The majority of NCAA Division I-A and Division I-AA schools analyzed as part of the Black Coaches Association's first Hiring Report Card received grades of A or B, according to the results released October 20 in Indianapolis.

The report card critically analyzed the hiring processes for the 28 Division I-A and Division I-AA head football coaching positions available during the 2003-04 academic year. Overall, nine schools received a grade of A and eight schools received Bs. A total of 11 schools earned a C, D or F.

Only one Division I-A institution hired a black head football coach last year. There are currently just five black head coaches at Division I-A institutions, up from four in 2003.

All 28 schools were evaluated and graded. One institution received a perfect score. Three of the four institutions that received an F documented that they refused to participate in the study, which resulted in the low score. Complete results of the study are available at www.bcasports.org.

The grades were awarded based on five categories: contact with the BCA during the hiring process, efforts to interview candidates of color, diversity of the hiring or search committee, the time frame of the search, and the adherence to institutional affirmative action hiring policies.

To determine an institution's final grade, a letter grade of A through F was assigned to each of the five criteria. Each letter grade also was assigned a value: A=4, B=3, C=2, D=1, F=0. In addition, the category for the number of candidates of color interviewed for open positions was weighted twice the normal amount.

The sum of the values from each of the letter grades awarded in each category made up the final grade an institution received. A maximum grade of 24 was possible if an institution received an A in all five categories. An institution received an A for a score between 20-24, a B for a score between 15-19, a C for a score between 10-14, a D for a score between 5-9 and an F for a score between 0-4.

BCA Executive Director Floyd Keith said he was not surprised by the results.

"When I look at one out of 28, we're not happy. This is a benchmark and at least this gives us an idea of where we are. Our goal of 20 percent (ethnic minorities in head football coaching positions) is something we've stated and I don't think it is an unrealistic goal," Keith said. "We are going to continue this until we see positive changes across the board. We're going to continue to say that one out of 28 is not acceptable. We're going to take steps to change that number and, hopefully, when these 15 to 16 job changes come up on an average every year that it increases to the point where we are getting four to five hires."

Keith said the report card is meant to provide a critical analysis of the process institutions use to hire a head coach, not to criticize the eventual choice.

NCAA supports process

Ron Stratten, NCAA vice-president for education services, emphasized the NCAA's full support of the BCA efforts.

"The NCAA is committed to the same process and to the same outcome, which is increasing minority participation and the successful hiring of minorities in football. One of the things I hope this leads to is a closer examination and research being done at other levels," he said, noting that the same kinds of problems experienced in football also are reflected within the ranks of Divisions I, II and III athletics directors and conference commissioners.

"The results here are symptomatic of other issues we're trying to address across the board. We are committed to working with the BCA on this," Stratten said. "We were involved with all three summits that developed the process and NCAA President Myles Brand was very active in the development of what you see here. We're disappointed with some results and very pleased with others. We hope that we can encourage our presidents and their designees to follow the process we've provided for them. We're not sure that everyone is on that same page yet, but that's another piece of what we hope comes out of this."

Keith said one of the immediate next steps for the BCA is to repeat the hiring report card process.

"We're going to do this again for football and we're going to go back and look at our goals for 2005 from our summit. We also will talk with the Congressional Black Caucus. They will be influential," he said.

No changes planned

According to the author and principal investigator for the report card, C. Keith Harrison, director of the Paul Robeson Research Center for Leadership, Academic and Athletic Prowess and visiting professor in the college of education at Arizona State University, currently there are no plans to change the design of the report card.

"The design came out of the BCA Task Force, which includes scholars and athletics administrators. We feel its rigorous. We'll wait and see what happens. A component may be added or subtracted. We can't say at this point. But I will say that we are all very happy with the research design. It is theoretically buttressed and it is objective," Harrison said.

Harrison said he and others have discussed possible en-hancements to the report card, such as an agreed-upon norm for the best ratio for representing campus diversity on all institutional search and hiring committees; an incentives/ disincentives formula for equity and diversity hiring practices that parallels NCAA academic-reform policies; specific awards given to those institutions that comply with diversity; and publicly recognizing schools with open hiring processes. Harrison said those concepts have not been fully developed, however.

The BCA also hopes to apply the framework of the hiring report card to women's basketball coaches, directors of athletics and conference commissioners within the next