When picking a battle, at least choose the right one: the job of an advocate is to have a clear and concise message—and the Black Coaches Association's is neither

This is the story of an organization, of noble and necessary ideals, of fighting for cause when cause doesn't always count. This is the story of the Black Coaches Association, a group with the right idea and the wrong execution.

In November, South Carolina landed the coup of the annual coaching carousel, convincing former Florida coach Steve Spurrier to return to college football and the SEC and coach against his beloved alma mater. For a brief moment, South Carolina's courtship of Spurrier actually overshadowed talk of the BCS.

Then Floyd Keith stepped in. The BCA's executive director, Keith called for all black athletes and assistant coaches to boycott South Carolina football. The Gamecocks didn't interview a black coach for the position, and the BCA was taking a stand.

How convenient: the biggest coaching hire of the season and a chance for the BCA to make a splash--no matter how nonsensical.

It's shameful there are only three black coaches--Karl Dorrell at UCLA, Sylvester Croom at Mississippi State and Tyrone Willingham at Washington--in Division I-A. It's just as pathetic for the BCA to call out South Carolina for hiring Spurrier when any other program would've done the same things to land one of best coaches in the history of the game.

Making the BCA's stand appear even more misguided is that several other coaching searches were more deserving of criticism.

Last week, New Mexico State's McKinley Boston, one of Division I-A's few black athletic directors, announced the Aggies had hired Hal Mumme to replace Tony Samuel, one of a handful of Division I-A black coaches. The Aggies also interviewed longtime Nebraska assistant Turner Gill, one of the top black assistant coaches in the country.

But instead of hiring Gill, New Mexico State chose to go with a coach who has a recent history of NCAA issues, a coach whose only other Division I-A head coaching job ended with his team in the NCAA doghouse--a probation so severe it will take years for Kentucky to recover.

Florida hired Urban Meyer, and school officials proudly stated he was their only choice. Stanford hired Walt Harris over Norm Chow, a strong minority candidate; Notre Dame hired Charlie Weis after it lost out on Meyer. Yet, the BCA decided to use South Carolina as the standard for all that is wrong with the Division I-A hiring process. And this is the problem.

There has to be consistency. Don't make ridiculous statements about one search, then let more egregious errors go without a response. It also helps if everyone is on the same page. Less than a month after Keith's declaration, Tyrone Nix, one of the BCA's top head coaching candidates, accepted an offer from Spurrier to become the Gamecocks' co-defensive coordinator.

In 12 years at Florida, four of Spurrier's defensive coordinators went on to take head coaching jobs in college or the NFL. Nix simply was making the prudent choice: He's better off with Spurrier than the BCA.

Do you blame him?

speed reads

Texas restructured Mack Brown's contract, committing 10 years and more than $25 million to a guy who never has won a conference championship in 20 years as a head coach.

A show of hands, please: Who would pay to see Reggie Bush race Ted Gnn? Or, better yet, to see Ginn, who also plays cornerback, cover Bush in next year's Rose Bowl national championship game? Yeah, me too.

INSIDE DISH

Arizona State coach Dirk Koetter got help from outgoing defensive coordinator Brent Guy in landing new coordinator Bill Miller. A former coordinator at Miami, Michigan State and Oklahoma State and associate head coach at Florida, Miller was fielding offers from Illinois, Notre Dame and new Miami Dolphins coach Nick Saban. Guy and Miller coached together at Oklahoma State, and Miller was intrigued by the opportunity to coach against the Pac-10's pass-happy offenses. * Don't think Southern California offensive coordinator Norm Chow is a lock for the Syracuse job. Although Chow is the Orange's top candidate, new athletic director Daryl Gross--a former associate A.D. at USC--has some selling to do. Chow never has recruited or coached in the Northeast, and the current Syracuse roster is geared toward a run-oriented offense. In other words, there is no quick fix. * The two programs hurt most by ACC expansion: Florida State and Miami, the alleged kingpins of the league. Without expansion, FSU would've won the league and played in a BCS game, and a likely one-loss Miami team could've made a BCS game even without winning the Big East. * Washington coach Tyrone Willingham landed his first recruit last week when QB Johnny DuRocher committed to the Huskies. The state of Washington's player of the year in 2002, DuRocher signed with Oregon in 2003 but left that September and transferred to Pierce College. He has three seasons of eligibility left. Before trumpeting Willingham's big catch, consider this: DuRocher, who could win the starting job in the fall, says he wanted to play for Washington regardless of the coach.