Texas A&M, NCAA partnership recognizes universities that best champion diversity.

Texas A&M University’s Laboratory for Diversity in Sport and the NCAA have partnered to honor those athletic programs that are best championing diversity. A total of 162 Diversity in Athletics Awards are being given in eight categories, including overall excellence in diversity.

The NCAA granted Texas A&M’s lab $100,000 in January to evaluate the country’s college athletic departments on their diversity and diversity practices and award those who were the most outstanding. The 2008 overall excellence in diversity award recipients will be honored in June at the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACADA) convention in Dallas.

This is the third year the Laboratory for Diversity in Sport has given these awards. However, Dr. George Cunningham, who directs the lab, says the research has never been so thorough.

“We were able to be much more comprehensive this year because of the support of the NCAA,” says Cunningham, chair of Texas A&M’s Division of Sports Management in the Department of Health and Kinesiology. “I hope this will become a lasting partnership.”

According to Dr. Richard E. Lapchick, a renowned pioneer and activist for racial equality in sports, the NCAA’s support for these awards is a reflection of its current leadership agenda. “Myles Brand (NCAA president) has been a strong advocate of increasing diversity and inclusion since he became the president,” says Lapchick, director of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida. “He’s put together a staff that looks more like America than it did five or 10 years ago. So it doesn’t surprise me that the NCAA would do this under his leadership because it has been consistent with the other initiatives that he’s put forth.”

Increasing diversity and inclusion also seems to yield more competitive athletic programs.