Our Women as Coaches now "The Glass Ceiling Report Card"

Our Women as Coaches NOW

“The Glass Ceiling Report Card”

Charles L. Kennedy

Senior Instructor

Political Science

Penn State York

clk8@psu.edu

February, 2007

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Carol Hutchins, who coached the Michigan Wolverines to the NCAA softball championship in 2005, stated, “I grew up wanting to be Bill Freehan, the catcher for the Detroit Tigers. Now my players are the role models.” For many of her players, I am sure that Coach Hutchins is their role model. The same situation exists for the players of Sue Enquist (softball coach at UCLA), Sherri Coale (women’s basketball coach at Oklahoma), and so on and so on. Just as it does for the players of Joe Paterno (Penn State football) Roy Williams (North Carolina men’s basketball), Dave Brandt (Division III Messiah College men’s soccer), etc.

The purpose of this study was to develop a Report Card that analyzed how well the major colleges and conferences are doing in providing coaching opportunities for women. The study focused on 113 colleges in the 11 Division 1-A conferences. (Data was not available for the other six colleges.)

A Report Card was developed to rank the colleges and their conferences for the 2004-05 academic/sports year. The Report Card consisted of four categories: the percentage of women who are head coaches of men’s teams, assistant coaches of men’s teams, head coaches of women’s teams, and assistant coaches of women’s teams. The total of the four categories is the college’s score. All the statistics were derived from the Chronicle of Higher Education’s study on “gender equity” in 2006, according to data submitted to the U.S. Department of Education, as required by the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act of 1994.

For instances at my college Penn State, the total score for the Nittany Lions was 128.68. This was good for 2^nd in the Big Ten—behind the Glass Ceiling conference champion, Northwestern with a score of 150.0. The Wildcat’s score was 3^rd highest in the country. The Nittany Lions scores per category were:

Men’s teams head coaches (0 of 13) = 0.00%

Men’s teams assistant coaches (1 of 38) = 2.63%

Women’s teams head coaches (8 of 12) = 66.67%

Women’s teams assistant coaches (19 of 32) = 59.38%

TOTAL = 128.68%

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The Nittany Lions score of 128.68 ranked 2^nd in the Big Ten and 20^th of all 113 colleges. The Lions also finished 2^nd in the Big Ten and 26^th in the country in “The Gender Equity Scorecard IV,” which evaluated the commitment of the Division 1-A colleges to intercollegiate sports for women.

It is interesting to note that less than half of the head coaches of women’s teams were women—only 49.25%. This is thirty-three years after the passage of Title IX. Additionally, only 53.20% of assistant coaches of women’s teams were women. Conversely, for the men’s teams only 1.15% of the head coaches and 5.81% of the assistant coaches were women. See the following charts.

Head coaches 1072 544 528 49.25

Assistant coaches 2295 1074 1221 53.20
Total coaches 3367 1614 1749 51.95
Men’s Teams 2004-05

Total Men Women %

Head coaches 866 855 11 1.15

Assistant coaches 2911 2742 169 5.89
Total coaches 3777 3597 180 4.87
I once heard the remark, “Why should women be coaching men’s teams?” Any advocates of this statement should be very careful of climbing this slippery slope, because the statement could easily be changed to “Why should men be coaching women’s teams?”

The Conferences

For the different conferences, the Big Ten had the greatest percentage of women head coaches of women’s teams with 56.82% and Conference USA had the greatest percentage of assistant coaches of women’s teams with 62.0%. The WAC had the greatest percentage of female head coaches of men’s teams with 3.64% and the ACC had the highest percentage of female assistants for men’s teams with 8.78%.

The Big Ten was the top conference on the Glass Ceiling Report Card with a score of 119.08. Although the conference only had a grade of C+, five of the conference schools finished with grades of A or B and ranked in the top 30. These were Northwestern, Penn State, Iowa, Illinois, and Minnesota. The ACC also received a C+ and had five schools with an A or B (Miami, Clemson,

Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, and Virginia). The MAC also received a C+ with five schools receiving A’s and B’s. The MAC was paced by the Ball State Cardinals and the Buffalo Bulls, ranked 2^nd and 7^th nationally.

Interestingly, Conference USA had five schools receive an A grade. They were Central Florida, Memphis, Alabama, Birmingham, Tulsa, and Southern Mississippi. The Golden Knights of Central Florida were also the top team on the Report Card with a score of 187.62. Unfortunately, the conference only received a C+, because the conference also had four schools with an F grade. There were East Carolina, Houston, Marshall, and SMU. The Pirates of East Carolina were one of the lowest in the country with a score of 69.04 and a rank of 111. The Pirates also received an F and ranked 111^th on the previously mentioned “The Gender Equity Scorecard IV.”

