Former Penn State standout John Urschel (64) will make use of his backgrounds in football and mathematics while serving on the College Football Playoff selection committee.
Gene J Puskar | AP file photo
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The math always came very easily to John Urschel. It was the football that he truly had to work at to excel.
And so the Penn State and NFL alum has found himself lured back to the sport that he walked away from to focus on his mathematics career — with a new job that ties in both worlds.
Invited to serve on the College Football Playoff selection committee, Urschel has accepted and will serve a three-year term on the panel that selects the four teams to play for the national championship at the end of each season.
“I’m beyond excited to be a part of the selection committee,” Urschel wrote on Twitter on Wednesday. “College football is such an amazing thing, and has given me so much.
“Looking forward to giving back and continuing to be a part of college football in any way I can!”
Urschel was one of three new members appointed on Wednesday along with Wyoming athletic director Tom Burman and Colorado athletic director Rick George.
The trio replaces Oregon athletic director Rob Mullens, who had been the committee chairman and de facto spokesman, former Virginia Tech head coach Frank Beamer and Robert Morris president Chris Howard, a former player at Air Force.
Returning committee member Gary Barta, the athletic director at Iowa, will serve as the new chairman.
“Tom, Rick and John each bring an exciting breadth of experiences and expertise to the committee,” said CFP executive director Bill Hancock. “All three will continue the CFP tradition of committee members with high integrity and passion for the sport of college football.”
A goal for the panel has been to have a diverse group on the panel of former players, coaches and administrators. Urschel, 28, has a particularly interesting background as a standout guard at Penn State who, while earning first-team All-Big Ten honors in 2012 and 2013 was also teaching math courses as a grad student.
A winner of the Campbell Trophy, sometimes referred to as the “academic Heisman,” Urschel was a fifth-round draft pick of the Baltimore Ravens in 2014. He appeared in 40 games with 13 starts while beginning work toward a prestigious Ph.D at MIT. He retired from football shortly before the 2017 season.
While the Nittany Lions may be looking for a boost in their bid for their first Playoff appearance next fall, Urschel won’t be able to help his alma mater directly. He’ll be required to recuse himself from any discussions involving Penn State’s ranking during the process.
Urschel has enjoyed a certain amount of fame because of his mathematical brilliance, especially for any other mid-round NFL draft pick. If it weren’t for a certain Saquon Barkley, Urschel would be Penn State’s most marketable alum in recent history, appearing in multiple national commercials.
Even in his post-football career, Urschel was on TV recently in a Mazda ad along with this year’s Campbell winner, Oregon’s NFL-bound quarterback Justin Herbert.