* Division III had the worst record of all NCAA divisions in terms of race and gender hiring practices -- only 3.4 percent of college athletics directors, 3.7 percent of associate and assistant athletics directors, and 1.8 percent of faculty athletics representatives are Black men.
* Over the past five years, the percentage of Blacks playing college sports has declined slightly.
The Center did not issue grades for college sports in the 1997 RRP. They will be forthcoming in the 1998 report. Even so, the most recent RRP notes that if grades had been given this time, college sports would have fared poorly.
The stated goal of the Racial Report Card is to help sports to realize that they're no better off than any other industry when it comes to selecting who gets those decision-making positions. And while the professional league bosses and NCAA top brass are strong advocates for diversity, there's still a lot of room to grow.
The numbers from the 1997 Report Card relay a message that perhaps some folks don't want to hear. On the field, sports have as much equal opportunity as anything America has to offer. Off the field, sports are very segregated.
But in spite of those shortcomings, the Report Card stresses that sports are still the one venue where Whites and minorities have the best chance to set a positive national example for the rest of the U.S.
Division I Assistant Coaches (men's teams -- in percentages)
Basketball Football BaseballCOPYRIGHT 1998 Cox, Matthews & Associates
(Div. I-A)
White 68.0 79.8 93.2
Black 31.2 18.0 1.3
Other 0.8 2.2 5.5
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