STrib: U: where sports leaders and coaches all are white, looks to revive diversity

BleedGopher

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per Marcus:

The University of Minnesota put its top athletic department leaders on a bus earlier this summer, sending them on their annual trip around the state to rev up fan interest among the Gopher faithful.

Those passengers, including men and women head coaches of their 23 teams, shared one thing in common: They were all white.

The U, once a leader in athletic department diversity, now trails most of its peers. A Star Tribune analysis of senior athletics leadership, including the athletic director, senior assistant ADs and head coaches, at the 14 schools that make up the Big Ten found Minnesota tied for last with Nebraska, Wisconsin and Michigan State in number of minorities in those positions: one each.

Almost a quarter of the U’s student athletes are nonwhite, and in big money sports like men’s basketball and football, the ratio of minority athletes is even higher. It’s been four years since the U had a minority head coach, and more than a decade since it last hired one. The last time a person of color served as Minnesota’s athletic director or deputy athletic director was 18 years ago.

Gophers athletic director Mark Coyle told the Star Tribune diversity is a priority in hiring, and that he wants his leaders to learn from the communication issues of this past year.

“When student-athletes walk our hallways, when they’re in our academic center, when they’re in our development and administration area, do we have diversity that they can see?” Coyle said. “Those are things we’ll always focus on and always put an emphasis on moving forward.”

http://m.startribune.com/university...versity-after-tense-year/436049783/?section=/

Go Gophers!!
 

Lol Marcus looking to create clicks and cause more uproar

I don't give a S if there black white red... I want the best qualified candidate to get the job.
 


Lol Marcus looking to create clicks and cause more uproar

I don't give a S if there black white red... I want the best qualified candidate to get the job.

This is a very white post. And a shortsighted one as well. Of course nobody wants UNqualified leadership but there are legitimate issues as to why there aren't more qualified minorities having to do with education, networking and other things. To poo poo it away like you just did is an unfortunate thing often done by those that aren't actually affected by these things.
 

This is a very white post. And a shortsighted one as well. Of course nobody wants UNqualified leadership but there are legitimate issues as to why there aren't more qualified minorities having to do with education, networking and other things. To poo poo it away like you just did is an unfortunate thing often done by those that aren't actually affected by these things.

+more.
 


With the hiring of two, young lifer coaches for BB and FB, this might not change much for a long time.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

This is a very white post. And a shortsighted one as well. Of course nobody wants UNqualified leadership but there are legitimate issues as to why there aren't more qualified minorities having to do with education, networking and other things. To poo poo it away like you just did is an unfortunate thing often done by those that aren't actually affected by these things.

-1

Should the FB and BB teams give more schollies to whites to "diversify"? Preposterous.
 

They've reached out to several black coaches over the past 10 years in football and basketball .The only other sport that I know of that have black coaches to choose from would be baseball, and Anderson is a fixture till he retires. How many black hockey coaches are out there? On the women's side , black coaches in softball, or vollyball? Marcus has a short memory. We've had Mac Boston as an AD, Clem and Tubby as basketball coaches. In football the U approached Charlie Strong and Kevin Sumlin. In basketball many of us thought Shaka Smart would go with
Mega- tongue. Sounds like a witch hunt to me, and just maybe fueled by Tyrone Carter.
 

This is a very white post. And a shortsighted one as well. Of course nobody wants UNqualified leadership but there are legitimate issues as to why there aren't more qualified minorities having to do with education, networking and other things. To poo poo it away like you just did is an unfortunate thing often done by those that aren't actually affected by these things.
Correct

To add to this, if you look at the list of the most diverse school in the B1G, there is only 14% minority hires. That is still statistically understaffed.

Ole, you're right on the money with your post.

Nepotism and "culture comfort" plays a big part in who gets hired.
 



This is a very white post. And a shortsighted one as well. Of course nobody wants UNqualified leadership but there are legitimate issues as to why there aren't more qualified minorities having to do with education, networking and other things. To poo poo it away like you just did is an unfortunate thing often done by those that aren't actually affected by these things.

You're right about everything except saying that "this is a very white post" is actually a racist statement. You're ignoring the different strata within a huge group of people and denigrating something by color. The post you're reacting to may have come from privilege but If you want to get to a point where we can stop assuming blanket stereotypes based on skin color, you need to change your approach.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

2 of the last 4 coaches for Men's BB were white, and 2 where black. And let's not forget that Shaka Smart was the top pick when Pitino was hired, and he turned down the job. But somehow the U is at fault for not being diverse in hiring major leadership positions?

Charlie Strong was a top candidate when Kill was hired. He turned down the U.

