Charles Barkley has been all over the news this week, as he sounded off regarding Auburn’s decision to hire Gene Chizik as their head football coach. I know Charles has an opinion on EVERYTHING, but this is one of those rare times where Sir Charles may have a legitimate argument.
Charles was quoted as saying, “I look at things from a common sense standpoint, how do you interview Turner Gill and pick Gene Chizik over Turner Gill? First of all you can’t compare these two, their records. That’s not even close to being fair. I believe race had a factor. Of course I do.”
In case you can’t tell, Chizik is white and Gill is black.
This is an extremely controversial topic, and so I am going to try and play devil’s advocate.
First of all, in defense of Auburn’s hiring of Chizik:
The biggest argument against his hiring is that he was only able to compile a record of 5-19 in his two years at Iowa State. But that’s not a fair assessment of potential in a coach. Take for example, former University of Colorado head coach Bill McCartney. His record in his first three season’s at CU was only 7-25-1. However, he was able to turn it around lead the Buffs to a National Championship in 1990, and National Coach of the year in 1989. He finished his career at CU with an all-time record of 95-55-5.
In my opinion, you wouldn’t be justified by criticizing the hiring of Chizik based on his coaching record. Not to mention, 2-3 years ago, he was one of the most sought after assistant coaches in the game (Auburn Defensive Coordinator 2002-04, Texas Defensive Coordinator 2005). He is a very qualified coach, and I think he will be successful as a head coach at Auburn.
Now lets take a look at the other end of the spectrum. Here are some numbers:
50% of NCAA D-1A football players are black.
3.3% of NCAA D-1A football coaches are black.
Now you can see where many people, including Barkley, have a legitimate case to argue. Any casual fan can tell you that just because you were a player doesn’t mean that you can coach, and visa versa. No one in college football is going to get hired with no previous coaching experience, whether its in the lower ranks of college football, or an assistant. Everyone has to put in their time.
So lets dig a little bit deeper:
31% of NCAA D-1A football assistant coaches are black.
Let’s take a look at the people making the decision to hire their university’s head football coach:
87.5% of NCAA D-1A university Athletic Directors are white.
92.5% of University Presidents are white.
100% of Conference Commisioners are white.
To me, these numbers are shocking! What this tells me is that black assistant coaches are putting in their time, but when it comes time for a university to hire a new head football coach, white AD’s and white school presidents are hiring white head coaches.
Something needs to be done about this. One thing I am not ok with, is hiring someone based on the color of their skin, whether its black or white. But in the case of Auburn hiring over Chizik over Gill, I think it would be counterproductive to hire Gill simply because he is black. In my opinion, Auburn hired a very qualified coach in Chizik. And Gill deserves a chance as a head coach of a major program, which I think he will get. But I also agree with Barkley, in that something needs to be done to increase the ammount of black head coaches in college football. In a league where half of its players are black, there needs to be more than 3.3% black coaches.
Do I have a solution to all of this maddness? No. If I did, I would be a rich man. However, one thing is certain: it is absolutely ridiculious that if you are black, you probably have a better chance of being president of the United States than you do as a head coach of a major college football team!
