The NCAA “neither acknowledges nor uses the terms ‘major’ and ‘mid-major’ when referring to college athletic conferences,” says Wikipedia. The mid-major moniker first was coined in 1977. As a result, it is mainly used by media, fans, and other folk to differentiate between the Power 5 conferences (Big Ten, Big 12, ACC, SEC, and Big East) and the 26 smaller conferences, which include two HBCU conferences (MEAC and SWAC).
When St. Thomas left the DIII MIAC for DI in 2019, the St. Paul school joined the Summit League, a mid-major conference.
An overlooked fact: The 9-team Summit League has five Black head basketball coaches (three females and two males). This is more than the Big Ten (4), and equals the Big East (5). Only the ACC (13), Big 12 (6) and SEC (7) have more.
For a better perspective, there are a total of 108 Black MBB coaches but only 88 Blacks when HBCUs are not counted. In WBB, there are 80 Black female coaches and 31 Black males, but without Black colleges those numbers decrease to 69 females and 20 males.
There are 1,003 Black HCs in all sports, but when you take out the HBCU coaches, it’s 710 total.
“The Summit League is underrated,” declared Denver WBB Coach Doshia Woods, one of three Black female HCs. She is in her fifth year, hired in 2020 after 10 seasons on the Tulane coaching staff.
Woods also serves on various committees including the DU Athletics DEI and the Black Community Advisory Board, as well as in the WBCA where she serves on several committees.
Carrie Banks also is in her fifth season at Nebraska Omaha, hired in 2020. She has led the Mavericks to two Summit League Tournament championship games. Before she was hired at Omaha, Banks was an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for four seasons at Ohio State (2016-2020), then at Northwestern (2010-2013).
Banks and Chris Crutchfield (MBB) and UMKC’s Dionnah Jackson-Durrett and Marvin Menzies are the only Black WBB-MBB head coaching duos in the Summit League — the latter both were hired by Kansas City in 2022.
Crutchfield, who was featured in the MSR’s recurring Coaching While Black series (November 16), was hired in 2022 and has 20 years of coaching experience.
Jackson-Durrett is in her third season. She held coaching positions at Mississippi State (assistant 2015-19, and associate head coach 2019-20), George Mason (assistant, 2013-15), Southeast Missouri State (assistant, 2010-13) and Texas associate head coach (2020-22).
Menzies also is in his third season at Kansas City. He has over 30 years of college coaching experience and over 240 wins as a head coach at New Mexico State and UNLV.
During Summit League media day last fall, Woods told the MSR, “Being in the Summit League the last four years, we’ve had a [women’s] head coaches support group. We meet on Zoom… I think we often understate the toll we go through, and how lonely we feel at the top. I think we are able to push each other up.”
Finally…
Either Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman or Penn State’s James Franklin will coach in the January 20 FBS national championship after their two teams meet this week on January 9. It will be the first time a Black head coach will be in the National Championship game.
There are only 16 Black head coaches in college football, including Freeman and Franklin, in 134 FBS programs.
Franklin is Penn State’s first Black head coach, and Freeman is Notre Dame’s second-ever Black HC.
Charles Hallman welcomes reader comments to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.