This shows the two biggest leadership positions at the U do not have a diversity hiring problem. They just havent had luck getting the guys they wanted.
 

2 of the last 4 coaches for Men's BB were white, and 2 where black. And let's not forget that Shaka Smart was the top pick when Pitino was hired, and he turned down the job. But somehow the U is at fault for not being diverse in hiring major leadership positions?

Charlie Strong was a top candidate when Kill was hired. He turned down the U.

This shows the two biggest leadership positions at the U do not have a diversity hiring problem. They just havent had luck getting the guys they wanted.

This isn't true. Strong interviewed for the job after Mason was fired, when Strong was at Florida. He wanted the job, but we hired Brewster essentially while Strong was still on campus and Strong felt used in the process.

We never had a shot at Strong when Kill was hired as Strong was already at Louisville.

Go Gophers!!
 

This isn't true. Strong interviewed for the job after Mason was fired, when Strong was at Florida. He wanted the job, but we hired Brewster essentially while Strong was still on campus and Strong felt used in the process.

Go Gophers!!

Well that was a really bad decision. I think Strong could have done a great job here.
 



It would be interesting to see what percentage of assistant coaches are minorities. What's that percentage compared to head coaches?
 

Well that was a really bad decision. I think Strong could have done a great job here.
Agree. And he would've likely moved on to a higher profile job after having done a great job here.
So the question is: Was Charlie Strong hired at Louisville, Texas, and South Florida b/c he was Black or b/c he was considered the best coach for the job? I doubt that his race had anything to do with it.
It's good to be conscious of potential bias, but I'd be surprised if coaches were hired without the Athletic Dept thinking this is the best coach available for the job.
 

Correct

To add to this, if you look at the list of the most diverse school in the B1G, there is only 14% minority hires. That is still statistically understaffed.

Ole, you're right on the money with your post.

Nepotism and "culture comfort" plays a big part in who gets hired.

Nepotism exists because human nature but I'm not sure is a large factor in athletic director searches. People naturally want to hire coaches they are familiar with, respect, and trust. It's ludicrous to suggest it is commonplace to pass over better qualified or more talented people for one's friends. This happens in family businesses...Less so in merit-driven businesses IMO. But it does exist (Kiffin?). Ambitious people want to succeed and that involves bringing in the best team, no matter the business. At the head man level that involves relating to donors, fan base, as well as the X's and O's aspect. If "culture comfort" were a huge factor coaches would recruit suburban and small town whites to play for them and represent their schools. Strangely they want the most talented people.

If candidates have a similar attitude and chip on their shoulder as Oleboy they will find it difficult, no matter the field. Whining is never a good look and people simply don't want to hear it. They may not say so, they simply won't want you around or won't hire you or promote you. Over time black coache's hiring trees will expand and opportunities will grow organically (for black coaches to network).
 

Nepotism exists because human nature but I'm not sure is a large factor in athletic director searches. People naturally want to hire coaches they are familiar with, respect, and trust. It's ludicrous to suggest it is commonplace to pass over better qualified or more talented people for one's friends. This happens in family businesses...Less so in merit-driven businesses IMO. But it does exist (Kiffin?). Ambitious people want to succeed and that involves bringing in the best team, no matter the business. At the head man level that involves relating to donors, fan base, as well as the X's and O's aspect. If "culture comfort" were a huge factor coaches would recruit suburban and small town whites to play for them and represent their schools. Strangely they want the most talented people.

If candidates have a similar attitude and chip on their shoulder as Oleboy they will find it difficult, no matter the field. Whining is never a good look and people simply don't want to hear it. They may not say so, they simply won't want you around or won't hire you or promote you. Over time black coache's hiring trees will expand and opportunities will grow organically (for black coaches to network).
I have seen nepotism and culture comfort at all levels of management. You do not see it as much in areas where the person is a "grunt" but in management positions you get less qualified people, who know someone, being hired all the time. When we are discussing the athletic department we are talking middle management. It's a cesspool of "good ole' boys."
 


It would be interesting to see what percentage of assistant coaches are minorities. What's that percentage compared to head coaches?

From NCAA.org (Racial and Gender Report). Most recent that I could find was published in 2013. It's a 66 page pdf that can be found online.

The assistant coach position is often a stepping-stone to future head coaching positions.
In Division I, African-Americans held 38.5 percent of assistant coaching positions in men’s basketball and
25.5 percent of the assistant coach positions in football during the 2011-12 year, slight decreases from
2010-11 percentages of 39.2 percent and 25.6 percent respectively. Only 0.8 percent of Division I
college baseball assistant coaches were African-American in 2011-12, a decrease from 1.4 percent in
2010-11. Latinos held five percent of assistant coaching positions in Division I baseball in 2011-12,
increasing from 4.5 percent in 2010-11; Latinos held only one percent of the same position in basketball
and football in Division I in 2011-12.
 


