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The lack of National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) hiring of male and female BIPOC athletics coaches

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The lack of National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) hiring of male and female BIPOC athletics coaches

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The Lack of Hiring of National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) Male and Female
BIPOC Athletics Coaches
by
Bryan Andrew Apt

Rossier School of Education
University of Southern California
A dissertation submitted to the faculty
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Education

August 2022

© Copyright by Bryan Andrew Apt 2022
All Rights Reserved

The Committee for Bryan Andrew Apt certifies the approval of this Dissertation

Themistocles Sparangis
Cathy Krop
Paula Carbone, Committee Chair

Rossier School of Education
University of Southern California
2022

iv
Abstract
This study analyzed the problem of the lack of National Collegiate Athletics Association
(NCAA) hiring of Blacks, Indigenous people, and people of color (BIPOC) of all genders as
university athletics coaches. That problem is significant because, while in 2020, approximately
30% of NCAA athletes were BIPOC, in 2019, 85%, 86%, and 91.1% of head coaches in NCAA
Divisions I, II, and III, respectively, were White. The major objective of this study was to
determine the perceptions of NCAA BIPOC coaches concerning their hiring processes and jobs.
This study was aimed at highlighting possible solutions for and obstacles to racial and gender
NCAA coaching equity. The methodology that this study utilized was qualitative, semistructured
interviews of six BIPOC male and two BIPOC female NCAA coaches. The major conceptual
model used in this study was Bandura’s social cognitive theory. This theory was particularly
appropriate for this study because of its emphasis on triadic reciprocity of behaviors, people, and
environments. The major findings of this study were how unsalutary hiring and job environments
negatively affected BIPOC coaches and their behaviors. This study had four major findings: a
lack of BIPOC coaching role models; overt and covert discrimination against BIPOC coaches;
generalized perceptions of ineffective solutions for the lack of BIPOC coaches; and possible
solutions, including mentoring and role model development of BIPOC coaches. This study found
the need for restorative justice programs designed to offset BIPOC coaches’ unsalutary
environments’ behavioral impacts.
Keywords: BIPOC, NCAA, coaching, social cognitive theory, role models, environments

v
Acknowledgements
I, Bryan Andrew Apt, especially wish to thank Professors Paula M. Carbone (my
dissertation chair), Professor Cathy Krop, and Professor Themistocles Sparangis, who served on
my dissertation committee and skillfully guided me through the dissertation process. I also wish
to thank all the USC Rossier Organizational Change and Leadership faculty members who had
me as a student. I also wish to thank my mother, Patricia A. Apt, whose help was invaluable to
me.
The author of this dissertation, Bryan Andrew Apt, is graduating from the Ed.D. degree
program at the University of Southern California in Organizational Change and Leadership.

vi
Table of Contents
Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... iv
Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................... v
List of Tables ............................................................................................................................... viii
Chapter One: Overview .................................................................................................................. 1
Context and Background of the Problem ............................................................................ 1
Purpose of the Project and Research Questions .................................................................. 3
Importance of This Study.................................................................................................... 3
Overview of Theoretical Framework and Methodology .................................................... 5
Definitions........................................................................................................................... 6
Organization of the Dissertation ......................................................................................... 7
Chapter Two: Literature Review .................................................................................................... 9
Number of BIPOC in NCAA Top Coaching Jobs Over Time............................................ 9
Current Situation for BIPOC Women in NCAA Collegiate Athletics ............................. 17
Lack of BIPOC College Athletics Coaches ...................................................................... 22
Response to Inequity in Hiring BIPOC NCAA Coaches and Athletic Directors ............. 27
Summary of the Relevant Literature ................................................................................. 33
Conceptual Framework ..................................................................................................... 34
Summary ........................................................................................................................... 35
Chapter Three: Methodology ........................................................................................................ 37
Research Questions ........................................................................................................... 37
Overview of Design .......................................................................................................... 37
Research Setting................................................................................................................ 38
The Researcher.................................................................................................................. 39
Participants ........................................................................................................................ 40

vii
Instrumentation ................................................................................................................. 41
Data Collection Procedures ............................................................................................... 42
Data Analysis .................................................................................................................... 43
Validity and Reliability ..................................................................................................... 44
Ethics................................................................................................................................. 45
Limitations and Delimitations ........................................................................................... 46
Chapter Four: Findings ................................................................................................................. 47
Context of the Study ......................................................................................................... 47
Demographic Information for BIPOC Coaches Interviewed ............................................ 48
Research Question 1: Findings ......................................................................................... 48
Findings: Research Question 2 ......................................................................................... 56
Summary ........................................................................................................................... 63
Chapter Five: Importance and Recommendations ........................................................................ 65
Importance ........................................................................................................................ 66
Recommendations ............................................................................................................. 68
Limitations and Delimitations ........................................................................................... 69
Recommendations for Future Research ............................................................................ 70
Summary ........................................................................................................................... 70
References ..................................................................................................................................... 73
Appendix A: Interview Protocol Template ................................................................................... 84

viii
List of Tables
Table A1: Interview Protocol Template 84
1

Chapter One: Overview
This paper addresses systemic racism in the lack of hiring of U.S. university and college,
Black, Indigenous people, and people of color (BIPOC), inclusive of head athletics coaches of all
gender identification. The 2019 ESPN Report Card of National Collegiate Athletics Association
(NCAA) universities and colleges’ hiring of BIPOC coaches demonstrates the problem, because
85%, 86%, and 91.1% of NCAA head coaches in NCAA Divisions I, II, and III, respectively, are
White (Lapchick, 2019). This evidence highlights that the lack of BIPOC hiring is a major
problem. This problem is important to address because the American Association of Colleges
and Universities (AACU) found that between 1996 and 2016, the percentage of BIPOC
undergraduate students in U.S. universities grew from 29.6% to 45.2%. In 2020, approximately
30% of NCAA student athletes were BIPOC (NCAA Demographics Database, 2020). This
indicates a greater need for NCAA BIPOC head athletics coaches as role models for student-
athletes in this rapidly growing BIPOC student population (AACU, 2014; Mirabito, 2012).
Context and Background of the Problem
This lack of NCAA hiring of BIPOC coaches is widespread and persistent. Additional
statistics further reveal the substantial lack of NCAA university hiring of BIPOC head coaches.
For NCAA Division I men’s basketball, football, and baseball, respectively, 76.4%, 74%, and
92.9% of head coaches were White (Lapchick, 2019). Moreover, of 30 NCAA Division I
conferences, only four had BIPOC conference commissioners (Lapchick, 2019). In addition, in
2019, in the NCAA’s most powerful Division I football schools, there were only 18 BIPOC head
football coaches (The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport [TIDES], 2019). Also, only
4.6% of NCAA Division III men’s head coaches were Black, and in Division I women’s
basketball, only 19.5% of head coaches were BIPOC (Benbow, 2016).
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Black NCAA student-athletes at the 65 most influential NCAA university athletics
programs comprised 55% of NCAA football athletes and 56% of NCAA basketball athletes at
those universities (Harper, 2018). However, Blacks only accounted for 2.4% of students at those
same NCAA universities (Harper, 2018). Moreover, of 426 NCAA college coaches, only 30.6%
were BIPOC (Zippia, 2021). The research literature suggests that homologous reproduction, or
hiring coaches of the same race, plays a major part in the lack of BIPOC NCAA university
coaches compared to the number of BIPOC NCAA university athletes (Bopp & Sagas, 2012).
That is because a “good old boys” network of existing White NCAA coaches exists and
continues to hire other White coaches, and that homologous reproduction perpetuates itself,
creating a vicious cycle leading to the lack of hiring of NCAA BIPOC coaches (McCrudden,
1982).
Similarly, there are considerable statistics indicating a significant shortage of BIPOC
NCAA head athletics coaches (Hinckley, 2017). In NCAA men’s basketball at the most elite
Power Five conference universities, there were no BIPOC female head coaches in 2019
(Lapchick, 2019) and only eight BIPOC male head coaches (Robinson & Hale, 2020).
Additionally, in 2019 NCAA Division I football, there were no BIPOC female conference
commissioners, and of the 30 NCAA Division I sports conferences, there were only nine female
conference commissioners, including BIPOC women (Benbow, 2016), and 21 BIPOC men.
Likewise, in 2019, for NCAA Divisions I, II-, and III-women’s teams, only 40.6%, 36.3%, and
44.5% of head coaches were female, including BIPOC women, respectively (Lapchick, 2019).
Additionally, in NCAA Division III, only 6.9% of men’s athletics team head coaches were
women, including BIPOC, whereas 93.1% were men, including White and BIPOC (Hinckley,
2017). There only exists one BIPOC female National Football League (NFL) coach, Jennifer
3

King, who was hired in 2020 by the Washington Commanders (formerly Redskins), illustrating
the few female coaches for not only NCAA football but also professional football. Even though
King received that high-profile job, most athletics coaches are not female. Although Jennifer
King was hired, the hiring of only one BIPOC woman does not reflect the overall female talent
pool for NCAA and professional football. Thus, the hiring of Jennifer King may be only a
method of superficially indicating progress in high-profile diversity hiring, when in fact, the
numbers show little progress has been achieved.
Purpose of the Project and Research Questions
The purpose of this study was to seek current coaches’ perceptions of BIPOC NCAA
coach hiring practices. The study highlights BIPOC coaches’ voices in the current context at the
time of the study to reveal perceptions of BIPOC NCAA coach hiring practices. The context,
implications, and consequences are examined in the literature review to inform the study. This
study was aimed at race and gender justice and intended to find potential solutions to this study’s
problem. Two major research questions guided this study:
1. What obstacles have BIPOC coaches encountered in NCAA hiring practices or their
jobs?
2. How do BIPOC coaches perceive the possibility of change in these obstacles, if any,
in the NCAA hiring process?
Importance of This Study
There are some key reasons why the lack of university hiring of BIPOC athletics
coaches is important for all, not only for BIPOC. First, athletics coaches serve as examples for
universities, sports, and athletes, and not only for athletes, but also for the remainder of
university student bodies (Wallick, 2018). Second, excellent role-model athletics coaches and
4

directors have the potential to create excellent athletes, athletics programs, and overall
environments for university athletes and nonathletes of all races and genders (Burton, 2005).
That is true because university athletes’ first perceptions of university athletics, fellow university
athletes, coaching careers, and university life, both athletic and nonathletic, often come from
their athletics coaches (Cunningham et al., 2003). Third, university athletics coaches often serve
as the principal source of university athlete role models, self-confidence, interpersonal skills,
values, and norms. This may be true because university athletics work as a “societal institution
‘to construct actively [student-athletes] to exhibit, value, and reproduce traditional [societal]
notions’” (Wallick, 2018, p. 2). Fourth, the complexity of the relationships between athletes and
their coaches often plays a part in determining those athletes’ abilities and characters.
In addition, it is important for universities to hire BIPOC as athletics coaches, both male
and female, because of the hegemonic aspect of White, male university athletics coaches.
Whisenant et al. (2002) noted this hegemony “is the acceptance that [White] males have rights to
authority, and therefore, it is only natural that [White] men are overrepresented in positions of
leadership” (Wallick, 2018, p. 3). Moreover, the lack of BIPOC university athletics coaches is
crucial because this hegemony appears to both mirror and facilitate the underrepresentation of
BIPOC, not only in university athletics but also in societal organizations (Swift, 2011). The lack
of BIPOC as university athletics coaches, for example, facilitates and spurs the perceptions and
existence of “BIPOC athletes as inferior, [and] as non-authoritative figures” (Wallick, 2018, p.
4). This contributes to and promulgates a lack of allowance for BIPOC leadership positions in
university athletics. Thus, the lack of university hiring of BIPOC athletics coaches is important
not only because it limits the advancement of BIPOC in university athletics, but also because the
shortage of BIPOC coaches “can be seen across all realms of Western society, not only in sports”
5

(Wallick, 2018, p. 4). Additionally, the lack of university hiring of BIPOC athletics coaches
appears deleterious, because there is a preponderance of White male university athletics coaches
who, in turn, tend to hire White men for positions of power in university athletics and BIPOC for
lesser and lower positions in university athletics (Cunningham et al., 2007). Likewise, this old
boys’ club or network of White, male university athletics coaches not only has a higher tendency
to hire individuals who look most like them (Lovett & Lowry, 1994) but also works to keep
BIPOC outside of all leadership positions by supporting the lack of consideration and hiring of
BIPOC for leadership positions in athletics coaching (Cunningham et al., 2005).
Overview of Theoretical Framework and Methodology
This study used a theoretical framework based on Albert Bandura’s (1996) social
cognitive theory (SCT). SCT uses several components, including triadic reciprocity, which helps
explain how the environment, people, and their behavior influence one another.
Some components of SCT make this theory appropriate for examining the problem of the
lack of university hiring of BIPOC athletics coaches. One of these components is BIPOC
coaches’ environments. SCT predicts individuals who have more positive environments are more
likely to pursue and attain top positions, such as NCAA head coach jobs (Bandura, 2008). Thus,
based on SCT, BIPOC may be less likely to attain those NCAA head coaching positions
(Cunningham et al., 2005). Cunningham et al. (2007) supported those predictions and findings,
noting that NCAA BIPOC coaches, specifically BIPOC women, indicated less supportive
environments than did White male coaches (Cunningham, 2007). The SCT and its focus on
individuals’ environments is also appropriate for examining the lack of university hiring of
BIPOC athletics coaches, because the SCT predicts that Whites are more likely than BIPOC men
to become NCAA head coaches, due to Whites’ tendency to foresee positive rather than negative
6

outcomes of their attempts to attain NCAA positions (Cunningham, 2007; Elliott et al., 2018).
Those tendencies, according to SCT, are frequently a consequence of BIPOC coaches being
exposed to more unsupportive work environments than are White coaches (Bandura, 1996). In
addition, BIPOC men encounter greater competitive hiring pressures in their work environments
than do Whites (Cunningham et al., 2005).
Researchers (Cunningham et al., 2005; Lent et al., 2003) have also shown that an
additional key environmental component of SCT is barriers and supports, which incorporate such
factors as availability of positive role models of university BIPOC head coaches and
discrimination in job hiring (Cunningham, 2007; Lent et al., 1994). Such barriers encourage
greater hiring of White men and less hiring of BIPOC for top NCAA jobs. Thus, SCT is
particularly useful and justified for examining the shortage of university hiring of BIPOC
athletics coaches (Lent et al., 2003). This is because the environmental component of SCT that I
have discussed is useful not only itself, but also because of its triadic reciprocity with BIPOC
NCAA coaches and their behaviors. This occurs because the behaviors of potential BIPOC head
coaches may be a function of their perceptions of a lack of environmental support and the
presence of significant environmental barriers preventing BIPOC from attaining top coaching
positions (Elliott et al., 2018).
Definitions
BIPOC is an acronym for Black, Indigenous people, and people of color. BIPOC is
meant to unite people of color while accounting for the fact that not all people of color face the
same levels of injustice (Ladson-Billings, 2013). This acronym is used in this study as inclusive
of all genders.
7

