Newz Forum: FOOTBALL: Black coaches group satisfied with most hiring searches

INDIANAPOLIS -- Most Division I schools that hired new football coaches this year received passing marks on the first Black Coaches Association report card.

Seventeen of 28 Division I-A and I-AA schools received either an "A" or "B" in the report released Wednesday, while six schools received a "D" or "F." The report card measures minority hiring practices.

The only I-A school to receive an "F" was Nevada-Reno, which rehired Chris Ault for the third time. Ault had been as the school's athletic director since 1986 but resigned that post in December. Nevada-Reno did not turn in the requested survey, which the BCA said would result in an automatic "F." Southern Utah, the University of San Diego and Texas State, all I-AA schools, also received "F" grades.

Kent State was the only I-A school to receive a "D."

Grades are based on results in categories that included the percentage of minorities involved in the hiring process, the number of minority candidates who received interviews and the schools' contacts with either BCA executive director Floyd Keith or the chairman of the NCAA's Minority Opportunity and Interests Committee.

Only one I-A school actually hired a minority head coach -- Sylvester Croom became the Southeastern Conference's first black coach when he took the job at Mississippi State. But six schools -- Akron, Arizona, Cincinnati, Eastern Michigan, Texas-El Paso and Mississippi State -- received "A" grades.

Nebraska, which Keith criticized for hiring former Oakland Raiders coach Bill Callahan, received a "B."

"Nebraska probably would have gotten an 'A' if there was a little more diversity on the search committee," Keith said. "But they graded high on everything else. The bottom line is that they got a 'B' and it is what it is."

Only five of 117 Division I-A schools have black head football coaches.