Temple, Maryland rare D-I schools with top Black leadership

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — In the past year, Temple has hired a new president, athletic director and football coach, all Black men.

The moves have made Temple just the second school that plays major college football to have an African-American in all three of those high-profile positions, along with Maryland.

Temple is also the only school among 131 that compete at the highest level of Division I to have Black people leading the university, the athletic department, the football program and both the men's and women's basketball programs.

Temple's choices were not planned, but they were also more than a coincidence, university president Jason Wingard said.

“It was no more intentional than it is the other way around,” Wingard said, referring to the far more common occurrence in big-time college sports of a white man hiring another white man.

Much like the NFL, major college football has struggled to address the dearth of Black head football coaches in a sport where the majority of the players are Black. According to the most recent data compiled by the NCAA, 45% of football players in Power Five conferences during the 2020-21 season were black and 37% were white. In the five other FBS conferences, 51% percent of the players were black and 33% white.

Just 10% of the head coaches were Black and 82% were white. Ten years ago, 14% of FBS head coaches were Black. New Temple coach Stan Drayton is one of 15 Black head coaches currently set to start next season at 131 FBS schools.

When talk turns to growing those numbers the focus is often on the pipeline leading to the head coaches office, and trying to raise the profiles of Black assistant coaches. Maryland coach Mike Locksley's National Coalition of Minority Football Coaches is trying to lead the way in those areas.

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