NCAA Division I refers to universities that sponsor at least seven men’s and women’s
sports, play 100% of games against other Division I universities, and meet minimum financial
aid awards for their athletics programs. For college football only, Division I FBS stands for
Football Bowl Subdivision, which features the largest and most powerful programs, which must
meet an average minimum football game attendance of at least 15,000 spectators per game
during a 2-year period (Lapchick, 2005; NCAA, 2020).
NCAA Division II universities sponsor at least five men’s and women’s sports, play at
least 50% of their games against no lower than Division II opponents, and do not exceed
maximum financial aid award limits for each sport set by the NCAA (NCAA, 2020; TIDES,
2019). Division II universities generally do not receive the same media exposure or profits as do
NCAA Division I universities.
NCAA Division III refers to universities whose student-athletes receive no financial aid
related to their athletic ability, whose athletics programs do not exceed maximum spending limits
set by the NCAA, and whose athletics programs place special importance on participants rather
than spectators (Lapchick, 2019; NCAA, 2020). Division III is the lowest level in the NCAA
universities classification scheme.
Organization of the Dissertation
This section provides a very brief discussion, in an itemized format, of the content of
each of the five chapters of this dissertation. Chapter 1 discusses the problem, its background,
and its importance. The purpose of the study, its research questions, and a brief overview of the
study’s conceptual framework and research methodology are examined. A review of the
literature and the conceptual framework are discussed in Chapter 2. The literature reviewed is
salient concerning this study’s problem of practice. This section of the dissertation includes a
8

review of the literature on the significant lack of NCAA university hiring of BIPOC athletics
coaches. The review of literature also discusses the lack of women who are NCAA athletics
coaches, in addition to the lack of male BIPOC coaches and the even smaller number of BIPOC
female coaches. The research literature shared is intended to explain and account for that lack of
BIPOC representation (Benbow et al., 2016).
The methodology section, Chapter 3, identifies and discusses the case study qualitative
research methodology for the dissertation. This methodology featured interviews with NCAA
athletics coaches at varied NCAA universities. In addition, the methodology section of the
dissertation includes rationales for the methods, participant selection and instrumentation,
implications, and consequences of case study qualitative research methodology (Elliott et al.,
2018).
The findings section of my dissertation, in Chapter 4, highlights and describes in detail
this study’s research findings based on data collected from the interviews with actual BIPOC
athletics coaches at NCAA universities. This includes a description, discussion, and analysis of
how potential intrinsic or extrinsic biases and positionalities, of both me and the university
athletics coaches interviewed for this study, may have influenced the research findings and the
interpretations and conclusions drawn from the dissertation research findings (Cunningham et
al., 2007).
The concluding discussion and future considerations section, Chapter 5, includes the
following components: conclusions about the dissertation research findings; a discussion of the
implications and consequences of this dissertation’s research findings; and suggestions for future
avenues of research regarding the lack of university hiring of minority athletics coaches (AACU,
2014).
9

Chapter Two: Literature Review
BIPOC of all genders are overwhelmingly still excluded from most head coaching and
elite assistant coaching positions at NCAA universities (Mirabito, 2012). Of 130 NCAA Division
I schools with the largest budgets and revenues, in 2020, only 13 had Black head coaches, all of
them men, which is down from 15 in 2018 (Newberry, 2020). This shortage of universities hiring
BIPOC head coaches holds true across the United States (Lapchick, 2019). A recent report by the
University of Minnesota Tucker Center for Women in Sport found that BIPOC women and men
are substantially excluded from NCAA college athletics coaching positions. That report found,
for example, that in 2021 only 16.1% of NCAA head coaching positions were held by BIPOC
women (Hallman, 2021). Similarly, that same report found that only 5.2% of NCAA head
coaches were Black (Hallman, 2021). Based on those statistics, the report stated that BIPOC
women were “dramatically underrepresented” (Hallman, 2021, p. 1) as NCAA head coaches.
Moreover, the sizable number of NCAA head coaches included in that University of Minnesota
report lends additional support to the validity and reliability of the report’s statistical findings
regarding the lack of BIPOC female coaches. The report examined information on more than
3,600 head coaches, 32 NCAA conferences, and 350 colleges and universities before arriving at
its statistical findings about the significant lack of BIPOC female NCAA head coaches (Hallman,
2021).
Number of BIPOC in NCAA Top Coaching Jobs Over Time
BIPOC are underrepresented in NCAA university coaching jobs. In January 2021, of the
1,073 NCAA athletic coaches in the five most elite NCAA conferences, which are termed the
Power Five Conferences, only 79, or 7.4%, were Black (Robinson & Hale, 2021). In addition, in
January 2021, of the 65 universities in the Power Five NCAA conferences, 15 did not have any
10

Black coaches in any NCAA sport (Robinson & Hale, 2020). By contrast, in 2021, 19% of
NCAA university athletes were Black, according to NCAA data (Robinson & Hale, 2020).
Additionally, as an example of the number of BIPOC in NCAA top jobs over time, the number
of BIPOC female NCAA university athletics coaches grew by only 3% from 2012 to 2020
(Umeri, 2021). Moreover, in 2021, there were only 13 BIPOC female head women’s basketball
coaches in the NCAA Power Five conferences, and seven of those coaches were in the same
conference—the Southeastern Conference (Umeri, 2021).
Systemic Racism
Systemic racism can be defined as structures or systems that have procedural processes
that disadvantage BIPOC (Johnson, 2020; Yancey-Bragg, 2020). In addition, systemic racism
represents the complicated interactions of culture, policy, and institutions that maintain
discriminatory outcomes in our society (Harris, 2020; Yancey-Bragg, 2020). Statistics reveal
how systemic racism discriminates against BIPOC. In 2020, the yearly income of Blacks was
$41,361, whereas the yearly income of Whites was $70,642. The net worth of Blacks was
$17,600, as opposed to a net worth of $171,000 for Whites (Jones, 2020).
Some major possibilities exist for the lack of hiring of NCAA BIPOC coaches. One
possibility is systemic racism. One aspect of systemic racism is that the racial inequalities that
hinder the hiring of BIPOC NCAA head coaches and athletics directors can be seen as a
representation of overall systemic racism throughout society. For example, several researchers
have contended that NCAA sports can be seen as a microcosm of American society, in the sense
that systemic racism appears prevalent not only in the great lack of BIPOC NCAA coaches, but
also in many other segments of American society, including political, educational, and other
leadership positions (Edwards et al., 1975).
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Regan (2014) noted that throughout the history of the United States, BIPOC have
encountered systemic racism that is prevalent in both overt and covert forms. Systemic racism
manifests as a barrier to the hiring of BIPOC NCAA head coaches in three major ways (Regan,
2014). First, BIPOC coaches have a lengthy and unfortunate record of being consistently passed
over in the hiring of NCAA head coaches (Bopp & Sagas, 2012). Second, the research literature
indicates that BIPOC have consistently been directed into athletics and coaching positions that
possess only a small chance of leading to top NCAA positions (Cunningham et al., 2006). Third,
BIPOC student-athletes are routinely exploited, discarded, and clearly led to perceive that if they
enter NCAA coaching or athletic director jobs, they will have to contend with racial
discrimination (Cunningham., 2010). Maisel’s (2020) recent research study illustrates the paucity
of BIPOC NCAA head coaches and the obstacles they encounter to become NCAA head
coaches. Maisel (2020) noted, for example, that of 130 NCAA top-level FBS programs, only 14
had Black head coaches. This, too, exemplifies my earlier definition of systemic racism as
structures or systems that have procedural processes that disadvantage BIPOC (Johnson, 2020;
Yancey-Bragg, 2020).
BIPOC Female NCAA Head Coaching Candidates Encounter Double Jeopardy
BIPOC men and women face discrimination due to racism, and all women face gender
bias and discrimination. BIPOC women who are NCAA coaching candidates face what has been
termed double jeopardy. This term means that BIPOC female NCAA coaching candidates may
encounter all of the discrimination and biases that male BIPOC NCAA coaching candidates
experience, plus all of the discriminations and biases that female NCAA coaching candidates
encounter. Double jeopardy can be defined as incurring risk or disadvantage from two sources
(Oxford Languages, 2021).
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There are some examples of this double jeopardy for BIPOC female NCAA head
coaching candidates. For example, several BIPOC assistant coaches have noted factors working
against their promotion to head coaches, such as lack of support, limited access to support, lack
of information on hiring, discrimination, and racial and gender-based stereotypes (Borland &
Bruening, 2010). In addition, despite certain strategies for overcoming those obstacles to
becoming BIPOC female NCAA head coaches, such as increased mentoring, networking, and
coaching development programs for BIPOC female NCAA coaching candidates, it is clear that
much remains to be done to increase the number of BIPOC female coaches (Borland &
Bruening, 2010). For example, according to NCAA statistical data, the percentage of BIPOC
female NCAA head women’s basketball coaches was only 17% in 2020, which represented only
a 3% increase in the number of those coaches from 2012 to 2020 (Umeri, 2021). Joni Taylor, a
BIPOC woman and the current head women’s basketball coach at Texas A&M University,
expressed the great need to increase the number of BIPOC female NCAA head coaches as role
models in the following manner: “You can’t dream what you can’t see” (Umeri, 2021, p. 1).
Depicting BIPOC Inaccurately With Overly Simplistic Representations
A second explanation for the disproportionately small number of BIPOC hired as NCAA
head coaches is depicting the different races of BIPOC with overly simplistic representations that
are different than Whites. This explanation for the lack of NCAA BIPOC hiring as coaches
differs from systemic racism in that it focuses on simplistic representations of BIPOC coaches,
rather than focusing on the structures or processes that limit that BIPOC hiring. Thus, complex
BIPOC coaches may be reduced to very simplistic representations that do not show their
complexities or strengths (Robinson & Hale, 2020). Such simplistic, inaccurate depictions of
BIPOC can prevent their hiring to NCAA coaching positions. Thus, the strengths and attributes
13

of BIPOC NCAA head coaching job candidates who are reduced to overly simplistic
representations may be minimized or overlooked altogether (Robinson & Hale, 2020). In
addition, Rhoden (2021) noted some of the weaknesses and dangers of representing BIPOC
NCAA job candidates in that way. Rhoden (2021) pointed out that the current NCAA
administrative power dynamic, with BIPOC NCAA job candidates represented as minimal or
overly simplistic, can be likened to the significant racism of the antebellum South, in which the
labor of enslaved BIPOC was exploited to augment White enslavers’ wealth. Similarly, one of
the few BIPOC offensive coordinators in NCAA Division I football, Ivin Jasper, attributed the
glaring lack of BIPOC NCAA head coaches, in large part, to depicting BIPOC in that minimized,
inaccurate manner (Maisel, 2020). Ivin Jasper noted, for instance, that the lack of hiring of
BIPOC to NCAA top positions occurs because BIPOC are frequently misrepresented with overly
simplified representations and as lacking the intrinsic abilities and character strengths necessary
to be successful NCAA head coaches (Maisel, 2020).
Another instance of depicting BIPOC NCAA coaches inaccurately with minimized
representations is that due in large part to this practice of reducing BIPOC NCAA coaching
candidates as lacking the intrinsic strengths to serve as NCAA coaches, there exist very few
BIPOC assistant coaches in NCAA major football programs. Partly due to those overly simplistic
representations of BIPOC coaches, of 130 NCAA Division I university football programs, in
February 2020, there were only seven Black head offensive coordinators, and only four other
Black coaches were deemed capable enough to share head offensive coordinator responsibilities
(Newberry, 2020). Similarly, there exist few Black NCAA head defensive coordinators in
Division I football programs. In the 130 NCAA Division I university football programs, there
were only 16 Black head defensive coordinators and six others who served as assistant
14

coordinators (Finch et al., 2016). Likewise, only one NCAA Division I football program, the
Rice University football program, which is not in a Power Five conference, has BIPOC men as
both head offensive and head defensive coordinators (Newberry, 2020). In addition, in the Power
Five Big 12 Conference, there exists only one biracial BIPOC head football coordinator of any
kind, a man (Lapchick et al., 2011).
An additional example of depicting BIPOC NCAA coaches minimally and overly
simplistically was provided by Jay Norvell, the Black head football coach at Nevada University,
who discussed being reduced to a simplistic, token BIPOC NCAA coaching candidate: “Most
schools interview a [BIPOC] candidate. A lot of times I felt like I was that guy, the guy they had
to interview, and at the end of the day, they weren’t really serious about hiring me” (Newberry,
2020, p. 4). In addition, Newberry (2020) pointed out, “there are notable examples of BIPOC
head coaches getting less time to prove themselves than their White counterparts” (p. 5).
Myth of Meritocracy Limits Number of BIPOC NCAA Coaches
A third explanation for the lack of hiring of BIPOC NCAA athletics coaches is the myth
of meritocracy. This myth falsely holds that rewards, including NCAA coaching, are earned by
individuals, due to the intrinsic merit that those individuals possess, or because of the greater
effort that those individuals exert to obtain those rewards (Reich, 2019). As such, the myth of
meritocracy may fail to account for powerful, limiting, discriminatory practices and norms, such
as systemic racism or depicting BIPOC NCAA coaching candidates inaccurately as icons or a
racialized prop. Consequently, because many BIPOC NCAA job candidates come to believe, due
to the myth of meritocracy, that their failures to obtain those NCAA positions are because of a
lack of merit or effort, rather than because of discriminatory practices, they may develop strong
15

negative behaviors and self-beliefs that further limit their advancement to top NCAA positions
(Roberts & Mayo, 2019).
One of the chief critics of the myth of meritocracy, Harvard University philosophy
professor Michael Sandel (2021), pointed out in his recent book Tyranny of Merit: What’s
Become of the Common Good? that the myth of meritocracy may often be an inaccurate limiting
factor of BIPOC NCAA job advancement. The inequalities generated by the myth of meritocracy
according to race may be inevitable. Thus, such inequalities may serve not only to limit the job
advancement of BIPOC to top NCAA positions, but also to establish a racial tyranny that further
prevents BIPOC from attaining NCAA head coaching jobs (McNamee & Miller, 2004; Sandel,
2021). That is not to say that merit plays no role in advancement to top NCAA positions, but
instead, it is key to recognize that other factors such as individual and structural racism and
discrimination can limit and suppress BIPOC from attaining those top NCAA positions
(McNamee & Miller, 2004).
The myth of meritocracy is also exemplified in that few BIPOC head football coaches
exist in the next most prestigious group of NCAA football conferences, called the Group of Five
conferences, composed of the Mountain West, Mid-American, American Athletic, Conference
USA, and Sun Belt conferences (Lynch, 2013). There are no Black head football coaches in the
American Athletic Conference and Sun Belt Conference (Newberry, 2020). Similarly, of the 65
Group of Five college football conferences, there are only three Black head football coaches: at
Northern Illinois University, Florida Atlantic University, and Nevada University (TIDES, 2019).
BIPOC NCAA football coaching candidates often encounter adverse hiring circumstances and
obstacles when applying for those positions (Mirabito, 2012).
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According to Lapchick (2019), there is little chance that NCAA college football coaching
will ever become significantly more inclusive, even though approximately one half of NCAA
college football players are Black. Mark Naison, a professor of African American studies and
history at Fordham University, provided an important rationale for why this greater inclusivity in
NCAA college football coaching will probably not occur in the near future: “The rich alumni,
most of whom are White, feel more comfortable with people who look like them. So long as
alumni dollars drive college football funding, White coaches will have a huge hiring advantage”
(Newberry, 2020, p. 7). Additionally, this predisposition for hiring White, rather than BIPOC,
NCAA head coaches may be masked by the myth of meritocracy. This is because the lack of
hiring of BIPOC NCAA head coaches may appear to be explained by the myth of meritocracy
but can be better explained by discrimination and racial segregation encountered by BIPOC
when they attempt to attain NCAA top positions. For example, BIPOC NCAA university
football coaching candidates frequently undergo sham interviews designed to satisfy superficial
affirmative action hiring requirements (Bopp & Sagas, 2012).
Equity in Hiring and Firing of BIPOC NCAA Head Coaches and Athletic Directors
There are several notable examples of BIPOC coaches being fired prematurely from
NCAA head coaching jobs. In 2020, Whites were rehired for NCAA head coaching positions,
after being fired from NCAA FBS head coaching positions, at a more than a 200% rate relative
to Black NCAA head coaching rehires (Schrotenboer, 2020). Tyrone Willingham, an ex-
University of Notre Dame football head coach, lost his job after three seasons despite having a
near-equal or better winning percentage than three White head football coaches at Notre Dame
(Lapchick, 2019). In general, the normal coaching tenure for White coaches exceeds that of
Black coaches. For example, White coaches Charlie Weis, Gerry Faust, and Bob Davie all spent
17

