"If the (college) presidents want to see more minorities hired, they will make it a priority on their campuses. I'm speaking from experience. It's not about qualifications, because there are minorities out there who are qualified. People hire people they feel comfortable with and know. If you are not committed to hiring people outside your circle of comfort, you'll never see the diversity we should have. ...

"If a highly recruited football student-athlete or a highly recruited basketball student-athlete said to a Division I institution, 'The only reason I'm not coming to your institution is you don't have adequate representation of minorities on your athletics administrative staff,' in a six-month period you would see a change."

Academic standards

Cynthia Tucker, columnist
Atlanta Journal and Constitution

"Too many young black men have dismissed scholarship as not hip enough, not 'black' enough, not manly enough. Of course, there are many young white men with the same warped values. A certain skepticism toward scholarship -- indeed, a contempt for those who seem too cerebral -- is fundamental to American culture. ...

"Indeed, coaches, Black and white, sometimes contribute to the notion that young black men cannot succeed academically. They do so when they complain about the tougher academic standards put in place by the NCAA in 1986. They do so when they say those rules are racist. They do so when they imply that young black athletes cannot be expected to compete in college.