Michigan State hired an African American head football coach, which is the exception to the rule in major college football.
If you follow major college football, then you probably know that Michigan State’s recent search for a head football coach was a topsy-turvy affair. And that’s putting it mildly. Sports Illustrated Pat Forde described it as “wallpapering over your mistakes with wads of cash and hoping it works out.” Michigan-based John U. Bacon asserted that MSU’s AD “had no idea how to run a national search.” In the end, the Spartans enticed Mel Tucker to head east from the University of Colorado by doubling his salary and paying his $3 million buyout fee.
But rather than focus on the search process, let’s focus on the search outcome and consider something important that people should be talking about, but most aren’t.
Michigan State hired an African American as its head football coach. And in the world of major college football, that outcome is nothing short of extraordinary.
Here’s why. While African Americans represent nearly 60% of those playing major college football today, those percentages don’t hold up at the head coaching level. Only 10% of the “biggest of the big schools”—the Football Bowl Subdivision schools (e.g., Ohio State, UCLA, and Georgia) employ African American head coaches. In raw numbers, that’s 13 out of 130 universities.
That stat doesn’t tell the full story either. Eight of those coaches are employed in just two athletic conferences—the Big Ten (Illinois, Maryland, Penn State, and now MSU) and the Pacific 12 (Arizona, Arizona State, Stanford, and Washington). In percentage terms, that’s 33% for the PAC-12 and 29% for the Big Ten. Those percentages, while not high, are lightyears ahead of the paltry 4% for the other 122 schools.
SU’s Dino Babers (photo, Syracuse.com)
In fact, the three other members of the so-called “Power 5 Conferences’ lag significantly behind the Big Ten and PAC-12 in the diversity of football coaches.
–The 14-member Southeastern Conference–a league that includes powerhouse Alabama and defending national champ LSU–has only one African American head football coach. He’s Vanderbilt’s Derek Mason.
–One is also the number in the 15-member Atlantic Coast Conference, which includes 2019 national champ, Clemson. That coach is Syracuse’s Dino Babers.
–The 10-member Big Twelve Conference, which includes Texas and Oklahoma, has none.
Outcome? There are only two African American head football coaches working in those three major conferences—5% of 39 schools.
It is no wonder, then, that the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports at the University of South Carolina recently gave major college football an overall diversity grade of ‘D.’ And the diversity challenge goes well beyond the football field, says Institute director Richard Lapchick. He profiles a racial imbalance in major college leadership by giving these numbers.
Caucasians represent 88.5% of chancellors and presidents, 80.8% of athletic directors, 83.6% of faculty athletic representatives, and 80% of conference commissioners. The overwhelming majority of those officials are white men.
Let’s face it. It is no secret that major college football is fueled by money, and the primary focus is winning. Rhetoric aside, everything else is secondary. That includes what I call socially responsible athletics administration.
No other industry I know would be able to get away with the shenanigans that are endemic in revenue-generating collegiate athletics. In addition to the bifurcated workforce/management division that I’ve described here, fans need to know that only the major schools are able to pay for athletics via athletics. The majority of the 230 major programs in this country can’t make it financially without getting significant cash infusions from student fees and university general fund coffers. USA Today pegged last year’s national total at $3 billion dollars. That’s right…a ‘b.’
I don’t know if Michigan State identified diversity as a top priority in its coaching search, but that’s where the Spartans landed. That’s a good thing. More schools need to follow suit.
