The NCAA’s top diversity and inclusion official lauded one group’s outspoken stance on fair hiring standards.

Charlotte Westerhaus, NCAA vice president for diversity and inclusion, believes the Division I-A Athletics Directors McLendon Scholarship Steering Committee’s support of the athletics directors association’s “acceptable standards” for minority college football coaches could be a powerful catalyst for change.

Issued last year, the association’s standards strongly encourage institutions to interview one or more ethnic minority candidates in a search for a head football coach. The standards also suggest that athletics directors gather the names of potential minority coaches and to become familiar with possible candidates before an opening becomes available.

"The establishment of this mutual merger of support and effort is a timely development that will serve as a potent catalyst for positive change,” Westerhaus said. “It a stellar example of directors of athletics collectively and diligently working to enhance the numbers of head football coaches of color.”

The steering committee acknowledged the increase in legitimate interview opportunities being awarded to ethnic minority coaches and praised improvements in hiring women and ethnic minority administrators over the past five years. However, those positive signs of progress didn’t stop the group from calling for an expansion of the standards to apply to all institutional administrators and coaches.

“We are very pleased with the progress that has been made toward including all qualified minority candidates in the hiring practices for athletics administrators and particularly head football coaches in the past year,” said Kevin Anderson, chair of the steering committee and director of athletics at the United States Military Academy. “We understand that there remains much ground to cover in this area, but the Division I-A Athletics Directors McLendon Scholarship Steering Committee is very pleased with the strides being made.”

Westerhaus agreed that progress has occurred, but stressed that the overall goal remains.

“Increased interviewing of candidates of color is good news,” Westerhaus said. “However, the end goal of significantly increasing and maintaining the numbers of minority head football coaches within the ranks of the Football Bowl Subdivision is still an elusive reality.”

Composed of the 14 minority athletics directors of Football Bowl Subdivision institutions, the Division I-A Athletics Directors McLendon Scholarship Ad Hoc Steering Committee assists the John McLendon Memorial Minority Postgraduate Scholarship Foundation in awarding scholarships to senior-level minority students who plan to pursue graduate studies in athletics administration. The steering committee was recently invited by Division I-A Athletics Directors Association Executive Director Dutch Baughman to become the permanent minority advisory committee for the athletics directors association.