5 years as Notre Dame head football coaches before they were fired (Newberry, 2020). All these
coaches were ostensibly fired because they failed to meet extremely high expectations for Notre
Dame football, which has won a national championship in the past (Lynch, 2013). Additionally,
Willie Taggart, a Black football coach, was fired after less than two full seasons as head coach at
Florida State University (TIDES, 2019). This premature firing, although seemingly not the case
at the University of Notre Dame, still may illustrate how head coaching tenure is shorter for
BIPOC NCAA head coaches.
In a December 2019 report by a sports media source, Lapchick (2019) found that since
1975, there have only been seven instances in which Black head football coaches who were fired
by NCAA Division I schools were rehired at another NCAA Division I university (Newberry,
2020). By contrast, Todd Graham, a White NCAA head football coach, was fired by Arizona
State University from its head football coaching position, but Graham was quickly rehired as the
head football coach at another FBS university, the University of Hawaii, which is his fifth
NCAA FBS university head football coaching job (Tsai, 2020). Graham is still the University of
Hawaii’s football coach, and he was hired primarily because of his previous major college
football coaching experiences at the Arizona State University and Rice University (Tsai, 2020).
Although the number of examples cited here is small and cannot be generalized to BIPOC
coaches in general, these instances highlight specific differences that raise concern about equity
in hiring and firing.
Current Situation for BIPOC Women in NCAA Collegiate Athletics
BIPOC are largely excluded from NCAA head coaching positions, including BIPOC
women. One recent significant development for BIPOC women in coaching that may bolster
hiring of BIPOC female NCAA coaches is the hiring by the Washington Commanders pro
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football team of Jennifer King as the NFL’s first female BIPOC coach (Fowler, 2021). King has
significant experience in football, including serving as an assistant coach at Dartmouth
University in 2019 and helping guide Dartmouth to an 8-1 record (Bender, 2020). In addition,
King played quarterback in the semiprofessional Women’s Professional Football League, and
she has a master’s degree in athletic administration (Bender, 2020). The major reason given for
her hiring was that she had a strong understanding of football, she related well to the Washington
Commanders players, and she offered significantly new viewpoints for the coaching of the
Washington Commanders (Jhabvala, 2021). King’s hiring is not only a positive development but
also may trickle down to the NCAA hiring of BIPOC female coaches (Jhabvala, 2021). It may
be, however, that this hiring serves as token representation of BIPOC women, rather than
representing much progress in the future hiring of BIPOC female coaches (Fowler, 2021).
However, there remains a significant lack of NCAA university hiring of BIPOC athletics
coaches, and there also exists a significant lack of NCAA university hiring of BIPOC female
athletics coaches (Macur, 2015). This problem is substantially revealed by several pieces of
statistical data. Although the number of females, including BIPOC, NCAA college athletes has
increased from less than 30,000 to more than 193,000 since the passing of Title IX, in that same
time, the percentage of NCAA women’s college athletics teams coached by women, including
BIPOC women has dropped from approximately 90% to fewer than 50% (Hinckley, 2017).
In addition, in 2017, approximately less than 23% of all NCAA collegiate athletics head
coaches were BIPOC women (Hinckley, 2017). This lack of female BIPOC coaches is indicative
of the few BIPOC women who rise through NCAA coaching ranks (Cunningham & Sagas,
2003). In 2016, a Women’s Sports Foundation report revealed more than 40% of female NCAA
athletics coaches, including BIPOC, indicated they were discriminated against due to their
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gender during their hiring process (Hinckley, 2017). An example of this discrimination is that
BIPOC NCAA women’s basketball coaches are 6 times more likely to be fired than to move on
to another coaching opportunity (Belzer & Boettger, 2017).
Likewise, in 2016, when both male and female NCAA coaches were surveyed, 65%
responded they believed it was easier for men than women, including BIPOC women, to be
selected for top NCAA athletics coaching jobs (Hinckley, 2017). This belief was predominantly
due to the consistent and prevalent pattern of hiring men, rather than women, especially BIPOC
women, for most NCAA collegiate coaching jobs (Heilman, 2001). Additionally, several
statistics exemplify the severity of this problem. In 2018, only 8.6% of head coaches in the
NCAA’s most well-known subdivision, Division I, were women, including BIPOC women
(Elsesser, 2019). Moreover, the percentages of female head coaches in NCAA Division II and
Division III, including BIPOC women, were only 10.6% and 12.2%, respectively (Elsesser,
2019). Prior to 1972, women, including BIPOC women, held approximately 90% of NCAA
coaching jobs for women’s intercollegiate athletic teams (Moran-Miller, 2009). In 2014,
however, only approximately 40.2% of all NCAA women’s athletic coaching jobs were occupied
by women, including BIPOC women (Acosta & Carpenter, 2014).
Likewise, in 2013, there were no BIPOC women coaching NCAA men’s basketball
teams (Elsesser, 2019). Additionally, in 2014, only 12% of NCAA sports information directors
were women of any race (Acosta & Carpenter, 2014). This is important to address because
although I am studying football coaches in certain leagues or divisions, the issue of few BIPOC
women in these roles is also pertinent in terms of BIPOC diversity hiring (Walker & Bopp,
2010). Although basketball is a different sport than football, the statistics help to show the
scarcity of women, including BIPOC women, hired as NCAA head coaches in this area. That
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limits both BIPOC women’s development and input as NCAA athletic leaders and the
development of NCAA athletes to reach their full potential (Macur, 2015).
There are several other reasons why it is important and beneficial for BIPOC female
coaches to be represented significantly in NCAA university athletics coaching (Burgess &
Borgida, 1999). First, empowering BIPOC women to be NCAA university athletics coaches is
important and beneficial for BIPOC women (Cunningham & Sagas, 2003). This is because
hiring more BIPOC women to top university athletics positions provides greater gender
diversity; diversity of strategies, viewpoints, and values transmitted to university athletes; and
the presence of valuable role models for female university student-athletes (Moran-Miller, 2009).
The presence of such BIPOC female role models, in turn, may induce a snowball effect that
inspires BIPOC female university student-athletes to follow suit and become university athletics
coaches (Hinckley, 2017). Nicole LaVoi, codirector of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls
and Women in Sport in Minneapolis, Minnesota, summarized this potential snowball effect in
the following manner: “If we don’t have any [BIPOC] women coaching, it’s less likely we’ll
have more [BIPOC] girls and women going into coaching themselves” (Hinckley, 2017, p. 4).
Moreover, LaVoi noted that statistical data indicate this is true: “We know from the data
that BIPOC girls and women coached by BIPOC women are more likely to go into coaching”
(Hinckley, 2017, p. 4). Thus, despite all supposed efforts to end job discrimination by gender,
such discrimination is still prevalent and troublesome (Walker & Bopp, 2010). Empowering
greater NCAA university hiring of BIPOC female athletics coaches is important and beneficial
for female and male university student-athletes (Heilman, 2001). As Hinckley (2017) of the
Christian Science Monitor pointed out, “Experts say achieving greater gender equity in the
coaching ranks would benefit not only BIPOC women, but society as a whole” (p. 6).
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Nicole LaVoi echoed those opinions supporting the need for greater NCAA university
hiring of BIPOC female athletics coaches: “It matters a lot for girls, but it’s also important for
young boys” (Hinckley, 2017, p. 6). Why is this important? LaVoi answered this question by
stressing, “we need boys to view and perceive and value [BIPOC] women leaders as well. And
when they have a [female] coach, that’s one way we can do that” (Hinckley, 2017, p. 6). Thus, it
is crucial for gender equity and empowerment that BIPOC women receive equal opportunities to
become NCAA coaches (Cunningham & Sagas, 2003; Moran-Miller, 2009).
This discrimination against female NCAA coaching and athletics director candidates has
also grown rapidly since the creation of Title IX (Macur, 2015). This law was passed with the
assumption that equal opportunities would be available for women in NCAA coaching.
However, since the passage of Title IX, the number of female head NCAA athletics coaches of
women’s sports teams has dropped by more than 50% (Hinckley, 2017). This study addressed
how it might be possible to surmount this problem of the shortage of NCAA university hiring of
BIPOC female athletics coaches. However, solving that problem may not be easy (Acosta &
Carpenter, 2014).
Solving that problem may be difficult for a wide variety of reasons (Burgess & Borgida,
1999). One reason is that the lack of BIPOC female NCAA university athletics coaches
contributes to a lack of female role models, which discourages other BIPOC women from
becoming NCAA university athletics coaches (Walker & Bopp, 2010). Other contributing
reasons for this lack of NCAA university hiring of BIPOC female athletics coaches range from
but are not limited to “gender bias [and discrimination] in hiring to lack of professional
development opportunities to an increasingly demanding competition and travel schedule that
interferes with work-life balance for those with young children” (Hinckley, 2017, p. 3).
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Lack of BIPOC College Athletics Coaches
This section examines and analyzes the research literature regarding aspects of the lack of
hiring of NCAA university hiring of BIPOC athletics coaches. There are five major possible
reasons for this issue. One possible aspect is “stacking.” Stacking refers to the common career
practice for college football players to first become lower-level assistant coaches, likely for the
same football position they played (Bopp & Sagas, 2012), and then eventually move up to
higher-level assistant coaches and subsequently become head coaches (Bopp & Sagas, 2012). A
second possible aspect of the lack of NCAA BIPOC hiring is access and institutional
discrimination, which can perpetuate White coaches’ control of and access to NCAA athletics
coaching positions (McCrudden, 1982). A third aspect of this lack of diversity hiring is
homologous reproduction, or same race hiring, of NCAA athletics coaches (Bopp & Sagas,
2012). A fourth aspect is the continued lack of BIPOC NCAA athletics coaches as role models
(Hawkins, 2002; Kamphoff & Gill, 2008). A fifth aspect is the lack of human and social capital
of BIPOC NCAA coaches compared to their White counterparts. Each of the five aspects are
further examined here.
Stacking as a Career Trajectory
Sack et al. (2005) and Bopp and Sagas (2012) noted that the practice of stacking, or
“assigning of athletes to certain playing and coaching positions based on assumptions regarding
one’s athletic ability and race,” may work against BIPOC university athletics coaching
candidates (Bopp & Sagas, 2012, p. 155; also see Anderson, 1993). For example, Anderson
(1993) found the majority of head football coaches (66.6%) either played as quarterbacks or
offensive linemen before they became university head football coaches. Similarly, 68.9% of
23

university head offensive coordinators played as quarterbacks or offensive linemen prior to
becoming head offensive coordinators (Anderson, 1993; Walker & Bopp, 2010).
These statistics strikingly exemplify how BIPOC are often relegated to secondary roles,
both in athletics and athletics coaching, which tend not to lead to NCAA head coaching and
athletics director positions. Stacking may be detrimental to NCAA university BIPOC head
coaching candidates because, historically, quarterbacks and offensive linemen have been White
rather than BIPOC (Bopp & Sagas, 2012).
For instance, Kamphoff and Gill (2008) found that because the substantial majority of
NCAA coaches are former quarterbacks or offensive linemen, both of which are overwhelmingly
White, BIPOC rarely have the chance to become head football coaches because the majority of
university head football coaches are drawn from those two substantially White positions (Bopp
& Sagas, 2012). This stereotypical racial stacking of Whites in the two football positions from
which most NCAA university head football coaches originate also creates less exposure for
BIPOC coaching candidates to “strategic decision-making [that] might be a disadvantage for
[minority] players who aspire to become coaches and managers” (Sack et al., 2005, p. 315).
In addition, stereotypical racial stacking and force may segregate BIPOC into lower
NCAA university athletics coaching positions, by segregating BIPOC into less authoritative and
powerful decision-making positions in NCAA college football programs (Bopp & Sagas, 2012).
A second potential cause of the lack of NCAA BIPOC university coaches is institutional
discrimination. Institutional discrimination may work against hiring BIPOC head coaches in a
variety of ways.
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Institutional Discrimination
McCrudden (1982) pointed out that institutional discrimination can perpetuate White
NCAA coaches’ control of and access to NCAA university head coaching. This adverse
occurrence for BIPOC NCAA university athletics head coaching positions is exemplified by the
research literature, such as Anderson’s (1993) attempt to determine the negative impact of
institutional discrimination on potential BIPOC college football coaches. Similarly, Finch et al.
(2010) replicated Anderson’s research study, attempting to find whether institutional
discrimination had decreased among NCAA university BIPOC coaching candidates. Both studies
found “institutional and access discrimination, partly attributable to [the stacking] of coaching
career paths, remains a powerful deterrent in achieving a more diverse and equal representation
of [BIPOC] head coaches” (Bopp & Sagas, 2012, p. X). Thus, that deterrent may serve to greatly
hinder the lack of hiring of BIPOC head coaches.
Homologous Reproduction
I have mentioned homologous reproduction elsewhere in this study, and here I discuss
homologous reproduction in greater depth as another major aspect of the lack of NCAA hiring of
BIPOC athletics coaches (Bopp & Sagas, 2012). Cunningham and Sagas (2003) investigated the
negative effects of homologous reproduction, or same race hiring, of NCAA university athletics
coaches on BIPOC NCAA university athletics coaching candidates (Bopp & Sagas, 2012).
Supporting the negative effects of homologous reproduction on BIPOC NCAA coaching
candidates, evidence from 2010 showed that 92.5% of NCAA Division I university presidents
were White (Lapchick et al., 2011).
Those statistics appear to indicate NCAA university athletics leadership positions are
dictated by the homologous reproduction of hiring racially similar coaches to perpetuate a good
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old boys network of White men in NCAA university athletics leadership positions (Bopp &
Sagas, 2012). Moreover, McCrudden (1982) argued the perpetuation by homologous
reproduction of a good old boys NCAA university athletics leadership and management network
often influences and controls associated NCAA university factors such as salaries, opportunities,
resources, human and social capital, employment, and information (Bopp & Sagas, 2012). Thus,
homologous reproduction may exert negative effects on NCAA university BIPOC athletics
coaching candidates by creating a caste system in college athletics coaching, indicating BIPOC
“are good enough to play but not to coach” (Agyemang & DeLorme, 2010, p. 38).
Lack of Role Models
An additional aspect of the lack of NCAA university hiring of BIPOC athletics coaches is
the continued lack of BIPOC athletics coach and athletic director role models. The lack of
BIPOC role models limits the number of NCAA university BIPOC athletics coaches with whom
they can identify and emulate, which potentially limits the motivations and intentions of BIPOC
who hope to assume NCAA university top athletics positions (Bopp & Sagas, 2012).
Consequently, fewer BIPOC might become NCAA university athletics head coaches and
athletic directors, perpetuating the belief and expectation that NCAA university athletics coaches
must be White. Role congruity theory can explain the shortage of role models that tends to limit
BIPOC’s access to becoming NCAA university athletics coaches (Early & Karau, 2002).
Role congruity theory is important in how it significantly affects BIPOC NCAA head
coaching role models. For example, it explains that potential overt and latent racial stereotypes of
BIPOC candidates have limited hiring BIPOC for NCAA university athletics leadership
positions because BIPOC are perceived as incongruent with the qualities and attitudes necessary
to be effective NCAA university athletics coaches (Bopp & Sagas, 2012). Thus, in part because
26

