Diversity in Collegiate Athletics

By Leslie Koch

The entire landscape of diversity in collegiate athletics has revolutionized since the formation of the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) in 1910. While there have been many strides in diversity in the college sports realm, there are still many issues needing to be solved.

The NCAA has provided many initiatives in the past 100 years to help improve diversity within the organization itself as well as the various institutions. The NCAA has used different programs throughout the years to promote diversity and inclusion. The organization uses different methods such as educational sessions, internship programs, professional development and new legislation. The different efforts of the NCAA have shown success but the organization is constantly adjusting and evaluating ways to improve.

In 2004, the NCAA added an executive Office to the organization entitled the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. The Diversity and Inclusion office is in charge of implementing new ideas and programs that will promote diversity and inclusion within intercollegiate athletics. The Diversity and Inclusion office focuses on diversity issues dealing mostly with race, gender and social class. One of the campaigns the NCAA used to promote diversity within its institutions was a five-year minority issues plan created in 2004.

The University of Oklahoma created its own diversity council in 2004 as a part of the NCAA campaign. OU developed the Athletics Diversity Council in order to promote diversity within the teams as well as the athletic department. The council is made up of different officials within the university as well as the athletic department. The ADC oversees other diversity programs within the athletics department including a graduate assistant program, Bridge Builders, and the Diversity Education Program.

In recent years there has been some controversy concerning diversity and college sports, one specifically focusing on women and African-Americans. In 2007, there was a huge controversy dealing with Don Imus and the Rutgers women’s basketball team. Imus made a comment about the team that was considered sexist and racially insensitive. The incident created lots of obstacles in terms of public relations for Imus, CBS Radio and MSNBC. Imus’ shows were pulled from the networks and received lots of backlash from the incident. Imus appeared on many different talk shows apologizing for the comment and eventually met with the Rutger’s women’s basketball team and apologized. The incident showed that while the NCAA and other institutions are making great strides in terms of diversity in college sports, there will always be issues to handle and obstacles to overcome.