After recent disappointments regarding diversity in the football coaching ranks, the NCAA Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee (MOIC) received some good news at its January 26-28 meeting in Indianapolis.

MOIC members applauded a $180,000 commitment from NCAA President Myles Brand and the NCAA Executive Committee toward an NCAA Coaches Academy that will strengthen the qualifications of minority candidates.

The Academy, which the MOIC hopes to launch in January 2004, will include comprehensive workshops designed to enhance skills necessary for career advancement in football coaching. The workshops will focus on interview preparation, networking, résumé building, media training and booster relations, and other areas that will assist in the professional development of ethnic minority coaches.

The program will be based on the recently created Leadership Institute for Ethnic Minority Males, also an MOIC initiative, which strengthens skill sets for advancement for minority administrators.

The Academy also will feature an executive mentor program, which will provide formal mentor relationships with veteran head football coaches, athletics directors and conference commissioners. The mentoring component is patterned after the one featured in the MOIC-driven NCAA Fellows Program.

MOIC members will develop the curriculum after meeting with presidents and athletics directors in the coming months, plus representatives from the National Football League, the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA), the Black Coaches Association, the National Federation of State High School Associations and search firm groups to better understand what those groups seek when interviewing candidates.

The plan is to stage the Academy's primary workshop in conjunction with the AFCA convention each January.

MOIC Chair Eugene Marshall Jr., director of athletics at Ramapo College, emphasized that the goal of the Academy is to increase the pool of qualified minority coaches who have the skills necessary to be considered strongly as head coaches.

"Too many times I hear that minority candidates don't have the necessary skills, and too many times I hear they're not provided the opportunities in their current positions to learn the necessary skills to be a successful head coach," he said. "With the help of President Brand and the NCAA Executive Committee, we can reduce those excuses."

Marshall also said the workshops would include instruction at all coaching levels and at all NCAA division levels. "There's a different skill set needed at each position, whether it be graduate assistant, assistant, coordinator or head coach," he said.

Program evaluations

The Coaches Academy is another in a long line of NCAA programs aimed at increasing opportunities for minorities and women. In all, the NCAA features 16 such programs, all of which will receive MOIC review in the coming months. The evaluation is part of a charge from the Executive Committee Subcommittee on Gender and Diversity to ensure that current NCAA programs are the best ways to enhance diversity within the Association.

The NCAA has allocated more than $4.5 million over the last two years to these programs. Most were created within the last decade and were the result of recommendations from the MOIC or the Committee on Women's Athletics (CWA), groups that were established about 15 years ago.

"The reason the MOIC and CWA were formed is because of the inequities in the opportunities for minorities and women," Marshall said. "To this day, there still is a disproportionate number of opportunities. These programs have been designed to level the playing field.

"Had it not been for the NCAA's tenacity in this effort, we would not have made the progress we've made. Ced Dempsey was a key catalyst and Myles Brand has come out of the blocks in strong support of what we're trying to do, and that is very much appreciated."

Marshall said the review will ensure that resources are being used in the most effective ways, and to pinpoint whether the committee is focusing its attention properly.

He said that the MOIC has concentrated on the lack of hiring for minorities in intercollegiate athletics, and there's no indication that members want to head in a different direction. "We've made a commitment to enhance opportunities for minorities and women in administrative and coaching positions. In order to achieve that, we need to ensure funding for these programs," Marshall said. "If certain programs are not effective, we'll recommend reallocating the funds to further fortify those that are."

Marshall said the review should be completed this summer.

Minority women summit

One program the MOIC already reviewed is the four-year-old NCAA Summit on Athletics Opportunities for Minority Women. Discussion on the matter emerged during a joint meeting among MOIC and CWA members. The two groups conduct a joint meeting annually to discuss common issues.

Both groups agreed to put the summit on hold for two years -- not because members believe the summit is ineffective, but because they want to improve it.

