College Football Playoff executive director Bill Hancock said he has heard from "hundreds" of people who would like to serve on the most powerful committee in all of college sports.

Including, of course, some college football fans.

Sorry, guys.

The process is a bit more selective than the line for season tickets.

There has been a former secretary of state. A retired three-star general. Hall of Fame coaches. And now a Rhodes Scholar.

"Our focus is to get the best people," Hancock said.

The CFP took another shot at it on Tuesday, when it announced the three new members who will join the 13-person selection committee for 2017: former Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer, Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith and Robert Morris president Chris Howard (he's the Rhodes Scholar). For the past three seasons, the "Selection Central" room has been like a Mensa meeting of the sport.

The star power and experience isn't a question.

Some may not understand why there aren't more former players, younger people or people outside of traditional football backgrounds on the committee. Others might wonder why the entire group isn't composed of former players and coaches.

The bottom line is this: The CFP isn't concerned with optics as much as it is with getting the right people.

"We're always on the lookout for younger people, but the first focus is on getting the best people for college football," Hancock said. "That's the first focus. It's probably the first through four focus. The experience of the members is a really great reflection of their knowledge of college football."

The College Football Playoff committee may not have a lot of diversity in terms of background or age, but the CFP is most concerned with getting the most qualified people possible. Kevin Jairaj/CFP Images

There are also some logical explanations as to why you haven't seen more former players like Eddie George, Brady Quinn or Matt Leinart.

Many are under contract as TV or radio analysts, and current members of the media aren't allowed on the committee. Many 30- and 40-somethings are still holding down full-time jobs -- like 47-year-old committee member Howard, who is the president of a university, and 45-year-old committee chair Kirby Hocutt, who is the athletic director at Texas Tech.

It's a hefty commitment (albeit an all-expenses-paid one), even for somebody who is retired.

The committee members meet every Monday and Tuesday during the season in Dallas, when each of their rankings is revealed.

"It most definitely is an enormous time commitment," Hocutt said. "You're aware of that before accepting the role. But I believe it's a tremendous opportunity and, once you accept it, responsibility to give the time that's necessary to do it the right way. When you get into the football season, it literally occupies a minimum of four days a week.

"It takes priority over other things that are in front of you over the course of those three months."

And so the CFP is tasked with finding not only exceptionally qualified people but also those who are willing to dedicate their fall to it.

It all starts with the 10 FBS commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick. They comprise the CFP's management committee, and each is invited to submit nominations for the selection committee. The candidates are then reviewed by the entire group, which considers five classifications of backgrounds (former players, former coaches, current athletic directors, administrators and former journalists), along with geographic balance.

Hocutt said diversifying the professional backgrounds of the committee members "brings forward a system that works," and each of them brings a different approach to constructing their weekly list of top 25 teams.

"As athletics directors, the five us that are around the table I think look at different things and prepare uniquely in the way we believe is best for us," Hocutt said. "I believe the same thing to be said by the coaches and other administrators around the table. I think it's a uniqueness of not just the diversity with professional backgrounds, but the diversity of each 13 specific individuals is unique and productive for us as a selection committee."

The 2017 group is composed of five sitting athletic directors, five former coaches, one former journalist and two administrators.

"What's important about the diversity is that people really do come at it from very different perspectives, and different experiences," said Condoleezza Rice, a former CFP selection committee member. "The coaches had a kind of special role because -- and Kirby very often said we relied on the coaches -- and we did, but everybody came with different perspectives, with different stripes and different skill sets and different ways of looking at whatever question was on the table. There was so much respect for everyone around that table, that I think we got the best out of everybody."

Their backgrounds are where the diversity on the committee comes into play -- not in the stark image of a 13-member group that features 10 white men, three African-American men and no women now that Rice's tenure has ended.

Nine of the committee members are at least 60 years old, including three who are over 70.

With age, though, comes knowledge and experience, and it's nearly impossible for a younger person to match the football savvy of a committee member such as 70-year-old Beamer, who was Virginia Tech's head coach for 29 seasons, or 77-year-old Hall of Fame coach Herb Deromedi, who spent a combined 38 years at Central Michigan, where he retired as the winningest coach in Mid-American Conference history.

"These three committees have done a terrific job," Hancock said. "They have gotten it right all three years."

Some fans might beg to differ -- but they're not on the committee.