of these incongruities, BIPOC are often perceived as less qualified and skilled than White
candidates for NCAA university athletics leadership positions (Bopp & Sagas, 2012; Sartore &
Cunningham, 2006).
In addition, role congruity model theory is an aspect of the lack of BIPOC NCAA
university head athletics coaches because the perceived incongruity of BIPOC skills and attitudes
necessary to attain NCAA university top athletics positions perpetuates additional unequal
coaching opportunities for and discrimination against those BIPOC NCAA athletics leadership
position candidates (Bopp & Sagas, 2012; Burgess & Borgida, 1999). Research has shown
unequal NCAA leadership opportunities and discrimination against BIPOC via differences in
media representations of BIPOC athletes and coaches, adding to negative stereotypes and
stigmas that limit opportunities for BIPOC to attain NCAA university coaching positions (Bopp
& Sagas, 2012). The dilatory hiring of Jennifer King, the first Black female coach, exemplifies
those limited opportunities for BIPOC coaches, showing that despite her hiring, it is not the norm
to hire such BIPOC athletics coaches.
Social Capital of BIPOC NCAA Coaches
Another aspect of the lack of NCAA university hiring of BIPOC athletics coaches is the
lack of available social capital to meet White hiring committees’ expectations, with which White
NCAA athletics coaches are equipped. Social capital can be defined as resources that enable a
person to exert power on the group or individual mobilizing those resources (Bourdieu, 1986;
Claridge, 2015). Such a lack of social capital for BIPOC in NCAA university athletics leadership
positions may develop because, as previously discussed in this study, BIPOC are often relegated
to peripheral positions in NCAA university athletics, such as defensive backs, wide receivers, or
running backs in football. In addition, BIPOC may suffer from a lack of perceived human capital
27

by White hiring committees. Consequently, BIPOC may fail because of a lack of opportunities to
develop their social capital that are necessary for BIPOC to attain NCAA university head
coaching positions (Anderson, 1993).
Additionally, peripheral NCAA athletics positions often relegated to BIPOC may hinder
or prevent their social capital from extending beyond the circumscribed boundaries of said
peripheral NCAA positions (Bopp & Sagas, 2012). Likewise, research has shown disparities
between the social capital of BIPOC and White NCAA athletics coaches (Sagas & Cunningham,
2004) that contribute to or result in BIPOC’s lower levels of job satisfaction, job success, and job
advancement than their White counterparts (Finch et al., 2010).
Social capital refers to the social networks available to prospective BIPOC athletics
coaches (Sagas & Cunningham, 2004). Created and perpetuated by institutional discrimination,
fewer opportunities to acquire social capital, such as networks, for BIPOC NCAA university
athletics coaching candidates limit the “NCAA career advancement, upward mobility, and career
aspirations among American ethnic [BIPOC]” (Anderson, 1993, p. 66) who are candidates for
head athletics coaching positions (Bopp & Sagas, 2012)
Response to Inequity in Hiring BIPOC NCAA Coaches and Athletic Directors
The literature focused on possible strategies for responding to the problem of the lack of
NCAA university hiring of BIPOC head athletics coaches is discussed in this section. One
possible strategy is for the NCAA to adopt the Eddie Robinson Rule (ERR), named after the
former Grambling State University head football coach who was one of the historic leaders in
NCAA college football wins (Lapchick, 2019). First, the background of the ERR is presented,
and then why the ERR is a problematic solution is discussed. Following that, other possible
strategies are presented from the literature.
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The ERR was coined by Richard Lapchick (2010) of the University of Central Florida,
who is considered an expert authority on the lack of NCAA hiring of BIPOC as coaches and
athletic directors. The ERR would require that at least one BIPOC coaching candidate be
interviewed for every open NCAA head coaching position (Newberry, 2020). The NCAA could
put the ERR into place throughout the organization. The ERR is patterned after a similar,
successful rule, the Rooney Rule, in the professional NFL (Lapchick, 2019). The Rooney Rule
was named after former Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney, and the research literature
indicates that it has been instrumental in the increase of the number of BIPOC NFL head coaches
to four in 2020 (Boggs, 2020). The research literature indicates, for example, that before the
implementation of the Rooney Rule, there existed only one BIPOC NFL head coach (Boggs,
2020).
The Rooney Rule was expanded to include a requirement for NFL teams to interview at
least two BIPOC for every head coaching position and one woman for every open NFL position
(Labriola, 2020). Moreover, the newly revised version of the Rooney Rule expands other hiring
opportunities for BIPOC. The Rooney Rule accomplishes that in two major ways. First, the new
version of the Rooney Rule mandates that every NFL team establish a fellowship program that
provides hands-on training for BIPOC and women and is designed to prepare them for NFL
coaching positions (Strackbein, 2020). Second, the new version of the Rooney Rule mandates
that every NFL team interview at least one female or BIPOC candidate not only for head
coaching jobs but also for all other major job openings with those teams. Thus, the ERR was
formulated with the intention that it might produce similar results in the NCAA as the Rooney
Rule has accomplished in the NFL (Newberry, 2020). Thus, the ERR might attempt to replicate
29

the hiring successes of the Rooney Rule by requiring that at least one BIPOC candidate be
interviewed for every open NCAA head coaching position (TIDES, 2019).
Advantages of the ERR
The literature has examined some of the few strengths and the many problematic
weaknesses of the ERR as a problematic solution to remedy the substantial lack of BIPOC hiring
in college athletics. Diversifying the job interview pool might lead hiring committees to consider
job candidates whom they would not have considered otherwise (Ramsey, 2018). The NCAA
Committee on Inclusion may be utilized to bolster the number of BIPOC coaches. Although
there is a sizable lack of BIPOC NCAA Division I head coaches, the majority of Division I
college football and basketball players are people of color (AACU, 2014; TIDES, 2019). Thus, a
potential advantage of implementing the ERR is that it might lessen this differential by
increasing the number of BIPOC head coaches (Cunningham, 2007). Because BIPOC associate
and assistant coaches tend to be more frequently hired by BIPOC than by Whites who are
already serving as head coaches, that solution might prove to be beneficial for NCAA BIPOC top
job candidates (Lapchick, 2019). Moreover, many collegiate athletes spend more than 40 hours
per week in sports-related activities, and much of that time is spent interacting with their
coaches, who become some of the most influential figures for collegiate athletes (Cunningham et
al., 2005; NCAA Committee on Hiring and Inclusion, 2020). Thus, by adopting the ERR, many
colleges could provide their athletes with more culturally similar role models and exemplars of
success (Cunningham et al., 2003). Additionally, some stakeholders might benefit from the ERR,
and conversely, other stakeholders might not benefit from the ERR (Burton, 2005; Steele, 1999).
Some stakeholders who might benefit from the ERR include BIPOC athletes and BIPOC
coaches who, without the ERR, might not advance in the NCAA coaching professions (Mirabito,
30

2012; Newberry, 2020). Additional stakeholders who might benefit from the ERR include
BIPOC college students who are not athletes, but who would still gain from having BIPOC
coaches as role models (Cunningham et al., 2005; Lent et al., 2000). Other stakeholders who
might benefit from the ERR include White athletes, students, coaches, and administrators who
might gain from being exposed to diverse racial and cultural perspectives (Lynch, 2013).
Another sizable group of stakeholders who might benefit from the ERR include many American
colleges and universities that might gain from having diverse head coaches as representatives
(Cunningham, 2007). Those stakeholders who might not benefit from the ERR include some
White, prospective NCAA head coaches (Newberry, 2020). However, having equity and the
most talented NCAA coaches may prove beneficial (Cunningham et al., 2007).
Critiques of the ERR
There are also other perspectives to consider regarding the ERR that clearly reveal why it
is a weak, problematic solution to increasing the number of BIPOC NCAA coaches. One
potential disadvantage of the ERR is that token college athletic coaching job interviews may be
granted to BIPOC for the mere appearance that universities are complying with the ERR, despite
the hiring authorities have no real intention of hiring a BIPOC candidate (Ramsey, 2018). A
BIPOC basketball coach at an elite university and a BIPOC football coach at another elite
university both affirmed that such tokenism is a problem for BIPOC during NCAA hiring
interviews. Although it might appear to be a harsh reality, nevertheless, much needs to be done
besides merely implementing the ERR.
The ERR alone would not be sufficient to remedy the sizable lack of NCAA hiring of
BIPOC head coaches (Newberry, 2020). For example, an NCAA Division I BIPOC assistant
basketball coach at Drake University and an NCAA Division III BIPOC assistant football coach
31

at Henderson State University both stated that the ERR is probably not sufficient for increasing
the number of BIPOC head coaches despite differences in their jobs and NCAA division levels,
both coaches agreed that more wholesale, systemic changes need to occur to increase hiring rates
of BIPOC head coaches (Blunt, 2020; Thompson, 2020). This belief is supported by the myth of
meritocracy, which states that if the current racial system and structure of an organization, such
as an NCAA university, are viewed by BIPOC as normal and proper, then BIPOC are less likely
to take corrective measures to increase BIPOC hiring rates (Reich, 2019).
In addition, according to the ERR, the hiring practices of BIPOC coaches are proper
ones, which according to the myth of meritocracy, will result in fewer corrective actions and less
hiring of BIPOC coaches (Sandel, 2021). Thus, the myth of meritocracy vividly reveals some of
the fundamental weaknesses of the ERR in attempting to remedy the lack of BIPOC coaches
(Roberts & Mayo, 2019). Similarly, DeSante (2013) debunked the effectiveness of the ERR in
increasing the hiring of NCAA BIPOC coaches. DeSante (2013) strikingly revealed that racism
and inherent racist norms in American society strongly and negatively influenced hiring rates of
BIPOC. DeSante (2013) noted that such racism and inherent racist norms as hiring determinants
render measures such as the ERR nearly meaningless in increasing the hiring rates of NCAA
BIPOC coaches.
Other Strategies to Address the Lack of BIPOC Coaches and Athletic Directors in the
NCAA
Due to the weaknesses of the ERR that I have detailed, the ERR is likely not sufficient,
by itself, to ameliorate the lack of NCAA BIPOC coaches. Another possible solution to the
problem of the lack of NCAA BIPOC head athletics coaches is to provide additional training and
mentoring of BIPOC candidates to help them attain top-level NCAA positions (Lynch, 2016).
32

Lynch (2016) offered another approach to equity in hiring, suggesting that the NCAA could seek
potential BIPOC NCAA head coaching candidates and provide them with training for and
exposure to NCAA coaching work (Lynch, 2013). That type of training and mentoring program
for BIPOC NCAA athletics coaching positions appears to be particularly appropriate because a
substantial number of other university functions may be significantly affected by programs such
as affirmative action that are designed to maximize diversity and hiring opportunities for BIPOC
(Lynch, 2016).
The NCAA has already instituted a committee, the NCAA Committee on Inclusion,
which has the stated objectives of not merely encouraging diversity, but also achieving
substantial BIPOC inclusion as NCAA head coaches (NCAA, 2020). That committee has
admitted that despite some achievements in that realm, much still remains to be done to achieve
both diversity and inclusion of NCAA BIPOC coaches (NCAA, 2020). Similarly, Cunningham
(2003) found that BIPOC expressed less interest in and perceived fewer opportunities to obtain
NCAA coaching jobs. Cunningham (2003) attributed his findings to racism that made
prospective BIPOC NCAA coaching candidates acutely aware and apprehensive of what he
termed the glass ceiling that hinders such NCAA job attainment by BIPOC.
In addition, another possible response to the problem of the lack of NCAA university
hiring of BIPOC athletics coaches is to place more BIPOC in positions that typically lead to
NCAA university head athletics coaching positions (Lynch, 2013). However, that response may
not be easily implemented, because many of those NCAA hiring decisions are based on existing
ties with current NCAA athletics coaches who are predominantly Whites (Cunningham, 2003). A
second possible response to that problem, as Newberry (2020) noted, is providing additional
funding that could be helpful for stimulating the hiring of BIPOC to coaching positions. Again,
33

however, that response may not be easily achieved. That is because, as the NCAA Committee on
Inclusion (2020) noted, some progress has been made in this area, but much remains to be
accomplished regarding the provision of additional funding to stimulate the hiring of BIPOC to
top NCAA positions. A third possible response to the lack of hiring of BIPOC NCAA head
athletics coaches is for NCAA universities to become more aware of the negative impact of
unconscious and overt biases and problematic positionalities regarding the hiring of BIPOC to
top NCAA positions (Lynch, 2013; Sagas & Cunningham, 2004).
A fourth possible response to that same problem is to attempt to lessen media-based
racism, or the perpetuation of racist media ideology regarding NCAA BIPOC coaches, which
was examined by Bopp and Cunningham (2010). Additionally, a fifth possible response is
achieving greater understanding and recognition of racial equity as “complex ideological and
cultural processes that shape all social institutions, and individual experiences” (Anderson, 1993,
p. 65). That, according to Anderson (1993), may counteract the lack of NCAA hiring of BIPOC
coaches.
However, some controversy about this topic exists, because although still low, the
percentage of BIPOC in NCAA leadership positions is increasing (TIDES, 2019). Again, using
computer analysis of data reported from sports information offices of all NCAA colleges and
universities, for example, from 2008 to 2010, the percentages of BIPOC women’s basketball
coaches rose nearly 10% (De Bono, 2019). In addition, hiring of BIPOC NCAA coaches
improved from 25% to 29.4% from 2017 to 2018 (Lapchick, 2019).
Summary of the Relevant Literature
This study outlined statistics from the research literature to exemplify the problem of the
lack of BIPOC NCAA athletics coaches. Similarly, this study used substantial statistical
34

