Minority-hiring policy stiffens

0 Comments | USA TODAY, January, 2008 | by Steve Wieberg

Major-school athletics directors have taken perhaps the strongest swing ever at improving college football's dismal minority hiring record, issuing guidelines Tuesday that mirror the NFL's Rooney Rule.

"I really, truly believe it's the right thing to do," said Dutch Baughman, executive director of the Texas-based Division I-A Athletic Directors Association and who oversaw the five-month process of drawing up "acceptable standards" and sent them to all 120 major football-playing schools Tuesday.

Like pro football's Rooney Rule, the guidelines call for schools searching for a head coach to interview "one or more" minority candidates.

Unlike the 5-year-old Rooney Rule, which subjects NFL teams to fines, the colleges' policy doesn't carry penalties. The...