Greg Sankey on zero Black SEC football coaches: That speaks to campus decisions

BIRMINGHAM – SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey was asked about his conference's lack of black football coaches Monday at the APSE Southeast Region meeting, held at the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame.

Sankey has and will continue to speak internally on it, he said. The SEC has expectations that member schools have a diverse candidate pool when it has openings, he said.

The 14-team conference currently has zero Black head football coaches. Sankey said the backgrounds of coaches are ultimately a reflection of decisions made on campuses.

Derek Mason, fired by Vanderbilt after the 2020 season, was the last Black coach in the SEC, which has had only five in the conference's 90-year history.

"We have had times where three of our 14 at the highest level were from under-represented groups, African-American, in football coaches," Sankey said. "We have one now of Hispanic background and no African-American head football coaches. That speaks to the campus decision-makers. We have expectations about communication and consideration of a diverse candidate pool. That happens, but eventually those decisions have to be made. It's a source of attention."

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Two of the five Black football coaches in SEC history were at Vanderbilt, current Penn State coach James Franklin the other. Sylvester Croom became the first Black coach in 2004 at Mississippi State, followed by Joker Phillips at Kentucky.

Franklin and former Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin had the most successful tenures among Black SEC coaches. Sumlin was fired after posting a winning record in all six of his seasons and two New Years Six bowl wins, both in his first two years with the Aggies. He had one above-.500 season in SEC play.

The Franklin and Sumlin tenures overlapped in the 2010s.

"We have to have that kind of change, or that return, to what we know can happen in this league for head football coaches. We're intentional about that. ... I had another meeting today about how we work to elevate attention around assistant coaches who are prepared for those opportunities. I also think that it should be very clear that it's not an intention from our campuses. One of our challenges here is bringing in experienced head coaches. That doesn't happen universally. Sometimes those head coaches get really nice salary bumps and the phone starts to ring, and (then) an SEC member has an opening. I don't think it's all for a lack of attention, but we have to continue to focus our attention on how we build diversity in our head coaching ranks, particularly in football."

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: SEC's Greg Sankey targets schools for lack of Black head football coaches