Just Some Good Ol' Boys

Originally posted 02.12.06

Let's talk a bit today about college football's biggest shame. Nope, not out of control boosters, or the exploitation of college aged adults for huge dollars. Those are tragedies as well, but for all major college sports, not just football. Let's talk a bit about minority hiring rates.

There are (or will be, come next August), 5 African American head football coaches at Division One programs. 5 out of 119. For more numbers and thoughts on this from ESPN.com, see this story about the recent hire at Colorado.

My wife (the math major) says that's 4.2%. In comparison, 49.2 % of student athletes in these football programs are African Americans. In the NFL, there are 6 out of 32 (18.7%) African American head coaches (with Art Shell's re-hire by the Raiders).

College basketball (men's and women's) and the NBA have much MUCH better numbers. Of course, in places like the Universities of Kentucky and Indiana, that's not always a good thing.

Why can't football keep up? Some theorize that it's because football is still a maority sport and basketball is seen as a minority sport.

Why don't we talk about this as much as we do the BCS or the RPI? Is it important?

Just wondering...