Dave Heeke appointed a chairman of NCAA college football issues committee

"It's a neat honor," Heeke said. "I think it's important to be on national committees, because it benefits the conference and CMU."

Heeke said with how popular college football is getting, the committee will be trying to maintain the integrity of the league. This group is different from the NCAA rules committee, but looks at, examines and develops recommendations to rules committees and the NCAA on things directly affecting the game.

There are no specific issues or concerns that Heeke said that stand out or a list of goals for the year, rather getting through the different problems that pop up through the year.

"We want to continue tackling these issues with the best interest of college football in mind," Heeke said. "Protecting the game and student athletes is our central focus."

While the big change in college football coming up is changing to a four-team playoff in coming years, Heeke said the committee will not make the rules or formulate the strategy of how that is executed. The committee will talk about it and possibly send recommendations to the NCAA and BCS, which are directly involved with creating the playoff situation.

There are several conference calls throughout the year for the committee and a two-day conference in Indianapolis as a part of serving on the committee — which Heeke has done for four previous years.

"It's not an enormous time commitment, but it's important," Heeke said.

Wisconsin Athletics Director Barry Alvarez and Cincinnati head coach Butch Jones, formerly at CMU, are two of the 14 people serving on the committee. Heeke is the only member affiliated with the Mid-American Conference.