A study shows the number of African-American coaches in major college football is the lowest in 15 years.
With the recent dismissals of Ty Willingham at Washington and Ron Prince at Kansas State, the number of black head coaches in the 119-school NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision was reduced to four, while fifty-five percent of all student athletes are minorities.
In 1997, there were eight black head coaches, the most in history. Since 1996, 12 black coaches have been hired for 199 jobs. The only black head coaches currently set to finish the season are Miami's Randy Shannon, Mississippi State's Sylvester Croom, Buffalo's Turner Gill and Houston's Kevin Sumlin.
David Czesniuk of the Center for the Study of Sports in Society at Northeastern University said he was struck by who controlled the money.
"What stood out to me, is that in the biggest component of dollars in college football is the BCS, and every single commissioner of a BCS conference is a white male," Czesniuk said.
The election of Barack Obama -- a big sports fan -- will have an influence.
"His presidency will get people's attention, whether or not he gets involved. People will wonder: How can we have an African-American president and the lowest number of coaches in 15 years?"
Source: ESPN.com
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