The 2010 -11 college football season will have more black head coaches leading teams than ever before. A record six African Americans were chosen as head coaches in the most recent hiring cycle that takes place annually in December and January. Of those six, four were chosen at universities that compete at the highest level in the Bowl Championship Series. The six major conferences only had one black head football coach, Randy Shannon at the University of Miami, out of 65 teams at the start of this past season. The players on these teams are approximately 70 percent black. “ We are experiencing a watershed of success after a sordid history” said Floyd Keith the Executive Director of the Black Coaches and Administrators.
Charlie Strong, who was hired at the University of Louisville, is the first African American head coach in the Big East Conference. Joker Phillips, at the University of Kentucky, is just the second black head coach in the 75 year history of the Southeastern Conference (SEC) and currently the only one. The SEC has been the most dominant conference in college football for decades and the head coaches in the SEC earn salaries that range from 1 million to 4 million dollars a year which makes them the highest paid employees on their campuses. The head coaches choose their assistant coaches who earn salaries that range from $100,000 up to $ 800,000.
“ I believe the BCA has played a significant role in the exposure of the collegiate football hiring issue dating back to the late 1980s. What happened to cause this change? No single event or group is fully responsible. It’s a collaboration of voices and actions on the issue” said Keith.
The following is the complete list of the 15 minority Head Football
Coaches in the Football Bowl Subdivision ( formerly D-I A). 13 are African American, one is Latino and one is Samoan.
Listed Alphabetically:
