‘Unmistakable bias’ in hiring

INDIANAPOLIS – Minorities are getting more interviews but aren’t getting enough college football jobs, according to the Black Coaches and Administrators.

Almost a third of the candidates interviewed last year were minorities, said a study released Wednesday by the group, but only four were hired for 31 head coach openings in Division I football.

The recent firings of Ty Willingham at Washington and Ron Prince at Kansas State – efective the end of the season – left the Bowl Subdivision, the NCAA’s top division, with only four black head coaches, plus one Latino and one Pacific Islander.

“In the world of college football, the facts and statistics reflect an unmistakable bias and a systemic problem that has yet to be fixed. My deep concern is, ‘Why are the college football hiring practices out of sync?’” said BCA executive director Floyd Keith,. “The message in this report is the process is being followed, but the poor hiring results continue.”

Among the 31 schools in the FBS and Championship Subdivision, formerly I-A and I-AA, that hired head coaches in the past year, 16 received overall grades of A, up from 11 in the 2007 report, 12 in 2006 and four in 2005.

Mississippi, West Virginia and Dayton earned F grades. An  an improvement as 10 schools had failing grades in the last report.

Ole Miss fired Ed Orgeron last season and hired Houston Nutt without interviewing any minority candidates. Athletic director Pete Boone said at the time he regretted not going through the BCA’s suggested interview process but felt he had to act quickly after Nutt resigned from Arkansas.

“We hired someone without a search, someone who had been with us for 32 years ... so we felt he was the right man for the job and we hired him,” Dayton athletics director Ted Kissell said. “But I recognized that I would be pushing a domino that would lead to a grade of F.”