The College Football Playoff Committee has a challenging task ahead of it this season — selecting the four best teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision when conferences have different schedules because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Chairing that committee this season for the first time will be University of Iowa Athletics Director Gary Barta, who spent his first season with the committee last season. The 13-person committee has rotating members from around college football every season.

There are a lot of unique variables that the committee — which was started in 2014 and has since selected four teams every season to compete for the national championship — will have to consider. But the job itself will remain the same.

“You’ve heard this before, but it’s true and it’s still going to be in play — we’re going to take the protocols, and we’re going to meet every week, and we’re going to have 13 people in the room, and they’re going to have watched every team play,” Barta said on a video conference Thursday.

“And based on whatever body of work is before us — and it will be different this year — but whatever body of work is before us we’re going to select the best four teams. And it will be different this year. But I have a lot of confidence in the 13 people in that room. They have a lot of knowledge. They’re going to watch every game. And we’re going to come out with the top four teams, and then our full ranking as well.”

The Big 12 and the ACC have already started their football seasons, and the SEC will kick off Sept. 26. Now the Big Ten is also playing this fall after previously postponing its season, and the Pac-12 may do the same.

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Different conferences will play a varying amount of games. Some conferences, like the Big Ten, have opted to not play nonconference games.

Iowa and the 13 other Big Ten teams will play an eight-game regular season schedule and one additional game against a cross-divisional opponent, including the conference’s championship game, based on standings.

The Big Ten Championship Game is scheduled for Dec. 19, a day before the College Football Playoff Committee will release its final rankings.

As the committee continues to meet over the next several weeks and months, it will try to differentiate the resumes of teams from different conferences, taking into consideration the different, rapidly changing circumstances teams are facing.

“What we all have agreed to is we’re not going to play out hypotheticals on Sept. 17,” Barta said. “What we’re going to do is see what we’re looking at in our first week Nov. 17 [when the committee’s first rankings come out]. We’ll see how much the body of work has accumulated across the board and see what we’re dealing with. And then we’ll start to make that assessment. But prior to that, we’re not going to guess how many games everybody is going to play. We’re going to let it accumulate and then once we get together the first week, we’ll start evaluating what’s in front of us.”