Rooney Rule for College Sports

It is sad that something of this nature is needed in a world that is supposed to be a proponent of progression, education, and evolution, but the fact of the matter is that college football, and perhaps all of college sports, needs to implement a Rooney Rule.

This past January, the association of college Division 1-A athletic directors adopted a practice similar to that of the Rooney Rule, where the policy suggest that all athletic directors should interview at least one minority candidate any time that they have a head coaching vacancy for their football program.

The key word in that sentence is "should."

Thus, despite the implementation of this "practice," there is no requirement that says that an athletic director at a Division 1-A football program has to interview a minority candidate. The practice only suggests doing so. As a result, there is no consequence for not interviewing a minority candidate for the position, thus there is no reason for athletic directors to go out of their way to implement the practice.

That's why the association of Division 1-A athletic directors needs to get over their new measure and implement one of some substance. It is time for a Rooney Rule in college football, where interviewing a minority candidate is 100% mandatory with consequences for violating the regulation.

It is quite ridiculous that a group of what I assume are educated professionals who work at institutions of higher learning would think that they could try to fully implement a rule that went against every historically observed fiber of the college football atmosphere with a rule that wasn't really a rule. It's like trying to tell a kid that you have to come in when the streetlights turn on, but when they don't, instead of punishing them or even scolding them, you just repeat the rule.

As a former college football player for the Columbia Lions, I'm proud that my alma mater and my former athletic director were above the boys-club mentality. That probably has a lot to do with the fact the athletic director is a female, which demonstrates how progressive the school is being. However, their hiring of a black football coach is just as impressive, especially in a conference that while not Division 1-A, is the perfect embodiment of that same intolerance since Columbia's current black coach is the only black head coach in the history of the Ivy League.

So unless the rest of Division 1-A decides to hire open-minded female athletic directors, the same boys' club mentality that kept minorities from being coaches at Alabama, the SEC, and Division 1-A football as a whole will continue to persist under this mask for a Rooney Rule. That's why implementing a real rule must be done by the NCAA, because these athletic directors are clearly not going to take responsibility for it themselves, as this most recent measure would suggest.