2013 College Sport Racial and Gender Report Card

The Institute for Diversity and Ethics (TIDES) in Sport released the 2013 College Sport Racial and Gender Report Card today (CSRGRC) and I had the privilege of co-writing this report with April Johnson, Erika Loomer, and Leslie Martinez.
At a time when there is so much going on in college sport, the bad news in this report is distressing and points to the failure of leaders in college sport to create an environment where there is equal opportunity for women and people of color. This is the most distressing CSRGRC in many years. While it is good that the colleges and universities grades for race increased slightly, the drop in the gender grade highlights the voices of Title IX advocates who have been decrying the records of many institutions for several years.
Some highlights from the report are below:

• College sport still has the lowest gradeforracial hiring practices and only ranks higher than the National Football League for gender hiring practices among all the college and professional sports covered by the respective Racial and Gender Report Cards.
• Historically, there has been an outstanding record for equal opportunity for men’s basketball head coaches. However, that changed dramatically after a high of more than 25.2 percent in 2005-06 and had reached an all-time low of 18.2 percent. The 23 percent that represented all African-American head coaches in the 2013 report was the highest percentage since the 2005-06 season. All 24.8 percent of the men’s basketball coaches were coaches of color.
• In 2013, whites continue to dominate the head coaching ranks on men’s and women’s teams holding at least 84.7 percent of all head coaching positions in all three divisions and up to 92.1 percent of all head coaching positions in Division III.
• While it has been common practice for men to coach women’s teams, it is rare for a woman to coach a men’s team. Women held only 38.7 percent of the head coaching jobs of women’s teams in Division I and at less than 40 percent of our institutions across all three divisions combined. Women held less than 50 percent of the assistant coaching positions of women’s teams in all divisions combined.

The greatest number of career prospects is in college rather than professional sport because of the number of jobs available. That makes it even more important for us to create expanded opportunities in college sport for women and people of color. There continues to be room for improvement at all levels of the game, and TIDES will continue to track the NCAA’s and other professional leagues’ progress.
To read the entire College RGRC, go to http://www.tidesport.org/2013%20College%20Sport%20RGRC.pdf
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