Study: Percentage of Black college coaches remains low

The lack of Black head coaches in college sports remains problematic, according to a diversity study for racial and gender hiring practices.

The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) at the University of Central Florida released its annual report on Thursday, showing the representation of Black head coaches for all college sports has not shown much improvement over the last year.

Black coaches held only 9% of head positions at the Division I level, which was the same as last year. There were minimal increases at the Division II level (6.2%, up 0.2%) and in Division III (5.9%, up 0.4%) sports.

In all, 82.2% of men's basketball head coaches are white, along with 89% of football head coaches and 94.5% of baseball head coaches across all three divisions. On the women’s side, white people comprised 82.1%, 84.9% and 88.7% in Divisions I, II, and III of head coaching positions, respectively.

In men’s Division I basketball, 24.3% of all head coaches were Black. While that is up 1.6% from last year, it remains 0.9% short of the all-time high of 25.2% reported in 2005-2006.

Dr. Richard Lapchick, the director of TIDES and the primary author of the study, called the continued lack of minority hires “unacceptable" adding that it is "concerning that we are not headed in the right direction.”

“With increased scrutiny because of the racial reckoning after the murder of George Floyd, it is simply not acceptable to lag behind where we were 15 years ago,” Lapchick said in the report. “It is hard to see the results from the widely proclaimed attention we are supposedly placing on diversity, equity and inclusion within higher education.”

Overall, college sports received a C+ grade for racial hiring practices from TIDES and a C for gender hiring practices.

Those grades...