Hugh Kellenberger

Clarion Ledger

Former Southern Miss coach Jeff Bower will now have a hand in deciding who plays each season in the College Football Playoff.

Bower was one of four new names selected to the CFP selection committee on Thursday, along with former Michigan coach Lloyd Carr, former Central Michigan coach/AD Herb Deromedi and Oregon athletic director Rob Mullens.

Bower, 62, was the face of Southern Miss football for nearly two decades, and spent 29 total years in Hattiesburg as a quarterback, assistant coach and then head coach from 1990 to 2007. He had a career record of 119-83-1 and took Southern Miss to bowl games in each of his last six years as head coach and 10 of the last 11.

The Golden Eagles had 14-straight winning seasons under Bower, and he won four Conference USA championships (1996, 1997, 1999 and 2003). Bower technically resigned after the 2007 season, though it was long suspected he was more pushed out. The relationship between he and the school has since gotten better: USM named its academic center after Bower last year.

Mike Gould, Pat Haden, Tom Osborne and Mike Tranghese were all charter members of the committee, which began before the 2014 season. Bower and the three other newcomers will all serve three-year terms.

What does a member of the College Football Playoff selection committee do? Well, they watch a lot of football all season, and then come together to determine a weekly top 25 during the second half of the season. That final top 25 serves two purposes: the top four will go on to play in the playoff, while the rest of it decides many of the best bowl game matchups.