College Football Is Missing Minority Coaches

Around the nation, colleges are finishing up their enrollment and bragging about high numbers of Black athletes in their ranks.

The numbers of African American coaches and coordinator positions are much lower according to a review of the Football Bowl Subdivision schools.

Professor of African American Studies and History at Fordham University, Mark Naison is quoted, saying:

“College coaches are expected to fundraise and schmooze with alumni as well as coach, the rich alumni, most of whom are white, feel more comfortable with people who look like them. So long as alumni dollars drive college football funding, white coaches will have a huge hiring advantage.”

In one tier of schools from the study, called Group 5, only 3 of the 65 coaches are African American: Jay Norvell at Nevada (Mountain West), Thomas Hammock at Northern Illinois (Mid-American) and Willie Taggart at Florida Atlantic (Conference USA). There are no black head coaches in the American Athletic Conference or the Sun Belt.