Progress in racial and gender diversity in intercollegiate athletics is still nowhere near the diversity of student-athletes.
In the latest report from The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES), “The 2020 Racial and Gender Report Card, College Sport,” college sport receives an overall grade of C+, which breaks down to a B for racial hiring practices and a C+ for gender hiring. As the report notes, intercollegiate athletics remains predominantly white and male.
There was no change from 2019 to 2020 in the racial hiring of Division I conference commissioners, holding at 13.3%. Gender hiring of conference commissioners rose from 30% to 33.3%. Racial hiring of Division I athletic directors held at 15.5% and gender hiring rose from 13.6% to 14.3%.
Sean Frazier, associate vice president/director of athletics at Northern Illinois University and one of the few African American athletic directors at a Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) institution, said these reports raise awareness.
“Unfortunately, the numbers have not changed significantly,” said Frazier, who noted the large percentage of students of color participating in FBS football and basketball. “You would hope it would get to a point where we would have head coaches and administrators of color that would reflect some type of balance.”
Dr. Richard E. Lapchick, director of TIDES and primary author of the report, provided Diverse with some time comparisons of percentages. In 2009-10, 6.9% of head football coaches were Black and in 2019-20 8.1% were Black. In 2010-11, women held 39.5% of head coaching positions for women’s teams. Ten years later they hold 41% across Divisions I, II and III.
In the comparison of 2019 to 2020, Lapchick said there were more categories that decreased for people of color than increased. Historically Black colleges were not included in the data analysis. Gender hiring shows a slightly better picture, with 10 categories increasing.
