The Football Study Oversight Committee (FSOC) discussed postseason bowl game policies, out-of-season conditioning for football student-athletes and a lack of diversity in the coaching ranks at its May 15 meeting in Indianapolis. The meeting was the next to last for the two-year committee, which will issue its report to the Division I Board of Directors after its final meeting in August.

The group endorsed new postseason bowl certification criteria and will forward that endorsement to the Board of Directors. The criteria were developed by the Football Certification Subcommittee and will be reviewed by the Championships/Competition Cabinet in June. The policies are designed to enhance the bowl game experience for student-athletes, ensure the financial viability of the sponsoring agency and guard against financial losses for participating teams. The certification criteria require:

Sponsoring agencies to generate bowl-related revenue equal to contractual commitments (that is, ticket purchases and contributions) from the participating teams or conferences;

Sponsoring agencies to average actual attendance of 25,000 (or 70 percent of stadium capacity) over a three-year period;

Equitable distributions for participating teams and conferences;

An irrevocable $1.5 million letter of credit if the bowl has not distributed an average of $1 million to each of the participating teams over the preceding three-year period; and

One year of probation and subsequent decertification if the bowl does not meet minimum requirements.

The new criteria are in addition to selection guidelines the FSOC endorsed at a previous meeting. Those guidelines, which the Football Certification Subcommittee is encouraged to emphasize during the bowl certification process, include the value of the title sponsor, stadium capacity and previous attendance history, level of community involvement and the financial commitment from the sponsoring agency to participating teams.

Diversity panel

As the committee has done in past meetings, the group brought in a panel of guest speakers to provide additional insight on a priority item within the FSOC mission. This time, four panelists -- Floyd Keith, executive director of the Black Coaches Association; Eugene Marshall, director of athletics at Ramapo College and chair of the NCAA Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee; Fitz Hill, head football coach at San Jose State University; and Bobby Darnell, football student-athlete at Baylor University -- talked with the committee about the lack of diversity in the football coaching ranks.

Panelists cited poor hiring trends with respect to ethnic minorities in football. Hill, one of only four Blacks currently heading a Division I program, said only six Blacks have been selected for the past 109 Division I head coaching vacancies in football. Further, Hill said since 1982, there have been 348 head coaching vacancies in Division I-A football, and black coaches have been selected for only 17 (5 percent) of those vacancies. Thirteen of those appointments occurred after 1990.

"It would be interesting to compare the team photos of football teams through the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s," Hill said. "You would see the steady increase of black student-athletes on those teams. However, if you compared snapshots of coaching staffs over that same time period, you would not see that change. While the bar has been raised for student-athletes, it hasn't moved for coaches."

The panelists agreed that not only do minorities get passed over for head coaching positions in football, those who do reach the top level rarely are hired at other schools if they do not succeed in their first job. Hill said that is compounded by the fact that a black coach's first opportunity often is at a program that has traditionally been unsuccessful on the gridiron.

"If history remains true," Hill noted, "African-American coaches who have been terminated or forced out will not get another opportunity to lead another Division I-A football program."

Keith, the BCA's executive director, said his association has made it a point to not only provide lists of candidates to presidents and athletics directors, but to "market" minority candidates by introducing them at various national athletics functions so that athletics administrators who do the hiring for coaching positions can put a face with a name. That, Keith said, will raise administrators' comfort level with the candidates.

However, Keith noted, while the BCA invited every college and university athletics director to its recent convention in Indianapolis, only 10 attended.

"We weren't just looking to increase our convention attendance; rather, we were offering administrators a comfort level to meet coaches and candidates face to face instead of having those people just be a name. But having only 10 show up sent a message," Keith said.

Presidents on the FSOC agreed that the issue had risen to an alarming level. Recent studies show that a majority (80 percent) of other college presidents also see poor hiring trends as an issue that has a negative impact on the sport.

Washington State University President V. Lane Rawlins said not only should presidents become more involved in the hiring process, they should make it a point to require their coaches to develop more candidates. The group agreed that the primary feeder slots in football -- the offensive and defensive coordinator positions -- also are predominantly white.

"Presidents do have influence with head coaches, and they can tell them they have a responsibility to develop black coaches as well as black athletes," Rawlins said. "Maybe that's the primary point of intervention."

Ramapo's Marshall said that if something doesn't change soon, more and more African-American football student-athletes will select programs based on diversified coaching staffs.

"Not only is diversity in the coaching ranks the right thing to do, it also makes good business sense," Marshall said.

Baylor's Darnell agreed, saying that minority football student-athletes want to see those role models with whom they can identify.

"It's important to have African American males in that leadership role," he said.

Marshall's Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee is in the process of reviewing data and will make formal recommendations to the FSOC in August. Marshall also will make a presentation on behalf of his committee to the Board of Directors in August.

Other business

The FSOC also reviewed a survey of 64 Division I-A and 27 Division I-AA presidents on the state of college football conducted by Taylor Research and Consulting Group, Inc. The findings reveal that while most presidents recognize college football's educational value for student-athletes and its role in building community relations, many are concerned about rising costs, the growing lack of diversity in coaching, and a culture that emphasizes winning on the field more than performance in the classroom.

The report included recommendations that might address those concerns, including possible reductions in student-athlete time demands, penalties for programs that do not meet academic performance standards, additional marketing of the Division I-AA football enterprise and greater involvement of presidents in football issues. The FSOC discussed those recommendations but did not endorse any of them at this time, choosing instead to identify position statements about the various issues in its final report.

The committee also revisited student-athlete welfare issues after hearing a panel discussion in February. The group noted that a special task force had been developed to address out-of-season conditioning concerns and to review the concept of voluntary workouts and how they fit into the preseason conditioning calendar.

The FSOC also noted that the Board in April approved an educational campaign regarding out-of-season conditioning. The Board also approved emergency legislation that for only the summer of 2002 will allow incoming prospects to participate in workouts conducted by the school's strength and conditioning coach. Proposals that might extend that policy or otherwise modify the out-of-season conditioning calendar are under review. Any permanent changes to the current legislation would have to go through the normal legislative process.

FSOC Chair Charles Wethington said broader issues surrounding voluntary workouts must be decided before the NCAA can go about developing appropriate health and safety standards.

"The biggest issue is to first understand what a voluntary workout is and how to define it in the calendar," said Wethington, president emeritus at the University of Kentucky. "Once we agree on that, it's easier to build health and safety parameters around it."

The task force, which includes Purdue University head coach Joe Tiller and American Football Coaches Association Executive Director Grant Teaff, will hold in-person meetings to help develop legislation that could appear before the Management Council and Board of Directors in October.