NFL leads colleges in promoting minority coaches

While the pro sidelines have increased their diversity, the college sidelines are almost as pale as pit road at a NASCAR race -- still.

The math in 2006 was pitifully imbalanced: There were seven black NFL head coaches out of 32 teams (21.9 percent) and five black Division I-A college head coaches out of 119 teams (4.2 percent).

For a sport with roughly 50 percent black participation at the athlete level, that's a joke. For that joke to be perpetrated on college campuses, where enlightenment is supposed to be part of the package, is perverse. And for the Pollyannas who want to believe the 21st century is a colorblind utopia, please explain the numbers.

"If you look at the formula, it's an obvious social injustice," said Floyd Keith, executive director of the Black Coaches Association. "It should not be. It does not fit, and it begs for more scrutiny."

It begs to be called what it is: covert racism.

"You put your name on it and call it whatever you want," Keith said, chuckling. "It is what it is. You name it, that's it."

The career paths of Smith and Dungy show the contrast between upward mobility in college and upward mobility in the pros.

After one season as an assistant at his alma mater, Minnesota, Dungy went the pro route. He was promoted to defensive coordinator in his fourth year with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Dungy has spent 20 of his 26 NFL seasons as either a coordinator or a head coach, and his regular-season record as the boss is 114-62.

Smith, meanwhile, gave it the old college try. After 12 years at Tulsa, Wisconsin, Arizona State, Kentucky, Tennessee and Ohio State, he was still a position coach. By his sixth season in the NFL, he was defensive coordinator of the St. Louis Rams, and by his ninth season, he was head coach of the Bears.

Where he has done fairly well. Record: 30-20. Record the past two years: 25-9.

Somehow, the NFL decision-makers saw something in Lovie Smith that the college decision-makers missed. Willfully or not.

Same with Cincinnati Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis. After 11 years working in college, he was still a linebackers coach. After four years with the Steelers, he made the jump to defensive coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens. By his 12th year in the NFL, he was the man in charge.

Why the difference?

"You're usually dealing with one person in the NFL: the owner," Keith said. "He's about business, and I think he understands you hire people based on productivity and what you think he's capable of doing. Maybe they're not as influenced by others.

"On the college level, there are more influences. And those influences are not all positive."

That's another way of saying that a black head coach can sometimes be a tough sell to a bunch of white boosters, who tend to get involved in the hiring process because they tend to write big checks to the athletic department.

One black longtime college assistant agreed that alums are perceived as a major roadblock.

"They want someone they're comfortable with," the assistant said. "We don't go to their country clubs or eat where they eat."

With the hirings of African-American Randy Shannon at Miami and Cuban-born Mario Cristobal at Florida International, the number of minority Division I-A head coaches has ballooned to seven. Woo-hoo. That's two out of the 21 hires made to date, not enough to appreciably move the needle toward equality.

It should be noted that colleges have done a better job in recent years of identifying promising minority coaches and giving them greater responsibilities and titles -- either as coordinators or assistant head coaches. (See: Tyrone Nix at South Carolina, Mike Haywood at Notre Dame, Mike Locksley at Illinois.) The University of Kentucky recently promoted defensive backs coach Steve Brown to defensive coordinator, giving the Wildcats two black coordinators.