receiving yards, and 54 touchdowns. In 2019, the Carolina Panthers inducted Walls into the team’s Hall of Honor.

Post-retirement, Walls has been involved in business ventures and charitable work in the Charlotte community and his home state of Mississippi, cementing his legacy both on and off the field. An academic All-American, Walls earned a Bachelor of Engineering degree from the University of Mississippi.

A look at the CFP

The CFP selection committee is responsible for ranking the 25 teams in the playoff and assigning the top 12 participants to the playoff bracket. The committee meets in-person beginning late in the football season and produces a ranking of the top 25 teams each week leading up to its final selections. The other returning selection committee members are Chris Ault (longtime head coach and athletics director, University of Nevada), Randall McDaniel (former All-American offensive lineman, Arizona State University), Mike Riley (former head coach, Oregon State Univeristy and the University Nebraska), David Sayler (athletics director, Miami University, Ohio), Carla Williams (athletics director, University of Virginia; and Hunter Yurachek (athletics director, University of Arkansas).