Hall of Fame coach R.C. Slocum, the winningest head coach in Texas A&M history, will join the 13-member College Football Playoff selection committee this spring, along with Arkansas State athletic director Terry Mohajir and Ray Odierno, a former chief of staff of the U.S. Army.
The new members will each serve a three-year term and will replace outgoing committee members Jeff Bower, Herb Deromedi and Bobby Johnson, whose terms expire in February.
Oregon athletic director Rob Mullens will remain the committee's chair for a second season, so his term on the committee will not expire until February 2020. Committee members are typically asked to serve no more than two seasons as chair.
With three head coaches rotating off the committee and Slocum the only head coach joining, there are now three former head coaches on the committee, including former Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer and Ken Hatfield, who coached at Air Force, Arkansas, Clemson and Rice.
There are now six sitting athletic directors -- one from each Power 5 conference and Mohajir, who is the first Group of 5 athletic director to join the committee.
When asked about having only three former head coaches in the room, CFP executive director Bill Hancock said there has never been a quota system for selecting the committee members.
"We're very comfortable with this group and the makeup of next year's committee," Hancock said. "The room is made up of football experts and people of good judgement."
Slocum, who was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2012, led Texas A&M to a record of 123-47-2 from 1989-2002. He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from McNeese State, where he played football from 1963-67.
Slocum began his career as a football coach at Lake Charles High School in Louisiana, before he was hired at Kansas State from 1970-71. Slocum then was hired as an assistant coach by Texas A&M, where he spent the 1972-80 seasons prior to becoming the defensive coordinator at USC in 1981.
He returned to College Station in 1982 as the defensive coordinator, until becoming head coach in 1988. In his 14-year head coaching career, Slocum never had a losing season and won four conference championships, including the Big 12 title in 1998.
Under Slocum, the Aggies became the first program in Southwest Conference history to post three consecutive perfect conference seasons, including four years without losing a SWC game and the highest winning percentage in SWC history (.865). Slocum is a member of the Texas Sports Hall of Fame, and served on the board of the American Football Coaches Association.
Gen. Odierno culminated his nearly 40-year military career as the 38th Chief of Staff of the United States Army from 2011-15. He earned a bachelor's degree from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1976, where he played football in 1972-73. He later received a master's degree from NC State.
Odierno was a primary military advisor to former U.S. Secretaries of State Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice, a former CFP selection committee member. He served in Europe as a battalion executive officer and division artillery executive office, including deployment for Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.
Gen. Odierno is chairman of USA Football and was named the National Football Foundation's "Distinguished American" award recipient in 2013, joining the likes of past winners such as Vince Lombardi, Bob Hope, and Alan Page.
In 2012, Mohajir was named athletic director at Arkansas State, where he played football from 1988-91. He went on to the University of Kansas, where he served as a graduate assistant coach and assistant offensive line/game-day special teams coach for the Jayhawks from 1993-96.
He shifted his career toward administration prior to leaving KU in 1997 to become assistant athletics director at Missouri (1997-2004) and then senior associate athletics director at FAU (2004-11). Mohajir returned to Kansas as its senior associate athletics director in 2011, before accepting his current role with his alma mater.