IRVING, Texas -- The 13-member College Football Playoff selection committee was officially introduced Wednesday.

Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long is the chair of the committee, which will be responsible for selecting the four teams that advance to the College Football Playoff beginning after the 2014 regular season.

The committee is a star-studded lineup, including former NFL quarterbacks Pat Haden, Archie Manning and Oliver Luck and former coaches Tom Osborne, Barry Alvarez and Tyrone Willingham. However, the biggest name unquestionably is the lone female -- former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

"Condi definitely earned her spot on this committee," College Football Playoff executive director Bill Hancock said. "She knows this game, she is a student of this game. ... Obviously, part of this is going to be the ability to make judgments under scrutiny, and Condi has that."

Rice says she's ready for the challenge.

"I have experience in decision-making under pressure, decision-making when you have to evaluate information, look at it in a variety of ways, working in a team to try to come up with good decision," Rice said in an interview with ESPN's Colin Cowherd that appeared on "Olbermann" on Wednesday night. "I think I can bring that to the committee."

Rice was a surprising pick to be part of the postseason system that will replace the Bowl Championship Series next year because she has never worked directly in college athletics, though when she was provost at Stanford the athletic department was under her supervision and she hired Willingham as football coach.

Some, such as former Auburn coach Pat Dye, have said they would prefer only those who have played football to be on the committee.

"I'd say coach I respect you, I remember your great run at Auburn, but I respectfully disagree," Rice told Cowherd. "There are others on the committee who have not played football. With all due respect to my dear friend Roger Goodell and Paul Tagliabue, the most influential NFL commissioner was Pete Rozelle. He never played football. You can be a student of something and not experience it. And I consider myself a student of college football. I am after all a student of Russia, but I've never been Russian, either. You can know something from following it and studying it. And I spend a lot of my time on Saturday with college football."