evidence to reveal the problem of the lack of BIPOC female NCAA head coaches. In addition,
the research literature on the lack of NCAA BIPOC coaches highlighted four major aspects of
that issue: systemic racism; the double jeopardy that BIPOC female coaching candidates
encounter; depicting BIPOC NCAA coaching candidates in overly simplistic ways; and how the
myth of meritocracy is problematic for BIPOC NCAA coaching candidates. Additionally, the
research literature indicated that SCT, because of its emphasis on environmental factors,
including environmental barriers and supports, provides a useful theoretical lens for analyzing
the lack of NCAA BIPOC coaches.
In addition, empirical arguments have added a new perspective to the research literature
on this topic, because unfortunately all too often, arguments concerning this topic may rely too
heavily on potentially judgmental speculation that does not have sufficient empirical, or other
factual, evidence to back it up (Mirabito, 2012). This leads to another way in which studying the
problem of disparities affecting BIPOC coaches would add to the research literature. Rather than
merely presenting one side of arguments about this problem, this study incorporated both sides
of such arguments, as in the discussion of both sides of the ERR (Lynch, 2013; Ramsey, 2018).
Conceptual Framework
A theoretical framework that is useful for this study is SCT (Bandura, 1996; Swift, 2011).
SCT uses the concept of triadic reciprocity to explain how people, the environment, and behavior
all interrelate and influence one another (Bandura, 1996). Thus, according to Bandura (1996), all
three factors may be crucial determinants of human behavior. An example of how all three parts
of this triad interact in terms of BIPOC, head coaches, and disparity is that BIPOC NCAA
coaches who are aware that they often are fired prematurely may exhibit poor coaching
35

behaviors due to the pressure caused by their coaching environment’s premature firing processes
(Elliott et al., 2018).
The component of SCT that is most salient for this study is individuals’ environments,
which for BIPOC coaches are often unsalutary (Bandura, 1996, 2006). SCT posits that
individuals who have unsalutary hiring and job environments are less likely to pursue top job
positions such as NCAA head coaching positions (Bandura, 2006). In addition, SCT suggests
that BIPOC (Steele, 1999), who tend not to have a great deal of control over their unsalutary job
environments, are less likely to obtain NCAA head coaching positions (Elliott et al., 2018). Both
of those features of BIPOC coaches’ environments help show why SCT is a valuable theoretical
lens for examining the lack of BIPOC NCAA head coaches.
Summary
This chapter discussed the existence, causes, implications, and consequences of and
possible responses and counterarguments to the lack of hiring of BIPOC NCAA head athletics
coaches. As supported by statistics outlined in this study, the demographics of that shortage have
changed slightly (Lapchick, 2019). However, over time, there has been little, if any,
improvement (Bopp & Sagas, 2012). Thus, this study further explored the lack of hiring of
BIPOC as NCAA head athletics coaches, which can be explained in various ways, although no
explanation appears infallible (Cunningham et al., 2005). This is because there are so many often
conflicting factors responsible for the lack of BIPOC hiring (Cunningham, 2007). SCT served as
the theoretical lens for this study. This is because SCT offers a contributing, unique focus on
how BIPOC have struggled and continue to struggle to attain NCAA head coaching job positions
(Swift, 2011). Additionally, BIPOC have struggled and continue to struggle to reduce the
significant disparities that exist between the rates of hiring of BIPOC and Whites to those
36

positions (Sagas & Cunningham, 2004). Nevertheless, this study attempted to identify the
underlying causes of and possible solutions to those significant disparities (Mirabito, 2012). The
theoretical models and respective lenses I have identified are essential to identifying and
understanding the interconnections between and the shared struggles of BIPOC regarding their
thoughts and experiences (Lynch, 2016). This study comprehensively examined the thoughts and
experiences of BIPOC in an attempt to allow those BIPOC to respond effectively to and reduce
the substantial disparities between the hiring rates of Whites and BIPOC as NCAA head athletics
coaches.

37

Chapter Three: Methodology
The purpose of this study was to examine the lack of hiring of BIPOC men and women in
NCAA coaching and to gather the perceptions of BIPOC coaches and regarding that lack of
hiring. This study featured interviews with eight NCAA BIPOC coaches to examine the problem
of practice in detail. This chapter is organized into the following 11 sections: purpose, research
questions, overview of design, research listing, the researcher, data sources, participants,
instrumentation, data analysis, validity and reliability, and ethics.
Research Questions
1. What obstacles have BIPOC NCAA head coaches encountered during the hiring
process?
2. How do BIPOC NCAA coaches perceive the possibility of change in the obstacles, if
any, in the NCAA hiring process?
Overview of Design
This study used a qualitative research method that featured interviews with BIPOC
NCAA coaches as the major research method. That qualitative research method was chosen for
this study because of the need to gather firsthand perceptions and experiences of BIPOC coaches
who were interviewed pertaining to the lack of hiring of BIPOC NCAA coaches (Merriam &
Tisdell, 2016). In addition, utilizing qualitative interviews appeared to be the best way to learn
firsthand about the perceptions and experiences of NCAA BIPOC athletics coaches.
This study used a semistructured interview method for several reasons. First, the relaxed
structure of the semistructured interview method may have facilitated the BIPOC interview
respondents to be more open and flexible in their responses to the interview questions (Merriam
& Tisdell, 2016). That flexibility, in turn, facilitated the opportunity to have more thorough and
38

wide-ranging interviews with BIPOC NCAA head coaches (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016).
Similarly, the semistructured interview method permitted more open sharing, discussion, and
idea exchanging than a more formal and structured interview approach would permit. In
addition, the semistructured interview approach appeared particularly appropriate for this study’s
qualitative research interviews, because the BIPOC NCAA head coaches who were interviewed
for this dissertation are a diverse group who may have responded to my research interview
questions in a variety of ways with diverse responses and questions of their own. Thus, the
semistructured interview approach appeared most suitable for this dissertation, because it best
afforded the opportunity for mutual questioning and responding between me and the BIPOC
NCAA head coaching interview respondents.
Research Setting
The setting in which the study took place was NCAA coaching organizations. However,
the research interviews took place remotely, to enable interviews with a much more distant,
diverse group of BIPOC NCAA coaches of all genders. The setting in which the study occurred
was at prominent universities, including Ivy League schools, around the country, with Zoom
interviews conducted with consenting BIPOC coaches at those universities. The number of
participants was eight BIPOC coaches. Those coaches ranged from associate head coaches to
assistant coaches. This study justified the selection of research setting sites in that I reached out
by email to several different BIPOC coaches in prominent university coaching positions at
universities that are a significant distance from my residence in Ames, Iowa. This selection of
varied setting sites also enabled me to address appropriately the research questions, because this
study had as a criterion for selection that the BIPOC coaches who were interviewed be at least
39

assistant coaches, because they were at prominent universities, which enabled them to better
answer the research questions.
Eight BIPOC coaches in coaching positions at prominent universities in the United
States, including Ivy League schools, participated in this research study, and salient information
about each is shared in Chapter 4. The rationale for their inclusion, based on the research
questions, was that this research study sought to interview BIPOC coaches at various universities
around the country who had already achieved NCAA coaching success. The justification for
choosing to interview BIPOC NCAA coaches was that they served as the best firsthand source of
information for this study, which sought to examine BIPOC coaches’ perceptions concerning the
lack of hiring of NCAA BIPOC coaches through discussion of their perceptions of their success.
The Researcher
I had the positionality of being a White, upper-class, highly educated male doctoral
student. In addition, I am a doctoral student in the organizational change and leadership program
at the University of Southern California who interviewed eight BIPOC NCAA athletics coaches
to analyze the lack of BIPOC NCAA athletics coaches. Some assumptions and biases that could
have affected my research study are that I am White, a different race than my intended
interviewees. Thus, the assumptions and biases that come from belonging to different racial
group could have affected my study. For example, I may not have been able to appreciate fully
the hardships that my interviewees encountered in trying to attain their present jobs. Similarly, I
may not have been able to appreciate fully the deterrents that my interviewees encounter in the
coaching jobs that they have attained. In addition, some assumptions or biases might have
resulted from the fact that I have never been an NCAA athletics coach. Thus, I may not have
been able to appreciate fully the hardships that my interviewees have encountered either in
40

attaining their NCAA athletics coaching jobs or in their present NCAA athletics coaching
positions.
I am a doctoral student in Organizational Change and Leadership at the University of
Southern California. In addition, I have a graduate degree in Teaching and Learning from the
Harvard Graduate School of Education. I attempted to mitigate potential assumptions and biases
by being cognizant of the probable significant differences between me and my interviewees. In
addition, I attempted to not alter or change in any way the interviewees’ responses to my
interview questions to ensure that the interviewees could speak honestly for themselves without
being misinterpreted by my biases and assumptions. A multicultural society needs a more diverse
field of coaches so that it equitably reflects society and the team members. I conducted
interviews with eight BIPOC NCAA athletics coaches. Then, I conducted data analysis of my
findings from my interviews.
Participants
This study’s sampling and recruitment approach was purposeful sampling of BIPOC
coaches at NCAA schools that range from NCAA Division I to NCAA Division III. There were
eight interview participants in this research study, who were all BIPOC who attained coaching
positions at NCAA universities. This study selected eight interview participants of the more than
3,600 NCAA coaches by using the selection criteria that those interview participants must have
been BIPOC and must have attained a job position of at least a NCAA university assistant
athletics coach. I emailed approximately 150 NCAA coaches, and approximately 30 coaches
responded to those emails. I decided ahead of time that eight participants would be interviewed.
Thus, in this study, the first eight NCAA coaches who responded to my emails and who were
available for interviews were selected as the research participants.
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I contacted these BIPOC interview respondents by email after identifying them through
the internet at varied NCAA athletic department websites, inviting them to participate, and
telling them about their informed, voluntary consent in the study. Eight was selected as the
number of interviews for my research study because I wanted to have both a manageable number
of research participants and enough data to answer the research questions. The method for
inviting those BIPOC coaches to participate in this research study was to identify myself as a
doctoral student in organizational change and leadership at the University of Southern California
and to tell the participants why this study was being conducted. This study also detailed how the
research data that was obtained from the interviews would be used for my dissertation and
professional career following my graduation from the University of Southern California.
Additionally, the interviewees’ anonymity, confidentiality, and voluntary participation were
protected in this research study by allowing the interview participants to stop participating in
interviews at any time and by not disclosing the participants’ names.
Instrumentation
I chose a semistructured interview protocol approach. That approach was chosen to
ensure some structure for the research interviews but also some flexibility for interviewees to
elaborate on their responses or briefly diverge on closely relevant topics (Merriam & Tisdell,
2016). In addition, I used a semistructured interview approach because it enabled me to have
interviews guided by a list of questions but that were flexible enough to allow me to “respond to
the situation at hand, to the emerging worldview of the respondent and to new ideas on the topic”
(Merriam & Tisdell, 2016, p. 111).
This study had 13 interview questions covering many aspects of the shortage of NCAA
hiring of minority athletics coaches. The content of those questions addressed recommendations
42

from the interviewees about how to improve that shortage, what they perceived as possible
causes of that shortage, and what obstacles they believed hindered BIPOC from attaining top
NCAA job positions. One interview question was about the possible usefulness of the application
of the concept of guidelines for ameliorating the shortage of NCAA hiring of BIPOC athletics
coaches. That interview question also addressed the key concept of guidelines because it
permitted me to respond flexibly to the interviewees’ discussion by considering the open-ended
and unique nature of the interviewees’ responses (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Thus, I was able to
address key research concepts of this research study, such as the means of lessening the lack of
BIPOC NCAA coaches, by allowing interviews to turn toward those topics without any
predetermined structural questions (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Likewise, by addressing that
additional concept in the interviews, I attempted to enhance the range and depth of the
interviews, which in turn, enhanced the key course concepts of validity and reliability of the
interviews (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). The interview protocol is included in Appendix A.
Data Collection Procedures
The logistical procedures for collecting this study’s research data included collecting data
in the early part of 2022. The interviews each took approximately 45 to 60 minutes. The location
of data collection was Ames, Iowa, where Zoom interviews were conducted with the research
participants, who were located in several other cities. I do not name the cities or universities at
which the interviewees work to protect their anonymity. The interviews were recorded by using
the Zoom platform because it was easy to use, it was stable, and it had built-in features to record
MP4 files and generate transcripts (Jones, 2021).
In addition, I obtained informed, voluntary consent from the interview participants before
conducting each interview. I did this by telling the interview respondents before the interviews
43

the purpose of the study, that their participation was voluntary, and that they may have stopped
participating in the interviews at any time. I also informed the interviewees that they might ask
any questions that they had about the interviews before, during, or after the interviews. Before
beginning each interview, I asked each interviewee for permission to record the interview, so as
to have recordings to use transcriptions for data analysis. I recorded the interviews using Zoom
tools. I also told the interview respondents that their anonymity was protected during their
participation in the interviews, and I masked their identities by not revealing their location and
using pseudonyms. To keep the data organized, I matched their respective initials and
universities to each transcription of the interviews.
This study also included field notes that were taken during Zoom interviews with
research participants, to capture research data from the interviews with BIPOC NCAA athletics
coaches, along with a recording of the interviews. The rationale for these data collection methods
was that it enabled me to obtain data from a wide variety of BIPOC coaches from a wide variety
of universities throughout the country.
Data Analysis
After data collection was complete, I analyzed the data by first reading the transcripts and
looking for patterns or differences in the data. I coded the interview responses (Gibbs, 2018)
using a combination of a priori and open codes. Based on identified patterns, I grouped and
analyzed the data according to several a priori codes, or major themes (Gibbs, 2018). Those a
priori codes emerged from the literature and included but were not limited to systemic racism
(Harper, 2012), the inaccurate depiction of BIPOC as overly simplistic representations (Kim,
2017), the limitation of hiring BIPOC NCAA coaches due to the myth of meritocracy (Regan,
2014), the current situation for female NCAA coaches (Macur, 2015), and the perceptions of
44

