For decades, college coaches have primarily been White and male. Coaches of color are in short supply. In addition, decades after the advent of Title IX, female coaches are not at parity with male coaches, even when it comes to coaching female teams. The same largely holds true for athletic director positions, sports administrators and support staff.
As the student-athlete pool becomes more diverse, the divide in racial and gender representation between student-athletes and the professionals who lead teams both on the field and off is all the more stark. The Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics tackled that disparity head-on at its annual meeting in Washington, D.C., on Monday.
Players and coaches have called for reform for decades without gaining much traction. One suggestion that has been bandied about is to replicate the “Rooney Rule” at the college level. The NFL created the Rooney Rule in 2003 in an attempt to increase minority representation among the league’s head coaches. At the time, there was one minority coach across all 32 NFL teams.
The rule requires teams to interview minority candidates for head coach positions. Since the Rooney Rule was implemented, the proportion of head coaches of color in the NFL increased. As of 2017, there are expected to be eight minority head coaches.
At the Knight Commission meeting on Monday, panelists and commissioners debated the merits of adapting the Rooney Rule for college sports. Bob Bowlsby, commissioner of the Big 12 Conference, said that the conference discussed whether it should adopt the Rooney Rule at a recent forum in Atlanta.
“I think reasonable people can disagree as to how successful it is, but in the end, it’s not about interviewing people of color, it’s about hiring people of color,” Bowlsby said. “It’s not about going through a process, it’s about having a result.”
Dr. Richard Lapchick, director of the The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) at the University of Central Florida, has long called on the NCAA to institute a version of the Rooney Rule for intercollegiate athletics, advocating for what he calls the “Eddie Robinson Rule,” in honor of the legendary Grambling State coach.
