In the past few weeks, we have seen that while college athletics is not always the most progressive establishment, it may well be one of the most influential establishments on progress. This is thanks in large part to many of the great leaders of its older generations, like John Thompson Jr., who fought against the patronage of injustice embedded in many of our societies institutions.
To fight those injustices, the leaders of the past generation established organization like the Black Coaches Association to act as the watchdog over the NCAA and all of college athletics. The BCA was most notable for issuing its annual institutional report card on the equity, or lack thereof, of hiring practices inside athletic institutions. Consequently, organizations like the BCA helped ensure that the scales of equity were slowly balanced.
Sadly, as our society turns to revisit issues on the fundamental right to equality for all human beings, which most of us thought were settled over 50 years ago, the institutions that prior progressive leaders helped establish only exist as a shell of their former selves.
A Fading Focus On Advocacy
The BCA, which has since been restructured by the NCAA as the Association for Athletic Equality, has been effectively stripped of all influence and funding. While no one is quite sure how or why the BCA has been stripped of influence, in a report from ESPN.com issued this time last year, Ex-BCA Executive Director Keith Floyd had this to say: “It’s difficult to keep an advocacy group together. You’re always looking for money. It was a very difficult task. The same people you’re asking for money from, you’re shining a light on them.” It should be noted that it appears as if the BCA received the majority of their funding from the NCAA and its institutions.
Some have argued that the reason the BCA has “faded away” is because the organization achieved its institutional goals. Those persons would point to the fact that since the BCA issued its first institutional report card in 2003, the number of black coaches at Division I FBS schools has risen from just 3 to a high of 15 in 2012. Those persons would look to the hiring of Charlie Strong and Shaka Smart at Texas as prime examples of institutional change made in college athletics.
Progress has undoubtedly been made. That, however, is not the question. Rather, the question that must be asked is whether so much progress has been made on the front of equity in hiring practices, that we no longer need organizations like the BCA? To answer that question, the progress we have seen must be put into context. For instance, one cannot examine the hiring of Charlie Strong without recognizing that just a few years earlier in a report by Mike Bianchi for the Orlando Sentinel, Bianchi reported that after Charlie Strong interviewed with an unnamed SEC school, “he was told that he didn’t get the job because he was a black man who had a white wife and they didn’t think that would go over well in the South.” Nor can the unusual amount of backlash Charlie Strong faced when he was hired at Texas be ignored. Moreover, ten years after minority coaches held more than 25 percent of the jobs across the country, that number dropped three percent to 22 percent last year. Additionally, those numbers do not reflect the fact that another 12 minority coaches have been fired this season while only two have been hired.
Regaining Support By Rebuilding The System
In short, there is and has been a growing concern that without the strong organizational influence of groups like the BCA, vestiges of discrimination could return. Enter, the newly formed group, known as “The National Association for Coaching Equity and Development”. The NACED was formed by a group of 40 prominent minority college coaches such as Tubby Smith, Shaka Smart, and John Thompson III. Unlike the BCA, the NACED plans to remain forever separate and apart of the NCAA. Keeping the group autonomous from the NCAA is important both in terms of financing and its ability to remain an objective sphere of influence. Members of the NACED plan to seek funding through membership dues and corporate sponsorships. This funding method and the group’s plan, in general, is to avoid the conflict of interest problems that plagued the BCA.
According to ESPN.com, the group hopes to serve as this generations BCA. The central goal of the NACED is to continue the fight of the previous generation’s minority leaders by advocating for minority coaching candidates. The NACED hopes to do this, in part, by establishing a database of minority coaches for universities, search firms and other coaches to access when looking for qualified candidates to interview.
Beyond just advocating for minority coaching candidates, however, the group wants to prepare the younger generation of coaches to succeed in those jobs. It also wants to not only help athletes gain admission to college, but excel when they get there. The NACED hopes to grow up to 1,000 members in the coming months. The group is also reportedly considering providing legal support to those persons who are accused of NCAA infractions.
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