BIPOC NCAA coaches regarding the ERR (Newberry, 2020). The a priori codes also included
the perceptions of BIPOC coaches being interviewed both before and after their hiring, and
responses that were pertinent to and significant for the research study that did not fall into one of
the other major thematic categories (Gibbs, 2018). I also looked for data that did not fall in the
themes of these a priori codes, and I analyzed that data as either disconfirming or creating an
additional theme (Gibbs, 2018). I coded the interview responses by using a combination of a
priori and open codes (Gibbs, 2018).
Validity and Reliability
The validity of this research study indicates that what this research studied is actually
what I intended to study. The reliability of this research study indicates that if this research study
were replicated, then the research findings would be the same. I used several strategies for
maximizing the validity and reliability of this research study. I devoted sufficient time to
collection of data from individual research interviews to achieve data saturation, which helped to
maximize the validity and reliability of this research study (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Another
strategy used was reflexivity and critical self-examination of positionalities and potential explicit
and implicit biases, of both me and the research participants, that may have exerted substantial
effects on this study’s data collection and data analysis (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016).
That was particularly relevant because of the significant differences between the
researcher and the BIPOC NCAA athletics coaches who participated. Another way to maximize
this study’s validity and reliability was to provide thick, rich descriptions with sufficient
contextualized descriptions of the research interview data, so that readers can decide whether the
research data were valid and reliable (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). A final strategy used in this
research study was maximum variation, in which I purposefully attempted to maximize the
45

variation in participant selection to maximize validity and reliability, so that the research findings
were more widely applicable to research (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). This occurred because I
chose a wide variety of BIPOC athletics coaches from throughout the country.
Ethics
My responsibilities with respect to involving human participants in this study’s research
included obtaining institutional review board approval to conduct the research and the use of
informed consent regarding research participants. I informed research participants of the
purposes and practices of this research study and obtained their consent to participate in this
research study (Patton, 2015). Moreover, I ensured that research participant participation was
voluntary by telling research participants that they could stop participating in this research study
at any time. I also guaranteed the confidentiality of all research data and participation during this
study’s eight interviews with a varied selection of BIPOC NCAA athletics coaches. I also
secured from research participants their permission to record, store, and secure the research data
obtained by interviewing eight BIPOC athletics coaches.
In addition, there was another crucial aspect of adhering to ethical research practice.
Because I am White and the NCAA coaches whom I interviewed were BIPOC, I needed to be
aware of interview questions that may have triggered feelings of hurt or discrimination for those
BIPOC coaches. Thus, about two or three interview questions before those potentially hurtful
interview questions, I told the interview participants that I was about to ask them potentially
hurtful interview questions and asked them if they wished to skip over or have me rephrase those
questions. None of the participants opted to skip any questions.
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Limitations and Delimitations
Given how I decided to bound the study, one of the delimitations of this study was the
choice to only interview eight BIPOC college athletics coaches. It might be difficult, for
example, to generalize this study’s research results because of the relatively small number of
research participants. A limitation of this study was the limited amount of time available for the
research interviews and the research study itself. Given that in this research study, I chose to
utilize a conceptual framework that focused on SCT, one of the limitations of this study is that I
was not able to pinpoint exactly how the eight BIPOC NCAA interviewees reported their levels
of unsupportive environments, particularly regarding their athletics coaching career attainment.
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Chapter Four: Findings
This chapter briefly reviews the major research problem, purpose, research questions, and
the importance of this research study. The research problem was the lack of NCAA hiring of
BIPOC, both men and women, as university athletics coaches. The purpose of this research study
was to address the problem of a lack of hiring of NCAA BIPOC coaches of all genders. Another
major purpose of this research study was to determine those BIPOC NCAA coaches’ perceptions
of their hiring and their coaching work to reduce the lack of hiring of NCAA BIPOC coaches.
The importance of this research study is reflected in the research literature. First, in 2020,
approximately 30% of all NCAA student-athletes were BIPOC (NCAA, 2020). Second, in 2019,
by contrast, 85%, 86%, and 91.1% of NCAA head coaches in Divisions I, II, and III,
respectively, were White (Lapchick, 2019). That stark underrepresentation of BIPOC NCAA
coaches has existed since the beginning of the NCAA and continues to the present day
(Lapchick, 2019). This study’s major research questions were:
1. What obstacles have BIPOC NCAA head coaches encountered during the hiring
process?
2. How do BIPOC NCAA head coaches perceive the possibility of change in the
obstacles, if any, in the NCAA hiring process?
Context of the Study
The setting for this research study was virtual Zoom meetings, chosen due to the
geographical distance of all participants and continued COVID-19 social distancing. From eight
NCAA universities across the country, the researcher interviewed six men and two women as
participants using Zoom meetings.
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Demographic Information for BIPOC Coaches Interviewed
The pseudonyms and job titles of the participants at the time of the study are listed here.
1. Harold is a NCAA BIPOC assistant athletics coach at a Midwestern college.
2. Ned is a NCAA BIPOC assistant athletics coach at a major research-oriented Western
university.
3. Richard is a NCAA BIPOC associate athletics coach at a Western college.
4. Adam is a NCAA BIPOC assistant athletics coach at a major research-oriented
Midwestern university.
5. Ann is a NCAA BIPOC assistant athletics coach at an Ivy League university.
6. James is a NCAA BIPOC assistant athletics coach at a major research-oriented
Western university.
7. Jack is a NCAA BIPOC assistant athletics coach at a smaller Western university.
8. Susan is an NCAA BIPOC athletics coach at a large Western university.
Research Question 1: Findings
What obstacles have BIPOC encountered in NCAA coaching hiring practices or their
jobs?
Two major categories of research findings emerged to answer Research Question 1. First,
there appeared to be a lack of role models in top NCAA coaching positions for male and female
participants. Second, there seemed to be both overt and covert discrimination against participants
through hiring practices and processes and in general as they completed their current jobs.
Lack of BIPOC Role Models in Head Coaching Positions
Seven of the eight participants interviewed agreed that there exists a lack of BIPOC role
models, both male and female, in top NCAA athletics coaching positions, and a lack of social
49

networking opportunities in those coaching positions. That perception was shared by seven of the
eight participants interviewed and is related to Research Question 1, because it reveals some of
the obstacles that these coaches faced in the hiring process and their jobs. All participants except
(Adam) shared data pointing to this category.
Richard stated that, “[BIPOC] are not reflected in the people who are hiring them. … It is
more challenging … to connect with somebody who has a much, much different background
than you have.” Richard noted the lack of role models for participants and the difficulties in
participants’ coaching social networking, and he also observed that these two problems will not
be easy to overcome, perhaps indicating their current ingrained nature: “You know, applying for
positions … there’s not a lot of coaches of color. And I mean, if you’re being interviewed by
somebody … different … I think that can play a role in the hiring process.”
Similar to Richard, Ned shared, “I know many guys who definitely deserve opportunities
… [and] they’re not part of that network, and if you’re not, you don’t have representation or you
know people that you network with.” Ned shared another example of those perceptions:
If you look at the makeup of the coaches who hire … and you did a breakdown of the
diversity within those groups, I think that until that increases … nothing will really
change. … It will be more checkboxes.
Like Richard and Ned, four other participants who were interviewed for this study echoed
the importance of creating more role models and more extensive social networking for
participants. Susan noted how the coaching social networking groups that she belonged to
significantly helped her obtain her NCAA coaching position. Jack pointed out that belonging to
social networking groups may prove to be the decisive factor in whether BIPOC are hired as
NCAA coaches, as it was for him. Ann spoke about how having coaching on social networking
50

helped her not only obtain her own NCAA coaching jobs but also pave the way for future
BIPOC to be hired as NCAA coaches. The lone participant who did not address coaching role
models and social networking for participants, Adam, did not refute the importance of having
coaching role models and effective coaching social networking for participants, but rather did not
address those two topics. These research findings have importance for this study’s first research
question, because they reveal an important obstacle that participants may encounter in their
hiring processes and jobs due to lack of role models.
Overt and Covert Discrimination Against BIPOC NCAA Coaches
All eight of the participants interviewed for this research study agreed that overt or covert
discrimination presented an obstacle that they encountered during their hiring processes and in
their jobs. That perception was shared by all eight of the participants and fit with the first
research question of this study, because it appeared to indicate that overt and covert
discrimination were obstacles encountered by participants in their jobs and in their hiring
practices.
Moreover, that overt or covert discrimination perceived by the research participants fits
with the research literature on this study’s main topic. For example, that discrimination appears
to reflect systemic racism that may be defined as structures or procedural processes that
disadvantage BIPOC (Johnson, 2020; Yancey-Bragg, 2020). Coaches may experience, either
overtly or covertly, a microcosm of the discriminatory practices that BIPOC may experience in
other segments of American society, including political, educational, and other American
leadership societal segments (Edwards et al., 1973).
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Overt Discrimination Against BIPOC NCAA Coaches
As an example of the unanimous perceptions of the research participants of overt
discrimination against them, Susan noted the presence of a hostile coaching hiring process, in
which she believed that she must conform to what Whites perceived her as, rather than what she
really was: “I have been told within the [coaching] network that you do not want to seem too
strong. You don’t want to seem too weak. You don’t want to be Black. You don’t want to sound
too White.” In addition, another of the participants interviewed for this study, Harold, shared his
perception that the lack of NCAA BIPOC coaches may be overt discrimination, although Harold
did not quite phrase it that way: “All you know, we must get into those certain spaces, and
certainly there are some people out there who do not want [BIPOC] coaches to be get into those
spaces, for whatever reasons.”
Likewise, another of the participants interviewed for this study, James, related instances
of apparent overt discrimination against him:
One of the things that my coaching mentors told me was that you must accept the fact
that if someone says something disrespectful to you, our race against yours, you do not
have the wherewithal or the right to fight back. … Because if you do not, you will not
have any jobs going forward.
Moreover, Jack shared an instance of seemingly overt discrimination that he experienced:
The previous athletic director, I wanted him to hire me as an interim head coach. Then,
when he stepped down, the new athletic director decided not to [hire me] and said that the
reason was that I did not fit the picture of what we want here at [XYZ] university. I think
that athletic director had a picture in mind already of what they wanted. And there was
someone else here on staff whom they were friends with, and they just hired that person.
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Thus, when Jack attempted to attain an interim head coaching job, he was redirected into a lesser
job position that did not lead to a top coaching job. Like Susan, Harold, and Jack, Ann shared
that she did not believe that some BIPOC NCAA coaching candidates were given an equal
opportunity to be hired, saying, “There’s plenty of coaches that are very experienced and well
versed that could do a great job, but they are not given the opportunity.” She attributed that to the
possible presence of discriminatory favoritism in NCAA coaching hiring processes.
Another of the participants, Adam, noted that there may have existed discrimination
against female BIPOC coaches, who may have been unfairly assessed to be less capable
university athletics team managers than male BIPOC NCAA coaches. Ned stated that he was
aware of instances in which BIPOC NCAA coaches with more coaching experience than White
NCAA coaching candidates were passed over in the hiring process and not provided the
opportunity to work in those coaching jobs. Finally, Richard echoed what Ned said, stating that
in his coaching experience and that of coaching colleagues whom he knew, the existence of
relevant, or even superior, work experiences for BIPOC NCAA coaching candidates were
possibly negated. Richard stated what he viewed as possibly discriminatory and subjective hiring
decisions that favored White NCAA coaching candidates: “BIPOC [coaches] … have to be just a
bit more, a bit more diligent and making sure that you’re connecting with those individuals who
are making hiring decisions.”
The research data for overt discrimination against BIPOC NCAA coaches reflect a
significant obstacle that those coaches encountered both in their hiring processes and in their
jobs.
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Covert Discrimination Against BIPOC NCAA Coaches
Seven of the eight participants perceived covert discrimination against them. One
participant in this research study, Ann, described this covert discrimination when she shared:
Being able to hire coaches is so much of a perspective and relative. … [White coaches]
get to slide on maybe they haven’t done as much, but someone just likes them or favors
them more versus a [BIPOC] who technically has a better resume.
Additionally, Richard noted covert discrimination against BIPOC coaches in his
comment, “[BIPOC] are not reflected in the people who are hiring them. … It is more
challenging to connect with somebody who has a much, much different background.”
The perceptions of the remaining participants aligned with the perceptions of Ann and
Richard. The other five participants perceived covert discrimination either in their hiring
processes or in their jobs. One of those participants, Adam, shared that he was treated as an
outsider who did not share the experiences and activities of the athletes whom he coached, due to
what Adam attributed as cultural differences between them: “[Being a BIPOC] may make people
think you have a different culture … different from the majority.” James stated that he perceived
covert discrimination in the workplace in that BIPOC coaches were typically hired for lower-
rung NCAA coaching positions that usually did not lead to top coaching jobs. Likewise, Jack
said that he perceived covert discrimination in the hiring process in that NCAA athletic directors,
who were primarily White, tended to pass over BIPOC coaching candidates and select White
coaching candidates for coaching jobs primarily because they shared the same race as the athletic
directors. Susan shared that she, too, perceived covert discrimination in the hiring process, in that
she knew of female BIPOC NCAA coaching candidates who were well qualified but passed over
for NCAA coaching jobs, primarily because the hiring committees did not perceive women as
54

strong leaders. Harold said that he noticed covert discrimination in the hiring process, in that
BIPOC coaches, despite being well-qualified, were passed over for coaching positions in
typically White-dominated sports, such as golf, tennis, or lacrosse. Another participant, James,
perceived covert racism in the form of microaggressions by Whites against him or other BIPOC
NCAA coaches: “I don’t think that people are aware of how strong racism is and how real it is
still. … You have to accept … little microaggressions with each day.”
The covert discrimination experienced by the participants was another obstacle they
encountered in their pursuit of advancement in their coaching careers when applying for or
maintaining more advantageous NCAA coaching positions. This discrimination affected the
participants’ ability to function free from discrimination, which may have a negative effect on
health and productivity (Bandura, 1996).
Discussion: Research Question 1
These research findings also reflect and supplement the research literature on the lack of
NCAA hiring of BIPOC as university athletics coaches. The research literature, for example,
shows that homologous reproduction, or the hiring of NCAA coaches of the same color as the
hiring committee, may limit the creation of BIPOC coaching role models and effective coaching
social networking (Bopp & Sagas, 2012). That is shown by the research literature in that
although 55% of NCAA football athletes and 56% of NCAA basketball athletes at the 65 most
influential NCAA university athletics programs were Black, of 426 NCAA university athletics
programs, only 30.6% had BIPOC head coaches (Harper, 2012; Zippia, 2021). That
underrepresentation of BIPOC NCAA coaches makes it more difficult to create coaching role
models and promote social networking. In addition, the research literature indicates the presence
of a good old boys network of White NCAA coaches who only hire other White NCAA coaches,
55

