When it comes to coaching and leadership opportunities, the NCAA has turned a blind eye to creating opportunities for people of color and women. Due to the lack of intervention, university recruiting processes led by chancellors and athletic directors have the final say on who to hire, which has created biases during the recruiting process.
The lack of diversity in college sports is a topic that has resurfaced in recent years. With protests against police brutality and racial inequality rising in the United States, the NCAA has once again come under fire for its perceived lack of real attempt to create opportunities for underrepresented people in the coaching profession .
The NCAA is not far behind the NBA and NFL in diversity, where 93.8% of head coaches are white. According to NCAA85% of all head coaches and athletic directors in the 2018-19 collegiate year were white.
In the Big West Conference that includes CSUN, the number of people underrepresented in head coaching positions has been slowly increasing since 2012. According to NCAA dataThe Big West Conference accounted for 27% of minority head coaches as well as 40% of assistant coaches in 2019.
“There will be a problem as long as (athletic directors, presidents or chancellors) within these university systems who hire these coaches don’t feel the need to bring a different perspective to their hiring practices,” Richard said Lapchick, professor at University of Central Florida and human rights advocate. “The NCAA must mandate diverse candidate pools for the interview process, with at least two different candidates interviewed.”
Lapchick has been a leading advocate for creating opportunities for underrepresented people in sports since the 1970s. During his career, he created programs such as the National Consortium for Academics and Sports and the Center for the Study of Sport in Society at Northwestern University. Lapchick serves as chair of the highly acclaimed DeVos Sports Business Management Program at UCF, where he continues to lead the agenda fighting for the rights of underrepresented communities in sports.
The NCAA has tried to combat these issues in the past, but only to a certain extent. After reviewing data on the underrepresentation of people of color and women in leadership positions in university programs in 2016, the NCAA introduced the Presidential commitmentwhich allowed universities to sign a petition recognizing the lack of diversity.
However, this commitment is little more than recognition. According to NCAA data878 of 1,111 universities across all three divisions – including CSUN – have signed this pledge.
“There is still work to be done,” said the The NCAA said in a report. “Some numbers are moving in the right direction, and many schools and conferences have signed the NCAA Presidential Pledge. It is imperative that senior leaders maintain intentional and inclusive recruiting practices in the athletics industry.
The NCAA could learn a lesson from the NFL, which has historically had a problem with a lack of coaching opportunities for minorities but has attempted to address it with an actively enforced solution. In 2003, the NFL adopted the Rooney Rule which requires all NFL teams to interview at least one person of color for vacant head coach and general manager positions.
Over the years, the Rooney Rule, named after the late Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney, has expanded to also require teams to interview women for management positions as well. Although the Rooney Rule was supposed to crush the idea of biased hiring in sports, it was met with some resistance. In May, a controversial amendment was proposed that would have compensated teams with draft picks for hiring underrepresented people in management positions. The majority of NFL teams voted against it.
“I continue to defend the NFL’s Rooney Rule and continue to encourage the NCAA to expand the Rooney Rule. Eddie Robinson Rule and the Judy Sweet Rule“Both aim to improve and diversify racial and gender hiring practices in college sports.”
Eddie Robinson’s rule would require universities to interview a minority for a coaching position, while Judy Sweet’s rule would require NCAA headquarters and Division I schools to interview women and people of color for management and coaching positions. Both rules were introduced by Lapchick.
“Incorporating these rules would place the NCAA at the forefront of diversity and inclusion and become a model for the sports industry, and even corporate America,” Lapchick said.