Q&A with College Football Playoff Committee Executive Director Bill Hancock

7/31/18 Santa Clara, CA

We caught up with Bill Hancock at the Bay Area Media Day Touchdown Tailgate, an event promoting the 2019 College Football National Championship game at Levi Stadium. He gave us his reaction to Stanford running back Bryce Love missing Pac-12 Media Day and why Levi Stadium is a great National Championship site.

Q: In light of Stanford running back Bryce Love skype calling in to Pac-12 Media day, have you ever seen a high profile collegiate student athlete miss media appearances due to school obligations?

A: I’m sure it has happened, I don’t really pay attention to that kind of thing too much.

Q: Do you think that it reflects poorly on the conference that they didn’t have their best player at media day?

A: Well school comes first. Because we are a part of higher education – always have been always will be. I know that Stanford made a thoughtful decision then and I believe Bryce felt like his school obligations trumped media day. I don’t have an issue with it myself.

Q: Down the road, when you consider a team for the playoffs, does that kind of response to media appearances affect your decision making?

A: No, not at all.

Q: What do you think having the championship game in the Bay Area does for college football? What do you like about this particular site?

A: Well, it’s one of the most vibrant areas in the country with a terrific population that loves sports and a great facility here at the stadium – a world class stadium. We want to give the athlete’s the opportunity to play in top-notch stadiums so that’s probably my major takeaway. Let’s give these athletes a chance to visit a new area and play in a great facility.

Q: Is there any concern about the distance between San Francisco and the South Bay?

A: No, not for us because we decided to keep all the focus here in the South Bay. The fan festival will be here, the concert series will be here, and by here I mean San Jose. The media hotel will be here, media day will be here so our center of everything is in San Jose.

Q: Will you encourage fans to stay in the South Bay over San Francisco?

A: If they want to participate in our fan festival, the concert series and the 5k – all that will be here. But we also know that we are on the shoulder of one of the greatest cities in the world so we know that some people will choose to stay in San Francisco and that’s great too.