which may create a vicious cycle of not hiring BIPOC NCAA coaches (McCrudden, 1982). That,
in turn, may contribute to the lack of role models and social networking noted by these
participants (McCrudden, 1982). The literature also noted the damaging effects of
discrimination. One example of systemic racism is the complicated and latent discriminatory
forces at work throughout American society, including NCAA coaching hiring processes and job
positions (Harris, 2020; Yancey-Bragg, 2020).
Likewise, the overt discrimination perceived by the participants tied in with the research
literature for this research study. Reich (2019) pointed out, for example, that throughout the
history of the United States, BIPOC have encountered systemic racism in the form of covert
discrimination, such as that perceived by the participants I interviewed. Moreover, BIPOC
NCAA coaches are routinely discarded, exploited, and led to believe that if they attempt to attain
NCAA coaching positions that they will encounter racial discrimination, including overt
discrimination (Cunningham, 2010). Additionally, the research literature on this topic indicates
that BIPOC, such as the participants in this study, may encounter what appears to be overt
discrimination, in that they may be directed, as Jack was, into coaching jobs that infrequently
lead to top coaching jobs (Cunningham et al., 2006).
The covert discrimination experienced by the participants was another obstacle they
encountered in their pursuit of advancement in their coaching careers in terms of applying for or
maintaining more advantageous NCAA coaching positions. This discrimination affected the
participants’ ability to function free from discrimination, which may have a negative effect on
their health and productivity (Bandura, 1996).
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Findings: Research Question 2
How do BIPOC NCAA coaches perceive the possibility of change in the obstacles, if
any, in the NCAA hiring process?
The main research findings for this study’s second research question revealed two
categories. The first category was that the participants, despite strategies such as the ERR
(Edwards, 2020; Hernandez, 2020; Ramsey, 2018), found strategies for overcoming the
impediments that they encountered to be primarily ineffective. The second category, however,
was that although the research participants found some possible strategies for surmounting their
obstacles to be problematic, when pressed for solutions for overcoming those impediments, the
research participants acknowledged some possible solutions to those barriers that were primarily
too broad and idealistic to overcome the obstacles they identified. Those two categories of major
research findings tie in with this study’s second major research question, because they highlight
and help to address the seeming intractability of systemic racism, as asked in Research Question
2.
BIPOC Coaches Perceive Ineffective Strategies for Overcoming Obstacles
Seven of the eight participants interviewed for this research study perceived strategies for
overcoming obstacles in their hiring processes and jobs that were ineffective. Some of those
perceptions centered around what those participants perceived to be weaknesses of the ERR,
which would mandate that all NCAA universities interview at least one BIPOC candidate for
every open NCAA coaching position. Most of the weaknesses of the ERR that those participants
perceived involved the likelihood that the ERR would merely increase the number of token
interviews given to BIPOC NCAA coaching candidates, as a means of appearing to comply with
the ERR but continuing to shut BIPOC out of hiring for NCAA coaching positions. That finding,
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likewise, agrees with the research literature on that topic, which appears to share the same
opinion (Edwards, 2020; Hernandez, 2020; Ramsey, 2020). The one participant, Adam, who did
not note perceived ineffectiveness in overcoming impediments in his hiring process and his job
did not disagree with the other seven participants, but rather had mixed feelings about the topic.
He thought that the ERR could be a good thing, but that tokenism in interviews granted to
BIPOC NCAA coaches could also result from the ERR.
As an example of the perceptions among seven of the participants that attempts by
BIPOC coaches to surmount obstacles were ineffective, Ned noted that he believed that any
positives changes resulting from the ERR would be illusory: “Do I think that the ERR will [bring
about positive] changes? I do not. … I think that it is just a checkbox. … I do not think that it
will bring increases in numbers [of BIPOC coaches hired].” Ned added:
If you look at the makeup of the coaches who hire … and you did a breakdown of the
diversity within those groups, I think that until that increases … nothing will really
change. … It will be more checkboxes.
Another participant, Richard, like Ned, noted what he believed to be the sham or weak
nature of the ERR: “And I wonder whether I was just given the opportunity [by the ERR] to
interview, because maybe I am just filling up a checkmark. And … I guess I just worry if there
are any teeth behind the [ERR].”
In addition, a third participant, Susan, also noted the apparent ineffectiveness of strategies
for overcoming barriers in BIPOC NCAA coaches’ hiring processes and jobs. Susan, for
example, like Ned and Richard, pointed out what she believed to be the weak nature of the ERR:
“I have … felt that I was that one person being interviewed because of these types of rules [such
as the ERR]. We have to go [beyond the ERR] and try to network and struggle to get the
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opportunities.” Additionally, a fourth participant, James, pointed out the lack of effectiveness of
the ERR in improving unsalutary work environments for BIPOC NCAA coaches that may be
dominated by a White hierarchy: “[Despite the ERR,] if the hierarchy of administrative staff are
all White … you will never even know that there’s a BIPOC [coaching candidate] that is that
good.” Moreover, Ned further added, concerning the lack of effectiveness of the ERR in
surmounting obstacles faced by BIPOC NCAA coaches: “It’s going to be a long road for this.
Yes, they’ll make some initiatives, yes, there’ll be some different pushes and all that, but it’s
never going to be where it should be.”
Three of the four remaining participants in this study aligned with Ned, Richard, Susan,
and James in stating that efforts such as the ERR to overcome obstacles were largely ineffective.
Jack, for example, noted the ineffectiveness of the ERR by sharing that he believed that the ERR
would be ineffectual and not make any positive difference in overcoming impediments against
BIPOC NCAA coaches or increasing the number of those coaches: “I don’t think that it would
make a difference. … I think it’s just a box check.” A second participant, Harold, noted from a
slightly different perspective what he believed to be the ineffectiveness of efforts such as the
ERR to surmount obstacles for BIPOC NCAA coaches. Harold shared that he did not believe
that the ERR would be effective until a further examination was made of the perceived
weaknesses of the rule that the ERR is patterned after, the Rooney Rule in the NFL: “I think for
it [the ERR] to be effective, we got to make sure [and] look at the failures … of the Rooney
Rule.” A third participant in this research study, Ann, like Harold, shared from a different
perspective what she believed to be the ineffectiveness of strategies such as the ERR for
overcoming impediments for BIPOC NCAA coaches. Ann said that she believed that efforts
such as the ERR to surmount those obstacles would not be effective until effective changes were
59

made in increasing BIPOC NCAA coaches’ social networking opportunities and the number of
BIPOC NCAA hiring administrators:
I would hope they’re not just grabbing someone for job interviews just because [of the
ERR]. It has to come from the top … making sure that the top is … making that change
to … push forward and grow.
The final participant, Adam, did not say that he thought that attempts by BIPOC NCAA
coaches to surmount obstacles were either effective or ineffective. Adam stated that he believed
that such attempts, such as the ERR, could be effective, but might be ineffective and lead to
token job interviews for BIPOC NCAA coaching candidates whom hiring administrators had no
real intention of hiring: “There must be … institutions using [the ERR] just for [fulfillment of the
ERR].”
Primarily Ineffective Attempts to Surmount Impediments
Seven of the participants interviewed for this research study stated that although they
found attempts to overcome obstacles for BIPOC coaches to be generally ineffective, when
pressed, they offered some suggestions for surmounting those obstacles. Those suggestions
included striving to diversify the NCAA coaching applicant pool and developing much more
extensive training and mentoring programs for BIPOC coaching candidates. Those suggestions
fit in with the research literature on this topic, such as Lynch’s (2013) description of the possible
advantages for such training and mentoring programs for BIPOC coaching candidates and the
diversification of the NCAA coaching applicant pools.
Seven of the participants interviewed for this study, when pressed, offered possible
solutions to the obstacles that seem to hinder those coaches. One of those participants, James,
shared that one possible solution to the hostile environments opposing BIPOC NCAA coaches
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was to be more lenient and tolerant toward BIPOC coaching candidates: “So, the suggestion I
would give … is leniency. … For whatever reason, our standard has been held too high. … You
need the leniency that you would give to all other ethnicities when hiring.”
A second participant interviewed for this study, Susan, suggested that a possible response
to the impediments confronting BIPOC NCAA coaches was to place greater importance on
BIPOC coaching candidates attempting to build strong resume of coaching experience. In so
doing, Susan said, BIPOC would gain valuable coaching experience that they can cite on their
resumes when applying for top coaching jobs: “Just getting … as much experience as you can,
being involved in the universities … as a coach. Anything that you can … that is close to your
goal is gonna be that foot in the door.” It should be noted that White coaches do not always need
to have resumes that are as strong as BIPOC do to attain coaching jobs. Additionally, a third
participant interviewed for this study, Ann, stated that any improvements in overcoming barriers
confronting BIPOC coaches would not come from a generalized program or campaign. Instead,
those improvements would have to come from the internal judgments and emotions of NCAA
coaching hiring personnel, who would have to become more tolerant and respectful of BIPOC
coaching candidates:
People … not judging each other as individuals who are different. … But … the change
is going to have to start from within us … to make sure that … everyone is given a
chance … within the [coaching] field.
Moreover, a fourth research participant interviewed, Ned, described the need to create
more diversity in NCAA coaching personnel.
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It starts with the top … on the presidential level … down to the committee holder. … If
there is more diversity within … all the decision makers … there will become more
diversity in male and female … African American coaches.
A fifth participant interviewed, Harold shared that greater diversification of NCAA
coaching applicant pools would have to occur to increase the number of BIPOC coaches and
surmount obstacles that confront those BIPOC coaches: “There’s no easy way to do it, but you
have to make an intentional effort into actually saying, hey, we’re going to diversify our pool,
and go from there.”
The participants interviewed for this study also appeared, in other ways, to align with
those suggestions of James, Susan, and Ann, Ned, and Harold. Although the participants said
that they thought that solutions were generally ineffective in responding to the barriers
confronting BIPOC NCAA coaches, when pressed, they also offered suggestions for
surmounting those impediments. Ned stated that BIPOC coaches need to be recruited and
utilized for their diverse abilities, rather than being pigeonholed into stereotypical BIPOC
coaching duties, such as recruiting: “[BIPOC] coaches get hired all the time … and are not used
for their talent, more so than for their recruiting abilities.” Richard said that tailoring outreach,
mentoring, and organizational programs specifically toward increasing the number of BIPOC
NCAA coaches appeared necessary to increase that number: “I think … creating organizations
that tailored to the specific needs of [BIPOC] … would also help, [and] … mentorship is a big
deal.” Jack stated that to overcome the impediments that BIPOC coaches face, NCAA hiring
coaching personnel would have to focus exclusively on coaching candidates’ merits and abilities,
rather than their races and genders.: “Review what comes across your desk. … Too many times
in this environment, it’s about who you know, not what you know.”
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Discussion: Research Question 2
These two categories of research findings appear to fit in with the research literature on
this topic. That appears to be true for at least two major reasons. First, the research findings of
this study showing that the ERR is a problematic solution to the lack of NCAA hiring of BIPOC
as university athletics coaches coincide with the research literature. Other researchers found that
if the ERR was instituted, then NCAA universities might hold token interviews with BIPOC
NCAA coaching candidates as a pretense for complying with the ERR, when those universities
had no intention of hiring BIPOC athletics coaches (Edwards, 2020; Hernandez, 2020; Ramsey,
2020). Second this study’s findings that when pressed to do so, BIPOC NCAA coaches can find
solutions to overcoming the impediments that oppose them, appear in one sense to fit with the
research literature. The literature found that BIPOC coaches could benefit from extensive
training and mentoring programs, with the goal of having more BIPOC NCAA coaches attain
university athletics coaching jobs (Lynch, 2016).
Here, I analyze briefly how the research data obtained for the first category of this study’s
second research question appear to tie in with the second major research question of this study,
the research literature pertaining to this study, and the major conceptual model for this study.
Those research data tie in with the second major research question of this study because they
show how a preponderance of the participants interviewed for this study stated that strategies,
such as the ERR, to overcome discriminatory obstacles for BIPOC NCAA coaches were often
ineffective. In addition, those research data appear to fit with the major research literature on this
topic. That is because, as Harris’s (2020) and Yancey-Bragg’s (2020) studies on systemic racism
indicated, strategies like the ERR to surmount impediments for BIPOC NCAA coaches may be
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ineffective, because they fail to account for strong discriminatory pressures that are at work
against those coaches.
Moreover, not all solutions offered by participants were certain to succeed, partly because
of the strong discriminatory pressures in the forms of both overt and covert discrimination that
BIPOC coaches encounter in their hiring processes and jobs. Those pressures are exemplified by
the research data shared by the participants for Research Question 1 of this study. As a
conclusion to the discussion about Research Question 2, some of the participants’ suggested
solutions for overcoming obstacles in their hiring processes and jobs may have flaws. Harris
(2020), Yancey-Bragg (2020), and Edwards et al. (1975) summarized such potential flaws and
discriminatory pressures by noting that the types of discrimination encountered by James, Ned,
Susan, and Harold are complex and may represent a microcosm of the systemic racism present
throughout American society.
Summary
To summarize this study’s major research findings, first, in terms of obstacles that
research participants encountered in their hiring processes and jobs, this study found a lack of
BIPOC role models, both male and female, in NCAA coaching positions and a lack of social
networking opportunities in those coaching positions. Second, this study found evidence
supporting the existence of both overt and covert discrimination against the research participants.
Third, in terms of unsalutary work environments that participants encountered, this study’s
research data support the idea that attempts made by these BIPOC coaches to overcome these
barriers may be perceived as being ineffective. Last, this study’s research data support the idea
that when pressed, the research participants could offer suggestions for overcoming these
impediments. Moreover, the presence of several research findings regarding the lack of NCAA
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hiring of BIPOC as university athletics coaches appears to suggest that this topic has multiple
aspects and strategies. It should be noted that the complexity, multiple aspects, and multiple
strategies of this study make it advisable to conduct additional research on this topic.
Implications of the research findings of this study and suggestions for further research on this
topic are analyzed in Chapter 5.

