Data from Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) schools with openings for head coaches showed decreases from 2011 in the percentages of people of color being interviewed and on search committees for women’s college basketball vacancies.
The Black Coaches and Administrators (BCA) introduced the BCA Hiring Report Card (HRC) for NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Head Coaching Positions in 2008 to address the lack of people of color in head coaching positions. Since then, significant strides have been made, but the latest HRC released this week shows some stalling in forward momentum.
The HRC, which was authored by Dr. Richard Lapchick, examines the hiring process for vacant head coaching positions of women’s basketball teams at the 120 colleges and universities in the FBS. BCA executive director Floyd Keith said they limit the survey to FBS schools in order to maintain consistency with the organization’s measurements of football and men’s basketball.
For the 2011–12 hiring season, there were 25 FBS schools with head coaching vacancies in women’s basketball, all of which were filled. Data was collected for all of the schools regarding communication with the BCA about available candidates, the composition of the hiring/search committee, candidates interviewed and time frame. Schools received grades in each measurement category and an overall grade. In terms of overall grades, there was 16 A’s, five B’s, two C’s and two D’s. There were F’s in some categories, but no school received an overall grade of F.
“F’s mean they didn’t follow the process,” said Keith. “It’s not about the end result of whether a person of color was hired. It’s how they did the search. If the search wasn’t done correctly, then that’s how the grade is assessed. The end result isn’t about the hiring, it’s about the process.
“What we’re trying to avoid is having situations where there’s no communication or there’s no consideration given to following a process that would be inclusive.”
Six of the 25 (24 percent) new hires in 2011-12 were coaches of color. This is a decline from three years ago, when Keith said 67 percent of the hires were people of color, and the previous two hiring cycles, which averaged just under 40 percent.
