A barrier will be broken for college football. Why did it take so long?

The Washington Post ^ | January 16, 2025 at 6:30 a.m. EST | Craig Meyer

[E. Pluribus Unum]

While meritocracy may be embodied on the field, it frequently isn’t on the sideline. Marcus Freeman is an exception.

When Notre Dame takes the field for its college football championship game against Ohio State in Atlanta on Monday, its 39-year-old coach will make history. Marcus Freeman will become the first Black head coach in a national championship game at the Football Bowl Subdivision level.

For Freeman, it’s a career-defining moment. When he was promoted at 35 to be Notre Dame’s head coach after the 2021 season, questions arose about whether he was ready for the job. He had been defensive coordinator in South Bend for just one year. When the Fighting Irish were stunned at home by Marshall in his second game at the helm, those concerns intensified.

Now, Freeman has his team on the cusp of the storied program’s first national title since 1988. His accomplishment, however, is happening during a challenging time for Black coaches in college football.

During the 2024 season, only 9 of the 70 Power Four programs had Black head coaches. That’s just 12.9 percent. If you look at all 134 FBS programs, that figure drops to 12.7 percent. During this year’s hiring cycle, 27 FBS programs had a head-coaching vacancy. Only three of those went to a Black coach.

The racial inequity is stark when you consider this fact: Black athletes make up 47 percent of the participants in the FBS, the highest level of college sports. Freeman’s run to the championship game is the latest reminder of how far behind college football is among American sports — including its NCAA peers — when it comes to racial diversity in leadership positions. This season, 25.9 percent of major-conference head coaches in Division I men’s college basketball are Black, more than double...

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The Washington Post motto should be "All race, all the time."

[pgyanke]

A barrier will be broken for college football. Why does it matter?

The only ones who care about race are racists.

[lurk]

Just when you think we’re getting done with victim culture.

[Frank Drebin]

What barrier?

"...only 9 of the 70 Power Four programs had Black head coaches. That’s just 12.9 percent..."

Isn't this figure pretty much equal to the percentage of Americans who are black? Yet more proof that 'equality' and 'equal representation' is not the goal of these race baiting socialist assclowns. Shut the hell up and play the game, coach the game...may the best players and coaches win.

[Ciaphas Cain]

Any news outlet that emphasizes “Black” and not “white” or any other ethnicity has lost my respect. If it even had it to begin with.

[jeffersondem]

“During the 2024 season, only 9 of the 70 Power Four programs had Black head coaches. That’s just 12.9 percent.”

The percent of blacks in the U.S. population is reported to be 14.4 percent. Not too far off the quota.

[Still Thinking]

So disproportionate representation is ‘meritocracy’ if blacks are overrepresented, but not when whites are?

[TheDon]

Is the article making the point that it has taken until now for a black coach to be good enough for the position?

Why do blacks want to play a white man’s game anyway?

[Racketeer]

I love to look at beautiful cities and historical structures for a real sense of pride. For some reason what has been accomplished is not important.

Why not show, by race, accomplishments worldwide and see how that plays out. That should not be too much to ask. Each race has strengths and weaknesses which should be acknowledged and accepted.

Only then can we move on.

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

And, what isn’t said is that Freeman’s blackness is the SOLE reason he and ND are in the championship.
No white man could have done it, ever.

#AraParseghian

[brownsfan]

Freeman was asked about this and ruined the reporterette’s day when he basically said race is irrelevant. Of course, Freeman played for OSU so that may explain why he has such character. :)

[odawg]

When will the barrier against allowing white players in the NFL be broken? Last percentage I read, the NFL players were 80% black.

[Fledermaus]

So? Liberals are sick humans

[Tell It Right]

I 100% love Coach Freeman's response to a race baiting reporterette trying to make a big deal about him being black. He turned that mess off and said it was about the team, not about him, and that he hoped all coaches -- black, Asian, white, whatever -- continue to be successful and make a difference in people's lives.

Twitter link with his response: https://twitter.com/i/status/1877581760592019693

[Red Badger]

Only democrats could make the game all about race.................

[Mastador1]

I thought he was half Asian, so why not first Asian head coach?

[econjack]

Seems to me that blacks are free to apply for head coaching positions. IF someone was denied an application for the job and denied because he was black, that is racism. I doubt that's the case for most colleges/universities. Again, our society provides equal opportunity (e.g., free to apply), not equal outcomes (e.g., land the job). It's up to the individual to supply the attributes that make a college/university want to hire you as a coach.

[MNnice]

Whoever wrote this is a racist. My Sioux mother always used to tell me, “Whoever brings up race first in a conversation is the racist in the group.”

[SaxxonWoods]

“Why did it take so long?”

I. Don’t. Care.

[JSM_Liberty]

“During the 2024 season, only 9 of the 70 Power Four programs had Black head coaches. That’s just 12.9 percent.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_States#Race

“Black Americans (12.4%)”