13 is the Magic Number

In early January all 120 FBS Division 1 football programs signed their coaches. Many long-tenured coaches left their respective programs. For example Bobby Bowden of FSU and Mike Leach of Texas Tech to just name a few.

This year in hiring was unlike anyother. In 2010, black coaches made a historic stride forward. Six African-American coaches were hired this year to bring the number up to 13 total. This year alone doubled the amount of coaches. And brought it from around 3% to 10%. This number 13 may be unlucky to some, but for African Americans this is the most amount of Division 1 football coaches ever.

13 the number of head African American Coaches
107 the number of non African American coaches (nearly all are white)

A few years ago there were only 4 black coaches and before that 1 and before that 0. The start of black coaches making an impact at the college level hasn't happened yet, but has in other sports. The NFL and NBA have about 25% of their coaches African-American. Could the college ratio ever be so close the the professional? 25% of the college coaches would mean just about 30 coaches would be African American. Doesnt seem far off but the amount of time it took to get 13, so it may be a long time untill a quater of the coaches are African American.