The subject of Condoleezza Rice joining the NCAA's selection committee for next season's college football playoff came up on College Gameday, and David Pollack and Chris Fowler began quite the firestorm.
Pollack initially began explaining that he would prefer people who were around the game to be on the committee, or people who played college football. Fowler then led him down a hole and said, "So no women?" As you'll see, Pollack deflected the insinuation back to Fowler, while the rest of the crew uncomfortably hoped the commercial break was coming ASAP.
Pollack led with, "I'm going to stick my foot in my mouth," and he probably should have left it there. If he was aware enough to know what he was saying was stupid, why say it? Still, segments like these are all discussed beforehand, and Fowler must have known Pollack's position, yet decided to point out the elephant in the room anyway. While unprofessional, perhaps Fowler felt like cutting through the subverse for once.
In my opinion, an outsider like Rice would be a great thing for the committee — though Rice is well connected to football and said NFL commissioner is her dream job. Think of all the money problems in the NCAA now. The system hasn't given us much reason to think they can be trusted.
The comments drew a lot of attention on Twitter, and even reached Erin Andrews, who fired back on FoxSports1.
Interesting angle. MT @WorldofIsaac just hearing Pollack's comments. That's on Fowler. He should get killed for that http://t.co/kw46amIv2x
— Jason McIntyre (@jasonrmcintyre) October 5, 2013
Pollack should read this Stanford feature, where David Shaw describes Condi diagramming plays with him. http://t.co/YSdjpaNfDB
— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) October 5, 2013
I expect better from David Pollack than jockocracy nonsense.
— Richard Deitsch (@richarddeitsch) October 5, 2013
According to David Pollack's logic, you shouldn't be allowed to judge BBQ competitions if you've never been a brisket.
— sir broosk (@celebrityhottub) October 5, 2013
Hey David Pollack. She made decisions on foreign policy, wars, diplomacy. How ever will her female brain decipher football tape?
— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) October 5, 2013
David Pollack finally had the courage to say what awful people were thinking.
— The Solid Verbal (@SolidVerbal) October 5, 2013
ewww girls RT @ChrisMottram: David Pollack just said that no women should be on college football playoff selection committee.
— edsbs (@edsbs) October 5, 2013
Chris Fowler totally set up David Pollack to make a fool of himself. Fowler might be getting a blindside hit in truck.
— Jim Weber (@JimMWeber) October 5, 2013
I want people on the committee that eat, sleep & breathe college football during the season. It has nothing to do with male or female
— David Pollack (@davidpollack47) October 5, 2013