Creating the game plan
As CFP Chief Operating Officer, Andrea Williams constantly works behind the scenes to prepare for college football’s biggest games
by Hallie Hart
Since July 2018, Andrea Williams has worked as the CFP’s COO.
Photo by Kevin Jairaj
Andrea Williams and her College Football Playoff coworkers have already arranged plans for the next three years.
The 2022 national championship game is set for Jan. 10 in Indianapolis. Then it’s Los Angeles’ turn, and in 2024, Houston will be the host city. Throughout the past year, preparing for college football’s marquee event while adhering to COVID-19 safety protocols showed Williams how wildly unpredictable the future can be, but she and the other CFP staff members preestablish as many details as they can to ensure each title game goes smoothly.
It’s an essential part of her job as the CFP’s Chief Operating Officer.
“You’re talking about years in advance in terms of working with the host committee, going through the bid process, identifying stadiums and hotels,” Williams said. “And so really, the (host) community does a lot of heavy lifting for us, but you’re talking about years out as it relates to planning major sporting events like the College Football Playoff.”
Annually, thousands of people flock to a stadium to watch two gridiron giants vie for the sleek, gold trophy that represents the pinnacle of college football success, the NCAA equivalent of a Super Bowl win. Millions of viewers tune in on TV. It’s a colossal event, practically a holiday for devoted fans, and an organization with a full-time staff of only 20 people coordinates much of the behind-the-scenes work.
At the CFP office in Irving, Texas, Williams and other employees balance an assortment of tasks throughout the year. Every day is different, Williams said, but she has the flexibility and leadership experience to thrive in a rapidly changing environment.
Before joining the CFP, she was the Big Sky Conference commissioner for two years. Williams’ previous roles in the sports industry include Big Ten Conference associate commissioner and NCAA Division I women’s basketball championship director.
Although all of those jobs have required a forward-thinking approach, Williams strives to focus on the present when she looks at her career path.
“Be willing to do the jobs that perhaps others don’t find glamorous,” Williams said. “The one thing I love to tell young aspiring women or young aspiring administrators is to excel in the role that you have. So often, we’re looking ahead to, what is that next job, that next promotion, the next title? Where if you excel in the position that you’re in, those things are going to happen for you.”
Williams has also realized it’s OK to change plans when a new opportunity arises.
As a student-athlete at Texas A&M, Williams played basketball and volleyball, but she didn’t envision herself in the sports administration field. Instead, she gravitated toward journalism, hoping to land her dream job as a news anchor in her home city of San Antonio.
To gain entry into the TV industry, Williams worked in several miscellaneous capacities, including receptionist and assistant producer. Although she said she enjoyed broadcast journalism, her goals completely shifted when she had an internship in the Southern Conference’s communications department, an experience that opened her eyes to a sector of the sports industry she hadn’t previously seen up close.
“I was a student-athlete; I knew that there was an athletic director and a senior woman administrator and a compliance director,” Williams said. “But you really, at least for me, I didn’t have a sense of who these individuals were or what they did. Now, fast-forward to getting into a conference office … it probably wasn’t until that first internship postgraduate that I really got exposed to the administrative side of sports.”
Instead of appearing on TV screens across San Antonio as she once imagined, Williams chose to work away from the spotlight, but she didn’t shy away from leadership. She fell in love with athletic administration and found her niche, eventually ascending to her Big Sky Conference commissioner position.
It was more than just a personal accomplishment. When Williams started that job about five years ago, she became the first Black woman to preside as a Division I conference commissioner. She said she was happy to do so, but she also credited many other administrators who would have been deserving of that historic achievement, emphasizing that it shouldn’t have happened as late as 2016.
Although honoring trailblazers is important, progress shouldn’t stop there, she added.
“We do need to reflect on that,” Williams said. “But then how do we gain momentum and continue to build off of that to ensure that anyone who is qualified, who is talented, who is ready to serve in those roles, gets the look and gets every opportunity that anybody else would get?”
Despite the lack of racial and gender diversity in many sectors of sports business and administration, particularly in football, high-profile organizations such as the CFP are creating change. Nine of the 20 full-time CFP employees are women, and Williams said representation begins with “intentional leadership” at the organization’s top level.
During her past 2 1/2 years at the CFP, Williams has not only bonded with her coworkers, but also built a web of connections far beyond Texas. While orchestrating plans for the playoff games, the CFP relies on collaboration with many others, from host committee members to stadium workers and vendors.
Williams poses with the 2020 national championship trophy in New Orleans.
photo courtesy of Andrea Williams
Leading up to the 2021 championship game, many of those interactions had to happen via videoconference. In March 2020, CFP employees started working remotely, and playoff preparation was shrouded in uncertainty. Would playoff games be possible? Would there be a college football season at all?
No one knew, so Williams had to be ready for anything.
“I would say in any profession, you’re always learning,” Williams said. “You’re always growing. I can tell you none of us would have thought that we would have experienced a global pandemic, and I don’t think any of us had a notebook to help us pave the way in terms of how we were going to manage that.”
Williams said the CFP turned to medical workers as well as professional sports leagues to figure out how to prioritize safety while preparing for the playoffs. On Jan. 11, Williams attended the championship game in Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium, a venue that has also served as a COVID-19 vaccination location, and watched Alabama dominate Ohio State 52-24 in front of a reduced crowd. The whirlwind college football season had reached its conclusion.
Then it was time to resume business as usual. Williams said working in the office is now optional, but regardless of location, she and her coworkers have events to plan. There is always a championship game to anticipate, and there are always people to meet.
Whether Williams is meeting with staff members in her office or communicating with someone many miles away, human connections are the best part of her job, she said. Behind the well-coordinated, grand production of an event that football fans see each year when they watch the championship game, people like Williams are the glue holding everything together.
“We get to work with people from all walks of life, all backgrounds, experiences,” Williams said. “And when you’re able to identify a goal or an objective and you pool together a really qualified and talented team, and you watch it come to fruition, that’s pretty awesome.”