Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Black Coaches in the NCAA

Response to Roland Martin

While people (athletic directors included) often notice the color of people's skin, the driving force in America is not color but $$$. Many people will confess a bias against some other group because of color, age, political beliefs, etc, but if the opportunity comes to earn considerable amounts of money while working with one of the aforementioned people, they won't hesitate to do so. The primary thing that ADs look for when hiring a coach is someone who will lead their team to greatness. While some may consider it a more noble goal to integrate Division I head coaches, the truth is that ADs, boosters and fans want victories.

The road to becoming a head coach is typically a very long one, involving countless different stops, different positions and different roles in different programs and only a select few ever progress all the way from Graduate Assistant (who are paid with room and board, a scholarship to cover their graduate tuition and two meals a day) to Head Coach. Now, I don't know the numbers, but if you look at the sidelines of most any Division I school, you will see a majority of people taking those entry level positions with almost no money and only a slight chance of ever making the big bucks are white. Rather than criticizing the ADs for not interviewing untried people based solely on the color of their skin, maybe the focus should be on getting more people of whatever race you feel is under represented into the base coaching positions so they can start the climb up the ladder.

You don't fix any supposed problem by starting at the top, you start it by fixing it at the base.

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