The ranking, score, and grade for the conferences are contained in the following chart.

Rank Conference Score Grade

1 Big Ten 119.08 C+

2 Mid-American (MAC) 116.23 C+

3 Atlantic Coast (ACC) 115.88 C+

4 Conference USA 115.34 C+

5 Big East 112.39 C

6 Southeastern (SEC) 110.86 C

7 Pacific-10 (PAC-10) 106.57 C-

8 Sun Belt 105.35 C-

9 Big 12 100.09 D

10 Western Athletic (WAC) 97.47 D-

11 Mountain West 94.80 F

Three of the conference champions received special commendations and an A+ grade for scores above 150.

• 
  Central Florida Golden Knights
  
• 
  Ball State Cardinals
  
• 
  Northwestern Wildcats
  

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There were three conference champions with grades lower than an A: the Hurricanes of Miami, the UNLV Rebels, and the Cyclones of Iowa State. The Cyclones only had a C and a rank of 40^th in the country. For the scores of all teams, see the Appendix. The complete list of conferences champs:

Big Ten Northwestern 150.00 A+

MAC Ball State 162.61 A+

ACC Miami 133.89 B

Conference USA Central Florida 187.62 A+

Big East Connecticut 137.24 A+

SEC Vanderbilt 147.87 A

PAC-10 California 135.00 A

Sun Belt Florida International 138.38 A

Big 12 Iowa State 116.67 C

WAC Idaho 147.60 A

Mountain West UNLV 123.20 B

Special notice should also be directed toward the colleges that finished in the basement of their conferences.

Conference Champion Score Grade

Big Ten Ohio State 105.96 C-

MAC Eastern Michigan 81.67 F

ACC North Carolina 106.81 C-

Conference USA East Carolina 69.04 F-

Big East West Virginia 92.63 F

SEC Mississippi State 90.47 F

PAC-10 USC 56.45 F-

Sun Belt Florida Atlantic 88.70 F

Big 12 Missouri 79.57 F

WAC Utah State 52.10 F-

Mountain West Colorado State 71.20 F

The Tar Heels of North Carolina and the Ohio State Buckeyes received grades of C-, whereas the rest of the cellar dwellers received an F. Three of the schools were so low (a score of less than 70) that they received an F-. These schools were the East Carolina Pirates, the USC Trojans, and the Utah State Aggies. The bottom of the barrel goes to Utah State with a score of only 52.1.

The A’s and the F’s

Fifteen colleges received an A (a score of 135 or higher). In addition to Central Florida, Ball State, and Northwestern, the Top Ten included Memphis, Vanderbilt, Idaho, Buffalo, Alabama-Birmingham, Miami, and Florida International. Interestingly, only three colleges from the major

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conferences (the BCS schools), Northwestern, Vanderbilt, and Miami, made the Top Ten. The other A’s were Connecticut, Tulsa, Clemson, Southern Mississippi, and California.

Grade Scale Number of Schools

A Above 135 15

B 120-134.9 21

C 105-119.9 30

D 90-104.9 29

F Below 90 18

TOTAL = 113

Interestingly, it is worthy of note that the Top ten teams in the college football polls for the 2006-07 season did not fare well in the study. Although the Florida Gators defeated the Ohio State Buckeyes in the BCS national championship game, neither scored very high on the Report Card. The Gators received a D grade and ranked 8^th in the SEC. Although the Buckeyes received a C-, they ranked last in the Big Ten.

Of the other eight schools in the Top Ten, five finished with a grade of D or F. The Trojans of USC and the Broncos of Boise State received an F; whereas, the West Virginia Mountaineers, the LSU Tigers, and Louisville Cardinals received D’s. Four of the schools also finished last in their conference. The Buckeyes, Trojans, Broncos, and Mountaineers merit this dubious distinction award.

The Big Ten conference was distinguished by the Michigan Wolverines and Wisconsin Badgers with B grades. The Auburn Tigers of the SEC also earned a C grade.

The increase in girls and women in sports has increased dramatically in the past 30 years. There are now over 200,000 women actively participating in intercollegiate sports. The Commission on Opportunity in Athletics in 2002 recognized this, “It is clear, though, that more still needs to be done to ensure that girls and women are not discriminated against and that we continue to expand the array of athletic opportunities available to men, women, boys, and girls.” Don’t these 200,000+ athletes deserve more opportunities to become future role models for future players, as their coaches.
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The 29 colleges with a D and the 18 with an F in this study provide ample evidence that more progress is needed in providing coaching opportunities for women.