Missouri State received a failing grade from the Black Coaches Association for its head-coaching hiring process a year ago.
The grade was based on the Bears answers to five different categories: communication (with the BCA during the hiring process), minorities involved in the final interview phase, search committee makeup, time frame, and affirmative action procedures.
Missouri State had no problems in the time frame and final interview phase department, receiving an A in both. They received a C in affirmative action, and an F for search committee makeup and communication.
Missouri State hired Terry Allen as its head football coach last December. He was picked over two other finalists, one of which was DeAndre Smith who is black. Missouri State Athletic Director Bill Rowe says Allen was the most qualified of the finalists.
“He had been to the 1-AA level playoffs. Obvious success, [Allen] had been a coach at 1-A. I just felt like he had more experience there.”
The BCA normally likes for schools to communicate with them during the hiring process. Missouri State did not contact the BCA when filling its football head coaching vacancy. Rowe says he did not feel the BCA would be of much assistance.
“I didn’t call the Black Coaches Association as such because sometimes I felt like they do have quotas in mind and that seems to be their No. 1 goal.
There are more than 200 NCAA Division 1-A and 1-AA schools that are not historically black colleges. There are only 11 minority coaches among those schools.
Missouri State was among five other schools that received failing grades. Of the six schools total, MSU was the only one to return the questionnaire.
“We don’t hire on quotas and that’s what [the BCA] kind of infers that you need to do. We have not done that. We don’t do it on students. We try to be as diverse as possible, but we don’t just hire because a person is black or white or whatever the nationality is,” says Rowe.