To do that, the committees want to give a grant program established at an earlier summit time to work. Grants currently are provided to coaching organizations to help stimulate programs that attract and retain minority women coaches and administrators. MOIC and CWA members agreed that taking the funds allocated for conducting the summit and using them to supplement the grant program over the next two years is a more prudent use of dollars for now.

"We felt as a joint committee that this is the best way to use our resources to achieve the objective of providing more opportunities for minority women," Marshall said.

The summit has been held each of the last four years. Last year's session emphasized opportunities for minority women in coaching. The 2001 summit focused on the barriers minority women face in intercollegiate athletics.

"The summit has outgrown this particular step in the process, however," Marshall noted. "We'd rather take that money used to host the summit and put it back into the organizations that need it to continue the programming."

The committees plan to reconvene the summit in 2005 in order to gauge the effectiveness of the programming and to determine whether a different approach is necessary.

NCAA initiatives to promote race and gender diversity

The NCAA Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee is evaluating the following NCAA programs that identify, provide and enhance opportunities for ethnic minorities and women in intercollegiate athletics. The initiatives are designed to serve one of three basic purposes: (1) increasing the pool of ethnic minorities and women in the field; (2) assisting current staff with career advancement; and (3) keeping the membership informed of issues relating to diversity. In 2000-01 and 2001-02, the NCAA allocated $4,528,000 to these diversity efforts.

Ethnic Minority Postgraduate Scholarship for Careers in Athletics ($6,000 scholarships to ethnic minority college graduates; 140 have been awarded since the program's inception).

Women's Postgraduate Scholarship for Careers in Athletics ($6,000 scholarships to women college graduate; 136 have been awarded since the program's inception).

Ethnic Minority and Women's Enhancement Internship Program (one-year internships at the national office for ethnic minorities and women college graduates; nine interns participated last year -- 109 since the program's inception).

Strategic Alliance Matching Grant Enhancement Program (provides funding to Divisions II and III institutions and conference offices to hire a full-time administrator to increase gender and ethnic diversity; Division II funded seven positions in the inaugural year of the program; six positions will be funded during 2002-03).

Division III Internship Grant Program (provides for Division III institutions and conference offices to hire interns in coaching/administration; the grant will fund 15 institutions and five conference office internships).

NCAA Fellows Program (identifies minorities and women who aspire to hold positions such as athletics director and conference commissioner and involves them in various senior-level administrative experiences; 19 participants have graduated since the program's inception).

NCAA Leadership Institute for Ethnic Minority Males (prepares dynamic leaders through a 14-month leadership training and skills development experience; two classes of 25 have participated since the program's inception).

NACWAA/HERS Scholarships (helps defray costs for women enrolling in the NACWAA/HERS Administrative Advancement Institute; $420,000 has been contributed to the program since 1995).

NACDA Management Institute Scholarships (helps defray costs for minority men at Division III institutions enrolling in the Institute; 14 of the available 24 $1,000 scholarships were awarded in the inaugural year of the program).

Matching Grants for Minority Women Coaches (provides matching grants to sports organizations and coaches associations to help fund professional development initiatives for minority women coaches).

Diversity Education (annual diversity education workshops for athletics personnel; projected attendance for diversity education in 2001-02 is in excess of 800 administrators, coaches and student-athletes).

NCAA Summit on Athletics Opportunities for Minority Women (hosts sports organizations and coaching associations to collaborate on advancement opportunities for minority women at the grass roots, high-school and college levels).

Careers in Athletics Video (produced and distributed to member institutions to encourage ethnic minorities and women to consider careers in intercollegiate athletics).

Title IX Seminar (annual seminar to assist member institutions with their efforts to comply with Title IX).

Girls' Sports Initiative (clinics for girls in nontraditional sports; 16,515 girls have participated in 46 camps offered since 1998).

Boys' Sports Initiative (clinics for minority boys in nontraditional sports; 618 boys participated in the six conference clinics last year).

Initiative Grants (annual grants for the education and professional development of students, faculty, staff and administrators at Division III member institutions)