Ohio State athletic director to join CFP committee

Ohio State AD Gene Smith introduced Urban Meyer as the team’s coach in 2011. (Getty)

The College Football Playoff selection committee is reportedly trading one Big Ten athletic director for another.

According to ESPN, Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez will be replaced by Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith on the committee for 2017. Alvarez’s three-year term on the committee expired at the end of the 2016 season.

The committee will be replacing three members for the 2017 season. In addition to Alvarez, former United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former Vanderbilt coach Bobby Johnson’s terms are up. Per ESPN, the replacements for the three will be officially announced by the end of the month.

Smith’s Buckeyes have made the playoff in two of three years. After winning the inaugural College Football Playoff at the end of the 2014 season, Ohio State lost the Fiesta Bowl to Clemson in 2016.

Smith has been the athletic director at Ohio State since 2005 and was made a senior vice president at the school in May.