After one meeting of the University of Hawaii football coaching search advisory committee Monday, it is too soon to say who the Warriors’ next leader will be.

But it is already apparent who won’t get it.

It is a safe bet it will not be somebody lacking the Bert T. Kobayashi Jr. seal of approval.

Kobayashi is one of six august committee members charged with advising athletic director Jim Donovan in the choice of a successor to Greg McMackin. But history suggests the counsel of Kobayashi, founding partner in the downtown law firm of Kobayashi, Sugita & Goda, will not fall on deaf ears in the committee room, Donovan’s office or behind closed doors in Bachman Hall.

The 71-year-old Kobayashi has become one of the most influential downtown sports figures since Walter Dods and the late Wally Fujiyama, and has proven to be UH’s go-to guy on several fronts.

Officially, of course, it is Donovan’s call on which of the 30 names he sends up the circuitous chain of command for approval sometime this month. But facing the biggest hire of his nearly four-year tenure, you can bet he’ll feel a lot more secure in making that call if Kobayashi stands with him. And it will resonate a lot more with the powers that be.

After all, UH has come to rely heavily on Kobayashi’s firm in courtrooms as well as sports. UH said it has outsourced $1.6 million of legal business to the firm over a five-year period ending March 2011. And, as the athletic department writes checks for another two years, there’s no forgetting UH has been paying a steeper tab — $5 million to McMackin, who Kobayashi well represented in contract talks four years ago.

The word is that Kobayashi got his seat on the committee at the insistence of several in Bachman Hall. Undoubtedly for his acumen and experience, but the understanding that it will also keep him from representing the next coach in negotiations was probably not overlooked, either. Kobayashi’s son, Chris, has represented a wide array of sports figures, including Akebono and Donovan.

With Bank of Hawaii President Peter Ho, entrepreneur Duane Kurisu, UH vice president and former NFL All-Pro Rockne Freitas, Cincinnati Bengals minority owner Edison Miyawaki and Outrigger Hotels & Resorts vice president Jean Rolles also comprising the committee, it is a lineup of free-thinking, heavy hitters. One, we are told, that was assembled amid considerable arm wrestling among the various administrative factions, excluding students.

But when it comes to the task of filling the school’s — if not the state’s — most visible position, it figured that Kobayashi, a former Roosevelt High football player, would have a seat at the table. His credits include guiding the painstaking four-year restructuring of the UH booster groups into a multi-million dollar enterprise a decade ago under the umbrella of Ahahui Koa Anuenue. He has served on other committees, including the one that led to the hiring of men’s basketball coach Gib Arnold.

Getting the UH job will likely mean winning the support of a majority of the committee. And earning the backing of the senior member would be a good place to start.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.