Skip navigation
Site powered by
Latest news:
msnbc.com: Top msnbc.com headlines: Adele is big winner, Houston honored at Grammys

Study: Top college sports jobs lack diversity

White men dominate leadership positions in college sports, study finds

ORLANDO, Fla. - White men dominate the leadership positions in college sports, a new study says, with women and minorities making only slow progress moving into the top jobs.

Athletic directors, conference commissioners and university presidents overwhelmingly are white, the study released Wednesday by the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport found.

“There’s a gradual movement toward positive change both in terms of race and gender, but it’s been very slow,” Richard Lapchick, the institute’s director, said in an interview with The Associated Press. “The situation still remains that people who lead college sports in America are still white, which doesn’t reflect the student athletes on the teams they represent.”

All 11 NCAA Division I-A conference commissioners — who Lapchick called the most powerful people in college sports — were white men, according to the study, which looked at employment data from the 2004-05 academic year for all 1,025 NCAA member institutions, conferences and NCAA headquarters.

“In all of Division I, excluding the historically black conferences, all 36 of Division I conference commissioners were white,” the study said. Six were women, four of them leading sport-specific conferences such as the Northern Pacific Field Hockey Conference and the American Lacrosse Conference.

All 36 conference commissioners throughout Division I were white, according to the study. Six were women, four of them leading sport-specific conferences such as the Northern Pacific Field Hockey Conference and the American Lacrosse Conference.

Head coaching positions also reflected a big disparity between whites and blacks.

Basketball was a bright spot of sorts, but even in that sport 25.2 percent of all Division I head coaches were black (an all-time high), and yet blacks made up 57.8 percent of Division I basketball players.

With Randy Shannon’s recent hiring to head the University of Miami football team, six of 119 Division I-A head football coaches are black. In all of Division I, blacks held 6.1 percent of head coaching positions. On Division I football fields, black players made up 45.4 percent of the athletes, the study said.

No Latino heads an NCAA Division I-A football team.

Blacks make up 43.7 percent of women’s Division I basketball teams, but only 9.3 percent of those teams are coached by black women — even though that number increased 1.6 percentage points in 2004-05.

In Division I-A, 94.1 percent of university presidents whose colleges are part of the NCAA were white, 3.4 percent were black and 2.5 percent were Latino, the study said. Fifteen women held their university’s top job, or 12.6 percent, an increase of 1.1 percentage points.

Slideshow
Image: Snee, 8, son of New York Giants player Chris Snee and head coach Coughlin's grandson plays in the confetti after the New York Giants defeated the New England Patriots in the NFL Super Bowl XLVI football game in Indianapolis
  The Week in Sports Pictures
The Giants on top of the football world, getting ready for the London Olympics and more.

more photos

NCAA headquarters received high marks from the study, with 18.8 percent of vice president/chief of staff positions represented by blacks, and 25 percent represented by women.

The NCAA’s vice president for Diversity and Inclusion, Charlotte Westerhaus, said NCAA headquarters was demonstrating leadership but there still was progress to be made throughout college sports.

“We want to celebrate the progress but at the same time we want to acknowledge that we are not where we could be as far as diversity,” Westerhaus said. “The NCAA is doing everything we can to support our membership in effectuating open and fair hiring practices.”

© 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

advertisement
More news
Image: Pekingese Palacegarden Malachy trots in ring at the 135th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in New York
Reuters
Pekingese favored to be top dog

Robins: It’s the Year of the Dragon on the Lunar calendar, and this Chinese influence could extend to it also being the year of the Pekingese on the green carpet at the 136th Westminster Dog Show on Tuesday.

NY cable dispute blacks out Knicks, 4 NHL teams

NEW YORK (AP) - As the glow fades from the Giants' Super Bowl triumph, some New York sports fans are tuning in to basketball and hockey, with the Rangers in first place and the Knicks' overnight sensation, Jeremy Lin, sparking "Lin-sanity.''

Image:
AP
Six new breeds will join show at Westminster

Robins: This year, six new breeds will be making their debut on the green carpet for the Westminster Dog Show, which begins Monday.

Slide show
Image: Snee, 8, son of New York Giants player Chris Snee and head coach Coughlin's grandson plays in the confetti after the New York Giants defeated the New England Patriots in the NFL Super Bowl XLVI football game in Indianapolis
  The Week in Sports Pictures
The Giants on top of the football world, getting ready for the London Olympics and more.

more photos

Slideshow
Boston Celtics v Indiana Pacers
  Who's hot on Twitter?
Check out which of your favorite athletes have the best pages and most followers!

NBCSports.com

Special feature
"American Woman: Fashioning A National Identity" Met Gala - Arrivals
When athletes and celebs get together
A look at the many links between sports and Hollywood stars.

NBCSports.com

Slideshow
Image: To match Special Report CAMPAIGN/ROMNEY-OLYMPICS
  Presidential candidates and sports
How do President Obama and his Republican rivals stack up when it comes to their sports backgrounds?