| Brand
Has Spoken A few issues ago
we shared with you a rather dismal statistic concerning college football. In the
1997 and 1998 seasons, there were 8 African American head coaches at the 119 Division
1-A colleges and universities. This season, there are 5 African American head
coaches in Division 1-A. Nearly 45% of all college football players are African
American and the 5 African American head coaches represents a dismal 4% of all
head college football coaches. The NFL saw
the number of African American head coaches rise from 2 to a current 7 since the
NFL instituted the so-called “Rooney Rule” subjecting teams to fines
if they fail to include at least one minority candidate in head coaching searches.
Cyrus Mehri, a Washington, D.C. attorney who played a role in the NFL’s
adoption of the Rooney Rule in 2002, and Temple University law professor Jeremi
Duru recently wrote Myles Brand, President of the National Collegiate Athletic
Association (NCAA) urging that the NCAA require that member institutions mandate
interviews of minority candidates in football. “Something’s working
there (NFL) that’s not working in the NCAA,” said Floyd Keith of the
Black Coaches Association. Mr. Brand responded that such a requirement unfeasible
and that “institutions of higher education now have and should retain autonomy
in their hiring practices for all employment positions.” In
his response, Brand maintained that the NCAA “has not been complacent,”
pointing in part to an annual workshop for minority coaches…which has resulted
in but a single hire, Ron Prince, who this year lead Kansas State to a surprising
7-5 record as a rookie head coach. How can we let the NCAA off the hook so lightly
when, notwithstanding the annual workshop for minority coaches, there are 3 fewer
coaches at the Division 1-A level today than there were in 1998? We submit that
there are other Ron Princes out there who are ready to be successful and that
Ron Prince is not an anomaly. What is not difficult to explain using existing
rules or theory, and what does not deviate from the standard or expected is the
response of the African American community to but another injustice. Stay
tuned next week when we take another look at the sports business industry from
the perspective of the African American. If
you have questions or require additional information, please contact Everett L.
Glenn, Esq. at eglenn@espsportslawpro.com
or call 562.619.8460.
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