INDIANAPOLIS
NCAA Division I universities fared better this year in considering minority football coaching candidates, the Black Coaches Association said Thursday.
Now the BCA wants those universities to hire more minority coaches and produce more representative search committees.
The third annual report card showed mixed results. While a record 12 of the 26 Division I-A and I-AA schools received overall grades of A, a record six schools also received F’s.
Three of those with A’s — The University at Buffalo, Columbia University and Southeast Missouri State University — hired Black head football coaches. Kansas State University, which also hired a Black coach, received a B.
Five of the schools with failing marks did not return their report to the BCA, resulting in automatic F’s. The other school was Division I-AA Missouri State University.
“This year’s grades are better in some areas than the first two years but worse than ever in other areas,” wrote Dr. Richard E. Lapchick, head of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida.
The 12 A’s were nearly as many as the previous two years combined (13), and Buffalo and Southeast Missouri State each earned perfect scores — A’s in each of the five categories. Kansas State received a lower overall grade because it received an F for the composition of its search committee.
The BCA, for the first time this year, instituted a policy that says schools with a D or F in any category cannot receive an overall A grade.
The six F’s caused consternation among the report card’s authors, as did the lack of minorities on search committees. Among those schools with failing marks were the University of Wisconsin and Boise State University, which promoted coordinators from their previous coaching staffs. Rice University, which hired Todd Graham of the University of Tulsa, was the only other Division I-A school with an F.
“What policy will it take to change the attitudes of institutions that do not feel the need to have open searches or compete for diversity as they do on the field, with stadiums packed to watch diverse athletic participants?” the report asked in its conclusion.
