New Research Reveals Racial Preference For White Coaches In College Football

By CEPR Photos: YouTube Screenshots A new paper from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) shows that there is a distinct hiring preference for white coaches at Division I college football programs. White men are overrepresented in the head coaching ranks relative to their presence as student-athletes, and this overrepresentation has persisted for at least the past 10 years. & The paper, by Algernon Austin, the Director of Race and Economic Justice at CEPR, uses a representation ratio to assess college football coaching positions – in this case the proportion of people of a particular race who are head coaches divided by the proportion of student-athletes of the same race. Since the vast majority of coaches are former players, a representation ratio uses the racial composition of former players to evaluate the racial composition of coaches. Roughly half of those playing football at this elite level are Black, but Black coaches account for only about 20 percent of head coaching positions. White players, meanwhile, make up a smaller share of the student-athlete population, but the vast majority of Division I head football coaches are white. In terms of the representation ratio, Black football head coaches had a representation...