If you are looking for real diversity in college athletics employment, it can be found at the NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis. Don’t bother looking on university campuses, according to the 2017 College Sport Racial and Gender Report Card.
Released on Feb. 28 by the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports (TIDES) at the University of Central Florida, the report graded college sport with a C+ for racial hiring.
College sport was the only national sports organization that failed to receive at least a B for racial hiring practices.
“College sport, which has had difficulty increasing opportunities for women and people of color, faced further challenges in this reporting period as it experienced a decrease in racial hiring,” said Richard Lapchick, TIDES director.
“College sport still had the lowest grade for racial hiring practices and gender hiring practices among all of the college and professional sports covered by the respective Racial and Gender Report Cards.”
The NCAA Headquarters had a B+ for race in senior leadership in 2017, which is up from a B in 2016. It received an A+ for gender hiring, up from an A- last year.
Like in many other circumstances, there is no “trickle down” impact on college campuses.
“Athletic departments need to catch up to the NCAA. It is hardly perfect (for race, less than 20 percent of the two categories for race were people of color) but it is far ahead of its member institutions.”
For the 2017 season, 86.5 percent of Division I, 87.8 percent of Division II and 91.6 percent of Division III men’s coaching positions were held by white men or women.
In women’s sports, whites held 84.5 percent, 86.8 percent and 91.0 percent in Divisions I, II, and III, respectively.
African-Americans held 7.6 percent, 4.4 percent, and 5.0 percent of the men’s head coaching positions in Divisions I, II, and III, respectively.
In men’s Division I basketball, 22.3 percent of all head coaches were black, up 1.5 percentage points from the 20.8 percent reported in the 2015-2016 season. No celebration is warranted because that number is down 2.9 percentage points from the all-time high of 25.2 percent during the 2005-2006 season.
Division I women’s basketball, African-American women head coaches held 11.4 percent of the positions in 2016-2017 and African-American men held 4.6 percent of the positions in 2016-2017 for a combined percentage of 16.0 percent. This was a decrease from the 16.8 percent reported in 2015-2016.
Lapchick calls the statistics “a major area of concern,” because more than 53 percent of America’s scholarship college basketball players are African-American.
The study holds more bad news for inclusion in coaching ranks.
Only 7.2 percent of Division I head baseball coaches were people of color. African-Americans are so scarce among Division III coaching, that the percentage of women coaching men’s teams was higher than the percentage of African-Americans coaching men’s teams (6.2 percent vs. 5.0 percent).
Whites comprised 84.2 percent, 91.4 percent and 94.5 percent of basketball, football, and baseball head coaching positions, respectively, in all divisions combined during 2016-2017.
As for collegiate sports biggest moneymaker, FBS football, the number of head football coaches of color increased from 17 in 2016 to 18 in 2017. However, 86.9 percent of head coaches were white men.
Of all student-athletes at the FBS football level, 55.9 percent were African-Americans, 39.0 percent were white, 2.2 percent were Latinos, Asian/Pacific Islanders represented 2.5 percent and 0.4 percent of male Division I football student-athletes were classified as “other.”
Lapchick adds another sobering note.
“While there was some improvement for women as athletic administrators in all three Divisions, it was negatively balanced by the fact that in the 46th year after the passage of Title IX, more than 60 percent of all women’s teams are still coached by men,” Lapchick said.
LeBron James recently called the NCAA “corrupt.” What is happening on college campuses when it comes to minority hiring in athletic departments should be called worse.
HSSU Hornets in Top Ten
After sweeping a three-game series against Park University last weekend, Harris-Stowe State University moved to 12-6 overall and 5-1 in the American Midwest Conference.
The Hornets began the season No. 4 in the Black College Nines Top 10 ranking of HBCU Small Schools behind Talladega College, Winston-Salem State University and Edward Waters College. Rounding out the Top 10 are Miles College, Benedict College, Tuskegee University, Jarvis Christian College, Selma University and West Virginia State University.
Key players returning for the Hornets, who finished fifth in the final poll last year, include (2017 statistics) 1B Leobardo Saldivar (.370, 6 HR, 46 RBI); OF Zach Jones (.350, 4 HR, 41 RBI, 15 SB); SS P.J. Roberts (.260, 26 RBI, 25 SB); P Steven Kemp (9-4 , 5.83 era, 44 K’s, 66 IP); and P Stephen Wells (4-2, 5.46 era, 47 K’s, 61 IP.)
Congratulations to Kobe
After winning the Oscar for Animated Short at the Academy Awards for “Dear Basketball,” Kobe Bryant said in his acceptance speech, “as basketball players we’re really supposed to shut up and dribble.”
He, of course, was referring to FOX News host Laura Ingraham. She recently said LeBron James and Kevin Durant “should shut up and dribble” after discussing social justice and criticizing the president during an online interview.
“Dear Basketball,” is based on a poem Bryant penned in 2015 announcing his retirement. Bryant is credited as executive director and he accepted his Oscar from “Star Wars” star Mark Hamill. He shared the award with Disney animator Glen Keane.
“I don’t know if it’s possible. I mean, as basketball players, we are really supposed to shut up and dribble. But I am glad we do a little bit more than that,” Bryant told the black-tie audience.
He later told reporters, “I feel better than winning a championship, to be honest with you. I swear I do.’”
Bryant said a frequent reaction when he told people he wanted to write after his basketball career ended was, ‘That’s cute. You’ll be depressed when your career’s over.’
“To be here now and have this sense of validation, this is crazy, man. I wake up in the morning, I can’t wait to write, I can’t wait to get to the studio,” he said.
Alvin A. Reid was honored as the 2017 “Best Sports Columnist – Weeklies” in the Missouri Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest. He is a panelist on the Nine Network program, Donnybrook, is a weekly contributor to “The Charlie Tuna Show” on KFNS and can also be heard on Frank Cusumano’s “The Press Box.” His Twitter handle is @aareid1.
