The latest report from the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida finds that there are five African-American university presidents at the 120 universities that make up the Football Bowl Subdivision, the nation’s major college football programs. They are George E. Ross at Central Michigan University, Sidney McPhee at Middle Tennessee State University, Roderick McDavis at Ohio University, Bernadette Gray-Little at the University of Kansas, and Elson S. Floyd Washington State University
At these 120 universities there are nine African Americans who serve as athletics directors. They are at the University of Buffalo, the University of Central Florida, Eastern Michigan University, the University of Maryland, College Park, New Mexico State University, Ohio State University, Syracuse University, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Virginia.
There are no African Americans among the 11 conference commissioners that are members of the Football Bowl Subdivision. In fact, there has never been an African American who has led any of these conferences.
At the beginning of the 2011 football season there were 17 African-American head coaches at these 120 schools. The 17 black head coaches were at the University of Colorado, East Carolina University, Eastern Michigan University, the University of Houston, the University of Kansas, Kent State University, the University of Kentucky, the University of Louisville, the University of Memphis, Miami University (Ohio), the University of New Mexico, New Mexico State University, the University of North Carolina, Stanford University, Vanderbilt University, the University of Virginia, and Western Kentucky University.
There has been major progress in recent years. At the beginning of the 2009 college football season, there were only seven black head coaches at the 120 FBS universities.
The full report can be downloaded here.
