The College Football Playoff will use a software called Teamworks to communicate with the four teams once they are selected.
The playoff teams and matchups will be determined Dec. 7, with the semifinal games being played Jan. 1. The two finalists will play in the championship game on Jan. 12.
Throughout those five weeks, CFP organizers will send all logistical information to the teams through an app developed by Teamworks, a Durham, N.C., company founded by a former Duke football player.
“It really streamlines the communication, whether we’re talking to the teams or to the six CFP bowls,” said Laila Brock, the CFP’s director of team operations and logistics.
Teamworks will establish a password-protected website where Brock or anyone from the CFP can post a message about a press conference, team party or any other type of scheduling notice. Those messages will be directed to each team’s director of football operations and any other administrator who needs to be in the loop.
The message is delivered via text, email and/or push notification. The recipient can determine how the message is received. The team officials then relay the information to the rest of the team.
“The main purpose of Teamworks will really come into play between the semifinals and the championship game,” Brock said. “Schools are used to preparing for a bowl game. They’re not used to the kind of turnaround we’ll see for the championship game.”
Brock said her talks with football operations administrators across the country led the CFP to choose Teamworks. Not only will the organization use the software to communicate with teams, but CFP also bought Teamworks software to use within its staff and the six CFP bowls.
Zach Maurides, a former lineman at Duke, began developing Teamworks when he was a sophomore in 2004. He saw firsthand how difficult it was for Duke administrators to keep 100 football players on schedule.
So he began developing the idea for Teamworks for a class project. It wasn’t until 2010 that the business took off and now its clients include hundreds of athletic programs at the high school, college and pro levels, as well as other businesses. The app enables administrators to synchronize classes, team meetings, travel, practices, medical treatments, tutoring and any other scheduling through a single platform.
Cost ranges from the thousands to the six figures, depending on the client and level of service required.
“It creates huge efficiencies,” Maurides said. “You can also tell who opened the message, so it eliminates the ‘I didn’t know’ excuse.”
