Racial hiring practices in college athletics saw minor improvement but gender hiring practices declined, according to the 2022 College Sport Racial and Gender Report Card (CSRGRC) from the University of Central Florida (UCF).
Dr. Richard Lapchick
The report card, issued by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) at UCF, assessed racial and gender hiring practices of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and member institutions – it excludes historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) from such assessments.
“It is important to note that the omission of historically Black colleges and universities within this report is not to further the exclusion of these institutions, but rather to highlight the disproportionate hiring practices reflected across college sports,” the report noted. “Notably, HBCU athletic departments have high percentages of both ethnic minorities and women. If these institutions were accounted for within this report, the data would be skewed—and ultimately misleading and ineffective.”
The report examines personnel data – from sources such as the NCAA Demographics Database – concerning university presidents, athletics directors, coaches, administrative staff, and faculty athletics representatives for college sports.
As a whole, the combined grade for the 2022 CSRGRC was a "C" with 73.7 points, a decrease from 2021’s 75.8 points. Racial hiring practices received a "C", 73.3 points compared with 74.4 points in 2021. Gender hiring practices earned a "C" as well, 74.1 points from 73.8 points in 2021.
UCF’s Dr. Richard Lapchick, director of TIDES and the report’s primary author, said that hiring practices in college sports has worsened.
“We do report cards on all the major professional leagues and college sport has the worst report card,” Lapchick said. “As somebody who has worked at an institution of higher education for 52 years, it's particularly disappointing to me that college sport has the worst record of everybody we cover."
