The Lack of African American Coaches in Division IA-IAA College Football
By Chantel Bivins, Managing Editor

In the history of NCAA IA-IAA Division college football, there have only been 19 institutions that have hired a racial or ethnic minority in the position of head coach. The November 2005 release of the Black Coaches Association Hiring Report Card revealed that the hiring gap of ethnic and racial minorities in the position of head coach is widening.

Out of 117 Division I-A football programs, there are currently three African American head coaches. The smallest number of African American head coaches since the early 1990s. Since fifty-two percent of players in this program are African American, this statistic has many people asking, “Why doesn’t this add up?” Some believe that African American coaches are stereotyped and others believe that the decades-old recruiting process for coaches is out-dated and in need of revision.

The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida released a report in November of 2004 “The Buck Stops Here: Assessing Diversity among Campus and Conference Leaders for Division IA Schools.” The study considers the race and gender of conference commissioners and campus leaders for all of Division IA that are most directly involved in hiring head football coaches. They believe that the mostly Caucasian commissioners and campus leaders have an impact on the hiring of football coaches.

According to the BCA report card there were 30 Division IA and IAA schools (23 Division IA and 7 Division IAA) who participated in the study. Of the 30 schools, nine schools received failing grades for their lack of diversity on the search committee. The Hiring/Search committee was measured by two components: the number of people of color on the search committee and the total number of members of the hiring/search committee. There is no standard number of people for a hiring/search committee. These findings show that the process needs to be altered to include a representative search committee and follow the university's affirmative action guidelines.

The National Black Caucus of State Legislators’ (NBCSL) Committee on Sports & Entertainment along with panelists Eddie George, Former NFL player; Floyd Keith, BCA Executive Director; and Joe Taylor, Head Football Coach at Hampton University, is concerned with the lack of African American Coaches in Division I and Division IAA Football. Therefore, during the committee meeting, committee Vice Chair Rep. Joyce Beatty (OH), sponsored Resolution 06-106, “Hiring Practices of African American Coaches in Division I and Division IAA Football,” which was approved by the chairman, Delegate Michael Vaughn (MD).

The resolution is asking that four actions be taken into consideration by the National Black Caucus of State Legislators. They are:

• the Sports and Entertainment Committee adopt Best Practices for providing opportunities and addressing the need for more Black head coaches; and

• the National Black Caucus of State Legislators through the Sports and Entertainment Committee develop initiatives and plans, using our sphere of influence; and

• that NBCSL through the Sports and Entertainment Committee develop a partnership with the BCA; and

• that NBCSL through the Sports and Entertainment Committee, and each member, develop through the BCA collaborative mandates for state colleges and universities to meet the standards and goals set forth by the BCA.

The NBCSL Sports & Entertainment committee hopes that by following these four action items more doors of opportunity for minorities will open, leading to equality on the field. To see the full resolution visit the 2006 resolutions at www.NBCSL.com/resolutions.html.