Colleges Score Well on Diversity for Women’s Basketball Hires

Of the 16 head-coaching vacancies among the 120 Division I-A women’s basketball teams during the 2007-8 hiring cycle, more than half were filled by African-American coaches, and all but two were filled by women, a report shows.

At almost all of the institutions, the hiring process included consideration of minority candidates and a diverse selection committee, the study found.

The report, “Scoring the Hire,” was released today by the Black Coaches and Administrators and the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport. The two groups have published similar reports for five years examining the hiring process for major-college head football coaches.

The new report evaluated the hiring process in four key categories: the diversity of the selection committee and of the candidates interviewed; the colleges’ communication with the association; and the duration of the search period and hiring process.

Of the 16 institutions graded in the report, 14 received A’s, one received a B, and one an F.

Paul Hewitt, the president of the BCA and the men’s basketball coach at Georgia Tech, called the results of the report, which is now in its second year, “very encouraging.”