Tony Dungy: Why is college football so far behind in hiring blacks?

[flipcritic]

I don't mean this to sound inflammatory. It's an interesting read.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/20/opinion/20dungy.html

[samikeyp]

It's a good question. I would like to see the NCAA's answer.

[J.T.]

Well, the catch with the head coach position in any sport at any level is that there are solid coaches getting fired season after season because a team either just sucks ass or has an uncharacteristic bad start. I think a lot of the time, the people who make these decisions (and Dungy's right about it in the NCAA, it's not just the AD's decision) would rather give a currently unemployed coach with name recognition a second chance than to give a qualified black coach a first chance.

[Extra Stout]

The kind of people who make the dismantling of racial barriers a priority probably don't give a lot of money to big college football programs.