You might find some of these reports interesting as well. GophersInIowa.

http://www.tidesport.org/reports.html

I'll try and find the assistant coach data for you as well.
Buck
And it's interesting to note, though not unexpected, that white student-athletes percentages continue to decline as a percent of the total. There could be some complicated reasons for this, but if we use the same logic that is applied to a lack of representation of minority coaches in sport, then it's apparently institutional racism that is the reason for whites to be under represented.
 

-1

Should the FB and BB teams give more schollies to whites to "diversify"? Preposterous.

I specifically said the opposite in the post you responded to. Step your reading comprehension game up
 

You're right about everything except saying that "this is a very white post" is actually a racist statement. You're ignoring the different strata within a huge group of people and denigrating something by color. The post you're reacting to may have come from privilege but If you want to get to a point where we can stop assuming blanket stereotypes based on skin color, you need to change your approach.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Eh, nah. You're not actually offended by that and why should you? White is right, white is power, white is good. I also don't think I'm far off in what I said if at all specifically because it is VERY rare for a minority to respond to the idea of diversity by saying its just to 'create uproar' and 'I don't give a S if there black white red... I want the best qualified candidate to get the job.' So clearly not every white person thinks that way but there's a 95% chance someone that does is going to be white. Not because white people are bad or wrong or anything else, but because it is something that inherently doesn't negatively affect them directly in the way it does minorities
 

Correct

To add to this, if you look at the list of the most diverse school in the B1G, there is only 14% minority hires. That is still statistically understaffed.

Ole, you're right on the money with your post.

Nepotism and "culture comfort" plays a big part in who gets hired.

One thing I've noticed with the U is that at least for the past few years have definitely had a decent number of black (don't recall other minorities) assistant coaches for Basketball and Football which is cool. I think most would agree that we just want to get to a point where the opportunities are as available to young minority coaches/admins as for white ones and drawing attention to the gaps does help that process
 

Like in any business at the top it's a country club for the most part. There's no rule that's going to give minorities a better chance at landing top head coaching jobs in the current climate. It's about strength in numbers as far as progression. I think it will be a long slow progression in a similar way it has been with minority quarterbacks but in time we'll see more and more. When those at the top aren't willing to adjust, you have such success that they are forced to. For every dozen minority coaches that are hired for recruiting purposes (which seems to often be the case) hopefully a couple will rise to be prominent coaches.
 

The United States population is 64% white, 12% black. Why should we be surprised that white coaches outnumber black coaches?
 

The United States population is 64% white, 12% black. Why should we be surprised that white coaches outnumber black coaches?
What is the percent of black football/basketball players at the Division 1 level? Is that percentage equally found in the administrative ranks of those sports?
 

Nepotism exists because human nature but I'm not sure is a large factor in athletic director searches. People naturally want to hire coaches they are familiar with, respect, and trust. It's ludicrous to suggest it is commonplace to pass over better qualified or more talented people for one's friends. This happens in family businesses...Less so in merit-driven businesses IMO. But it does exist (Kiffin?). Ambitious people want to succeed and that involves bringing in the best team, no matter the business. At the head man level that involves relating to donors, fan base, as well as the X's and O's aspect. If "culture comfort" were a huge factor coaches would recruit suburban and small town whites to play for them and represent their schools. Strangely they want the most talented people.

If candidates have a similar attitude and chip on their shoulder as Oleboy they will find it difficult, no matter the field. Whining is never a good look and people simply don't want to hear it. They may not say so, they simply won't want you around or won't hire you or promote you. Over time black coache's hiring trees will expand and opportunities will grow organically (for black coaches to network).

While you do have a point, Oleboy and others have a point as well. They are the ones who are applying the pressure for change. Not the actual candidate. While I loved Brewster when he was here, there is no way a fair process picks Brewster over Strong. Since Coyle is such an advocate of culture, he can add diversity, inclusion, and development to this "culture change". Though the U is far from the worst, they can and should be better.
 

One thing I've noticed with the U is that at least for the past few years have definitely had a decent number of black (don't recall other minorities) assistant coaches for Basketball and Football which is cool. I think most would agree that we just want to get to a point where the opportunities are as available to young minority coaches/admins as for white ones and drawing attention to the gaps does help that process

+1-Agree
 

What is the percent of black football/basketball players at the Division 1 level? Is that percentage equally found in the administrative ranks of those sports?

Why should it? Maybe more white people go into coaching than black people because fewer of them can make a career playing the sport they love.
 




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