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Chapter Five: Importance and Recommendations
The purpose of this study was to address systemic racism in the lack of hiring of BIPOC
as NCAA university athletics coaches. In so doing, this study sought out BIPOC NCAA coaches’
perceptions concerning their hiring processes and coaching jobs. Four major categories of
research data emerged from this study’s two chief research questions: What obstacles have
BIPOC coaches encountered in NCAA hiring processes or their jobs and how, if at all, did
participants attempt to overcome identified obstacles? One category of research data from this
study was a lack of BIPOC NCAA coaching role models and social networking. A second data
category was discrimination, both in overt and covert forms, against BIPOC coaches. A third
category was that BIPOC coaches in this study generally perceived strategies for overcoming
their obstacles to be ineffective. A fourth category of data was that when pressed, the research
participants offered suggestions for overcoming the impediments they faced.
There are four major reasons bolstering the importance of this study. First, BIPOC
coaches have the potential to serve as examples for not only BIPOC student-athletes, but also the
remainder of universities’ students and staffs (Wallick, 2018). Second, BIPOC coaches have the
capability of helping establish supportive and caring university environments for students and
faculties of all races (Burton, 2005). That is true because NCAA student-athletes of all races
frequently derive their first perceptions, impressions, and values of university life from their
NCAA athletics coaches (Cunningham et al., 2003). Third, the complexity of the relationships
between BIPOC NCAA coaches and all university student-athletes often plays a role in
determining those athletes’ characters and abilities, both athletic and nonathletic (Cunningham et
al., 2003). Fourth, it is key to have BIPOC NCAA coaches because coaches are often the chief
source of the development of interpersonal skills, values, and norms of NCAA student-athletes
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(Wallick, 2018). That is because NCAA coaches may spend a great deal of time interacting with
and directing NCAA student-athletes (Wallick, 2018).
Importance
The major theoretical framework of this study was Bandura’s (1996) SCT, which
emphasizes the triadic reciprocity of interactions among people and their environments and
behaviors. SCT can be utilized to explain the research findings of this study. One way in which
SCT can do that is in that the participants shared data that revealed toxic coaching environments
that negatively affected those participants and their behaviors. An example of how those toxic
work environments negatively affected the participants was that Susan stated that she was led to
believe during her hiring process that she could not be herself and that she should not appear too
White or too Black or else she would not be hired. That affected her as a person and her behavior
because Susan, as a result of those negative environmental pressures, had to sublimate her
identity to meet the expectations of those in power in her coaching environments. A second
example of this is that James said that he was aware of both male and female BIPOC coaches
whose job statuses were penalized by their work environment if their work clothing and
behaviors did not meet the satisfaction of their employers. That affected James in that he, like
Susan, was forced to sublimate his identity to avoid being penalized for clothing or behaviors
that appeared to be too BIPOC to those in power in his coaching environments.
In keeping with SCT, the toxic work environments of this study’s participants also
negatively affected their behaviors and actions. One way that is true is that the participants
shared that they were not able to get or keep NCAA coaching jobs at a higher level even if they
were well qualified for those jobs. An example of this is that James shared that in his coaching
experience, BIPOC coaches had to work harder and better to get or keep their coaching jobs.
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That negative environmental pressure affected James’ behavior in that he had to do more than
White coaches who may not have been as well qualified as James. A second example of this is
that the toxic hiring environments of participants, which were dominated by White hiring
personnel, affected the participants’ behaviors by greatly negating their opportunities to attain
the NCAA coaching jobs that they sought. An example from this study is that Jack wanted very
much to become an interim head basketball coach, but he was denied that opportunity by a White
hiring committee that claimed that Jack’s BIPOC status did not fit with the picture of the
candidate the university wished to hire. In the research literature, Harper (2012) noted, for
example, that, like Jack, BIPOC coaches are often held to higher hiring standards and better fit
by universities during NCAA coaching hiring processes.
Again connecting with SCT, the toxic coaching environments of the BIPOC participants
also affected their behaviors and the participants themselves, in that the preponderance of
participants had overly vague or unrealistic solutions for reducing the lack of BIPOC NCAA
coaches. The only participant who appeared to have a realistic solution for solving that problem
was Richard, who suggested the tailoring of developmental, mentoring, and outreach programs
to increase the hiring of BIPOC coaches. An example of how vague or unrealistic some of the
other participants’ solutions were, James spoke about the need for more lenience and tolerance of
BIPOC in coach hiring processes, despite systemic racism and strong discriminatory pressure.
That systemic racism and strong discriminatory pressure against BIPOC coaches also tie in with
SCT, because they provide examples of how those coaches’ toxic hiring environments affected
those coaches and their behaviors. The participants wanted systemic racism to end as a cause of
the lack of hiring of BIPOC coaches, but they did not appear to have concrete or realistic plans
for how to do so, perhaps due to the discrimination they faced.
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Recommendations
One major recommendation of this study is the development of effective mentoring
programs for BIPOC coaches and coaching candidates with the purpose of reducing the lack of
BIPOC NCAA coaches. That recommendation reflects this study’s research findings in three
major ways. First, James was the only participant who shared that he had BIPOC mentors who
helped him obtain and maintain his coaching position. That shows the need for the development
of additional BIPOC coach mentoring programs. Second, another participant, Richard, said that
he believed that tailoring mentoring and outreach programs toward increasing the number of
BIPOC coaches was an important solution for solving that problem. Third, another participant,
Ann, stated that she, too, saw the importance of and need for mentoring programs for reducing
the lack of hiring of BIPOC coaches.
This recommendation is also connected with the research literature related to this study.
Several researchers on this topic agreed that increasing the number of mentors and role models
was important for increasing the number of BIPOC coaches. Wallick (2018), for example,
stressed that having BIPOC coaching mentors and role models is necessary, because they are
often the chief source of skills necessary to become NCAA coaches. Moreover, Cunningham et
al. (2003) noted the importance of having BIPOC mentors and role models, because prospective
BIPOC coaches often lean on and seek out such mentors and role models for coaching and
interpersonal advice and guidance. Likewise, Burton (2005) stated that he believes that having
such BIPOC mentors and role models helps create supportive and caring job environments for
current or prospective BIPOC coaches. Such a mentoring program might provide role models by
having existing BIPOC coaches mentor prospective BIPOC coaching candidates on strategies
and behaviors that would help them to attain NCAA coaching jobs (Coaches vs. Racism, 2022).
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A second major recommendation is diversifying what are often White-dominated NCAA
coaching hiring committees that hire Whites as NCAA coaches simply because they are White
and not BIPOC. That ties into this study’s research findings because as James stated, eliminating
the White domination of NCAA athletics coaches hiring personnel would not be a rapid process,
but it is a necessary one for achieving job equity for BIPOC coaches. Similarly, Ned spoke of the
need to diversify NCAA coaching hiring committees. Ned said that until diversity was achieved
in those hiring committees, coaching job equity for BIPOC would not be achieved. Richard, too,
noted the difficulties that BIPOC coaching candidates encounter when they are working with
hiring committees that do not have much, if any, BIPOC representation.
This recommendation to diversify coaching hiring personnel is also supported by the
research literature on that topic. Bopp and Sagas (2012), for example, pointed out the need to
diversify coaching hiring personnel. That is necessary, Bopp and Sagas (2012) argued, to counter
the effects of homologous reproduction, in which White coaches only hire other White coaches,
and this vicious cycle repeats itself and excludes the hiring of BIPOC coaches. In addition,
McCrudden (1982) pointed out that diversifying NCAA coaching hiring personnel is necessary
to oppose the existence of a White good old boys coaching network that excludes BIPOC from
being hired as NCAA coaches.
Limitations and Delimitations
Given the boundaries of this study, one of the delimitations of this study was the choice
to only interview eight BIPOC college athletics coaches. It is difficult, for example, to generalize
the research results because of the relatively small number of research participants. A limitation
of this study was the limited amount of time available for the research interviews and the
research study itself. Given that in this research study, the choice was made to utilize a
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conceptual framework that focused on SCT, one of its limitations is that this study was not able
to pinpoint exactly how the eight BIPOC NCAA interviewees reported their levels of
unsupportive environments, particularly as they related to those interviewees’ athletics coaching
career attainment.
Recommendations for Future Research
This study generated two chief recommendations for future research. First, the research
participants all agreed on the need for diversification of hiring personnel. It would be beneficial
to examine the characteristics of coaching committee members, how they are selected to serve on
hiring committees, whom they choose for job interviews, and how they make their hiring
decisions. The second major recommendation for future research is studying how to overcome
systemic racism in NCAA coaching hiring, because overcoming systemic racism appears to be
the main barrier limiting the hiring of more BIPOC coaches. As all the participants agreed, it is
important to chip away steadily at the problem of systemic racism in NCAA coaching, with the
goal of reducing that problem significantly but realizing that it may not be possible to eliminate
systemic racism altogether.
Summary
One theme that stood out was the frequent and recurring mention of systemic racism as a
major deterrent to addressing the problem of the lack of NCAA hiring of BIPOC as university
athletics coaches. This study’s findings reiterate that systemic racism can be defined as structures
or systems that have procedures or processes that have negative impacts on BIPOC, such as
making it more difficult and less likely for BIPOC NCAA coaches to be hired (Johnson, 2020;
Yancey-Bragg, 2020). In addition, systemic racism represents the complicated interactions of
policy, institutions, and culture that maintain the discriminatory outcomes that exist in our
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society (Harris, 2020, Yancey-Bragg, 2020). Several of the participants in this study referred to
systemic racism, in one form or another, as one of the major obstacles that must be surmounted
for BIPOC NCAA coaches to achieve job equity. Adam, for example, noted the problems that he
encountered when coaching his athletes merely because of the differences stemming from his
BIPOC identity, whereas the athletes that he coached were White. James shared that he had
experienced wealthy university athletics donors who were willing to speak with White members
of his coaching staff but refused to speak with James because he was a BIPOC. Ned stated that
BIPOC coaches, including him, constantly had to struggle to not be limited in their coaching
duties to stereotypical BIPOC duties such as recruiting. Ann said that BIPOC coaches were
frequently given coaching jobs that were dead ends and would not lead anywhere. Jack shared
that he had not been given an interim head coaching job merely because his BIPOC status did
not fit into the picture of what the hiring personnel envisioned for that university. Susan stated
that she was aware of good old boys NCAA coaching networks that made seemingly
inexplicable, discriminatory hiring decisions against prospective BIPOC coaches. In addition,
Susan said that due to systemic racism, she did not see how that kind of discrimination against
BIPOC coaches would ever end.
A common theme that emerged from these depictions of systemic racism by the study
participants was whether attempts to reduce systemic racism in NCAA coaching hiring and jobs
should focus on eliminating systemic racism in the coaching sphere or focus on eliminating
systemic racism in society as a whole. There are different perspectives on that question, but
according to these participants’ depictions of systemic racism, one answer might be that systemic
racism must be addressed in both coaching and society. One manner in which that could be
achieved is to have a reporting system for discrimination and systemic racism against BIPOC
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coaches in NCAA hiring processes and jobs, which would emphasize restorative justice.
Restorative justice programs emphasize three major factors that work against discrimination and
systemic racism committed against BIPOC coaches: an emphasis on past harms and how to make
amends for those harms; providing opportunities to make amends for harms such as
discrimination or systemic racism; and seeking to rebuild trust and social support (Center for
Restorative Justice, 2022). Such a restorative justice program in the NCAA would help combat
three major hallmarks of discrimination and systemic racism against BIPOC coaches. Those
three major hallmarks are the following behaviors and policies: focusing on determining
mistakes by BIPOC rather than their true behaviors and abilities; imposing discriminatory and
systemically racist sanctions against the hiring of BIPOC coaches; and prioritizing separation of
and discrimination against BIPOC coaches in their hiring processes and jobs (Center for
Restorative Justice, 2022). Such restorative justice programs already exist at universities such as
Stanford University and the University of San Diego. However, the continued lack of NCAA
hiring of BIPOC coaches is evidence that more remains to be accomplished by NCAA university
restorative justice programs and other such programs.

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84

Appendix A: Interview Protocol Template
I, Bryan A. Apt, a doctoral student in organizational change and leadership at the
University of Southern California, seek to interview you for about 30–45 minutes as part of my
dissertation study on the problem of the scant hiring of NCAA BIPOC head coaches and athletic
directors. I request your consent to record by audio my interview with you. I am taking notes to
jog my memory of my interview with you. Your participation is completely voluntary, and you
may stop at any time. I will answer any questions that you have, and I thank you very much for
your participation.

Table A1
Interview Protocol Template
Research question Interview questions Supporting literature
Context of the study: As part
of my doctoral dissertation
study in Organizational
Change in Leadership at the
University of Southern
California, I am briefly
interviewing eight BIPOC
NCAA coaches regarding
the lack of hiring of BIPOC
to those top NCAA job
1. How did you get started in
your current job? Do you
feel your self-confidence
and personal motivation
gave you an advantage over
other candidates?
Lapchick (2019)
2. What obstacles, if any,
have you, as a BIPOC,
encountered on your way to
attaining your current job
Newberry (2020)
85

Research question Interview questions Supporting literature
positions. This topic is
important for mutual
understanding and
appreciation for all and is
not important merely for
coaches.
position? What obstacles
have you perceived for
yourself as a BIPOC trying
to ascend to this coaching
role?
3. How do you perceive,
overall, the employment
opportunities for both male
and female BIPOC NCAA
head coaches?
Regan (2014)
4. What suggestions for hiring
personnel practices with the
purpose of hiring more
male and female BIPOC as
NCAA head coaches do
you have? What do you see
as the most feasible
solutions to achieve that
purpose?
Lapcjick (2019)
86

Research question Interview questions Supporting literature
5. What kind of
discrimination, if any, do
you believe currently
hinders the hiring of male
BIPOC NCAA head
coaches? Are you,
individually, OK about
discussing past harms? If
not, it is fine to skip over
this question?
Swift (2011)
6. Why, if at all, do you
believe that stacking, or the
tendency to place BIPOC in
jobs that typically do not
lead to top NCAA job
positions, has affected your
attainment of your present
coaching position, or a
possible head coaching
position? Are you OK,
individually, about
Regan (2014)
87

Research question Interview questions Supporting literature
discussing past harms, or
would you prefer to skip
over this question?
Research Question 1: What
obstacles have BIPOC
NCAA coaches
encountered in their hiring
processes or jobs?
Research Question 2: How
did, if at all, participants
overcome their identified
obstacles?
7. Are you familiar with the
Eddie Robinson Rule
(ERR) (which would
mandate BIPOC
interviewing for available
NCAA coaching positions)
and what are your thoughts
concerning the ERR as a
means for achieving job
equity? How, if at all, has
the ERR impacted your
career?
Lapchick (2019)
8. What are your thoughts
concerning the lack of
hiring of female BIPOC
NCAA head coaches? Do
you see any similarities or
differences with the lack of
Lapchick (2019)
88

Research question Interview questions Supporting literature
hiring of male BIPOC
NCAA head coaches and
the lack of hiring of female
BIPOC coaches?
9. How, if at all, do you
believe that the number of
female BIPOC NCAA head
coaches can be increased?
Bopp and Sagas (2012)
10. What are your concluding
thoughts regarding the lack
of hiring of female BIPOC
NCAA coaches? Are there
any key topics or comments
that you think that I missed
that you believe should be
addressed?
Macurs (2015)
11. Have you ever been
passed over for an NCAA
coaching job, despite being
well-qualified for that job?
Bopp and Sagas (2012)
89

Research question Interview questions Supporting literature
Are you OK, individually,
about discussing past
harms, or would you prefer
to skip over this question?
12. Have any BIPOC
colleagues whom you know
(without naming names),
ever been passed over for
an NCAA coaching job,
despite being well-qualified
for that job?
Lapchick (2010)
13. What are your concluding
thoughts regarding the lack
of hiring of male BIPOC
NCAA head coaches? Are
there any key topics or
comments that you think
that I missed that you
believe should be
addressed? Add rows as
needed
Hinckley (2017)
90

Research question Interview questions Supporting literature
14. What are your perceptions
of your NCAA coaching
success?

I realize that you have many constraints upon your time, and I thank you very much for your
participation in my research study. Is it OK if I contact you briefly with any follow-up questions?

Abstract (if available)

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Asset Metadata

Creator Apt, Bryan Andrew (author)

Core Title The lack of National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) hiring of male and female BIPOC athletics coaches

School Rossier School of Education

Degree Doctor of Education

Degree Program Organizational Change and Leadership (On Line)

Degree Conferral Date 2022-08

Publication Date 06/09/2022

Defense Date 05/03/2022

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag BIPOC,Coaching,environments,NCAA,OAI-PMH Harvest,role models,social cognitive theory

Format application/pdf (imt)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Carbone, Paula (committee chair), Krop, Cathy Sloane (committee member), Sparangis, Themistocles (committee member)

Creator Email bapt@usc.edu,bryanapt@iastate.edu

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-oUC111339677

Unique identifier UC111339677

Document Type Dissertation

Format application/pdf (imt)

Rights Apt, Bryan Andrew

Internet Media Type application/pdf

Type texts

Source 20220613-usctheses-batch-946 (batch), University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the author, as the original true and official version of the work, but does not grant the reader permission to use the work if the desired use is covered by copyright. It is the author, as rights holder, who must provide use permission if such use is covered by copyright. The original signature page accompanying the original submission of the work to the USC Libraries is retained by the USC Libraries and a copy of it may be obtained by authorized requesters contacting the repository e-mail address given.

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA

Repository Email cisadmin@lib.usc.edu