Constitutional Law

Minority Coaches Struggle To Land Top Posts In College Football, Article Finds

African American coaches are struggling to make advancements in college football according to a report from the Sports Law Blog. The blog’s reporting notes that African American athletes make up more than half of the scholarship players in Division I college football, but that there are only six African American coaches of the 119 head coaching positions. The sports blog says that the hiring practices in college football clearly ignore an NCAA policy that is similar to the NFL’s “Rooney Rule,” which requires the pro football franchises to interview one or more minorities for head-coaching vacancies. “Athletic directors and university administrators, as per the usual, seem so beholden to the booster or the alum (the good old boy network), that what may be in the best interest of the athlete (and the program in the long term), is insignificant or even trivial,” the Sports Law Blog reports.

Last month, ACS distributed an Issue Brief by Douglas C. Proxmire, on the mixed impact of the Rooney Rule in the NFL. Proxmire, a partner at Patton Boggs LLP, noted the benefits of the rule, while asserting that more needs to be done to bolster diversity of the NFL’s coaching ranks. Proxmire, however, wrote that a similar rule should be instituted in college sports. The article, “Coaching Diversity: The Rooney Rule, Its Application, and Ideas for Expansion,” is available here.

Full post as published by ACS Blog on January 05, 2009 (boomark / email).