BOSTON

The grades are in for minority hiring in college sports, and they're lousy.

A new study released in February by Northeastern University's Center for the Study of Sport in Society found that while the record for minority hiring in pro basketball, football, and baseball is poor, it's even worse at the college level.

The "Racial Report Card" covering the 1995-96 academic year showed that college sports have the worst record for hiring women and minorities; the percentage of Black players decreased in college and pro sports; and that majority ownership in sports for minorities does not exist.

"There has been very little progress in the patterns of hiring people of color and women in pro and college sport," said Richard Lapchick, author of the report and director of the center, which conducts an annual study of the racial composition of players, coaches and front office employees in pro basketball, football, and baseball. This year, it widened its focus to include colleges.

"Despite well-intentioned efforts, White males still control most of our teams, front offices, and athletic departments," Lapchick said.

The center found that in 1996, 71.4 percent of the NCAA's top executives were White and approximately 21 percent were Black. Approximately 92.1 percent of the organization's chief aides were White, 5.3 percent were Black, and 2.6 percent were Hispanic. Also, more than 80 percent of the NCAA's office managers were White, 9.4 percent were Black, and 1.9 percent were Hispanic.

Coaching jobs for Blacks in NCAA Division I football, basketball, and baseball rank behind their pro counterparts in the NFL, NBA, and major league baseball. Only three of thirty NFL coaches were minorities, followed by three of twenty-eight in baseball, and seven of twenty-nine in the NBA.

At the college ranks, 81.5 percent of Division I basketball coaches were White, along with 92.8 percent of I-A football coaches and 97.6 percent of baseball coaches.

"When you're talking tennis, golf, swimming, and other sports where there are poor percentages of minority participation, that's a reflection of the fact that in our society we don't provide a lot of good programs at the secondary level, so we don't see high participation rates for those sports," said NCAA executive director Dr. Cedric Dempsey.

"But it's inexcusable in sports like baseball, basketball, and track, where we have high participation numbers of minorities not to have more minority coaches," he added.

Among other findings:

* Division III had the worst record of all NCAA divisions. More than 70 percent of all Division III college athletic directors were White men. Only 3.4 percent were Black men.

* The percentage of Black athletes in colleges has declined over the past five years while participation of Hispanic student-athletes has gone up slightly.

* League offices in all three pro sports had a better minority hiring record than teams.