Failing grade for college sport’s diversity hiring

The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) has challenged pro leagues and college sport for over three decades by issuing racial and gender report cards. For the most part, the MSR has been the only local media that has devoted more than a passing reference whenever the grades are released.

The latest TIDES’ college sport study, which came out in March, showed once again, that a primary reason why there continues to be a low percentage of Blacks in key sports leadership roles, such as head coaches, is because over 80 percent of athletic directors and university presidents and chancellors are held by White men in all three NCAA divisions.

“We have overwhelmingly White presidents and athletic directors making the (coaching hiring) decisions,” TIDES founder and director, Richard Lapchick, recently told the MSR.

The numbers don’t lie.  In 2021-22, head coaches in men’s sports were dominated by White men, while Black head coaches held 9.9 percent, 6.7 percent, and 6.3 percent of men’s HC positions in Divisions I, II, and III, respectively.  As for women’s teams, White coaches held more than 80 percent, 84.5 percent, and 88 percent of the head coaching positions, while Black HCs held 10 percent, 6.4 percent and 6.3 percent of the head coaching positions in women’s Divisions I, II, and III, respectively.

“Collegiate athletics continue to struggle with including more people of color in leadership positions,” noted Lapchick in his executive summary, and pointed out that of 402 campus leadership positions, Whites hold just around 80 percent of them

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Nationally, there are 13 Black presidents, and 20 Black athletic directors at predominantly White institutions (PWIs).

 Locally, there are two Black athletic directors–Carlton College’s Gerald Young, and Donnie Brooks at Macalester–both in Division III, and one Latino AD, Jason Verdigo at D-III Hamline, hired by the only Black college president in the state, Faynesse Miller, who last week announced she will be retiring.

Only one Black head football coach, Hamline’s Chip Taylor, and two Black men’s basketball HCs–Abe Woldeslassie at Macalester, and U of M’s Ben Johnson–run programs at four-year institutions.

There are no Black female athletic directors in Minnesota, and nationally, Black women held just 2 percent, 1.4 percent and 3.6 percent of the AD positions in Divisions I, II, and III, respectively.

However, if Black colleges were used in the TIDES study, “the data would be skewed, and ultimately misleading and ineffective,” because HBCUs typically have high percentages of both ethnic minorities and women, said Lapchick.

 March Madness is all about college basketball, and this year’s tournament was no exception. The lack of diverse hiring in all college sports is on display year-round.