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A new study published in the Howard Journal of Communications suggests that claims of bias against black athletes in college sports may be true.  According to an analysis of the data gathered in the study, the prejudice against women’s basketball teams from HBCUs is reflected in their disproportionately high rates of penalization despite their small representation in collegiate athletics.

Study author Andrew Dix looked at data from the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) on Division I female basketball teams that played between 2008 and 2017.  After identifying 23 teams from HBCUs and 310 from largely white institutions, he analyzed the number of personal fouls issued per game and determined a 10-year average for each team.

Despite HBCU teams making up less than 7% of the teams analyzed, Dix found that they were the five most penalized over the ten seasons.  In total, HBCU teams made up eight of the 15 most penalized teams.  Dix suggested bias among the game referees as evidenced by the fact that HBCU teams received 1.5 more personal fouls per game than their predominantly white counterparts.

Commenting on his findings, Dix pointed out:

“It is imperative to provide a voice for the current and former female basketball players from historically black colleges and universities who have been subjected to this form of racial inequality in women’s college basketball. Creating awareness and fostering a dialogue on this iteration of referee bias is an important step towards facilitating meaningful change in the officiating of women’s college basketball.”

Marybeth Gasman, director of the Penn Center for Minority Serving Institutions, and Shaun Harper, executive director of University of Southern California’s Race and Equity Center, both indicated that Dix’s findings were unsurprising.  However, they did also point out some weaknesses in the study.  Gasman indicated that Dix’s findings might be oversimplified as he did not account for the presence of black athletes on the predominately white teams.  Harper explained that it would be helpful to know the races of the game referees and to look into the implications of that as well.  Harper points out, “Like racial bias in policing, the culprits are not always white — they are sometimes people of color who have been subconsciously socialized to view predominantly black spaces as violent and aggressive.”

This is a look into Andrew Dix’s study that analyzed prejudice against women’s basketball teams from HBCUs.  Looking for a consulting firm with experience working in higher education?  Then don’t hesitate to contact the professionals at McKnight Associates, Inc.  We are ready to offer you hands-on human resources consulting for colleges, universities, medical centers, and organizations of all sizes.

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Research from Higher Education Publications, Inc. reveals that the number of women employed as college athletic directors has increased from 11% to 19.5% at NCAA colleges since 1990.  Looking at Division I, II, and III schools across the country, this percentage translates to 200 female athletic directors out of 1,022 programs examined.

Here is a more detailed breakdown of the number of women working as athletic directors at each Division level:

Division I: 12% (39 of 339)

Division II: 14% (41 of 286)

Division III: 30% (120 of 397)

When it comes to the major ACC conferences, the “Big Ten,” “Pac-12,” and SEC, the percentages are lower with only 7.6% (5 of 65) athletic directors being women.