Racial Divide

Couple of articles over the past few weeks that discuss one of our favorite topics

First, The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports gives college athletics a C+ in terms of racial and gender hiring practices. They gave the FBS (Division 1) football programs an F for hiring- and that don't stand for "Fantastic".

Also, the first African American head football coach to win a Super Bowl opined in the New York Times Op-Ed pages on this topic as well. Tony Dungy gives his insight on why it's so difficult to make any progress at the college level-

At a seminar last spring in Indianapolis with other N.F.L. and college head coaches and university athletic directors, I asked that very question, and was enlightened by the responses of those directors. The biggest factor, they said, was the involvement of other people associated with the universities. It was not just the president and the athletic director who made the hiring decisions — alumni and boosters were involved, and the presidents often felt pressure to hire coaches the boosters would support.

So, it comes down to money (as always). In the NFL, there's a league wide initiative regarding interview processes. But there aren't any areas where all Universities have common incentives that could be leveraged to help encourage this process.

That is, except for their tax exempt status.