College Football: No more excuses, time to hire more black head coaches

Nearly two-thirds of FBS college football players are African-American. Fewer than ten percent of the head coaches are African-American; that is a problem.

There are 130 colleges and universities that play FBS level football. With the firing of Derek Mason and Lovie Smith, 12 of their head coaches are black.

Nearly half of the players on NCAA football rosters are black, but less than ten percent of the men chosen to lead these programs are black.

Two of the Power Five conferences –the SEC and Big 12– do not have black coaches. According to the NCAA Race and Gender Demographics, Database 61% of players in the SEC are black, yet there are no black coaches in the SEC. This is 2020, yet one of the more evergreen pieces of college football content is its lack of coaching diversity.

This coaching cycle, Arizona, Auburn, Vanderbilt, South Carolina, Texas, and Ilinois all hired head coaches; none of which were black.

Though the universities possibly interviewed black candidates, no black candidates were reported by any media outlets to be candidates for those jobs.  Several Group of Five schools hired head coaches; Louisiana-Monroe, South Alabama, Arkansas State, Utah State and Southern Mississippi also hired head coaches; none of which are black.

What is most disturbing is the trend–and the excuses behind it– are not likely to change any time soon.