KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) and the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) today jointly endorsed the Athletic Director U Collegiate Coaching Diversity Pledge. The endorsement comes as a recommendation from the NABC’s Committee on Racial Reconciliation and the WBCA’s Social Justice Task Force in their continued efforts to advocate for diversity in coaching positions.
The Collegiate Coaching Diversity Pledge (CCDP) is an opt-in pledge by Division I athletic directors to include a diverse group of candidates in the finalist pool for head coach vacancies in men’s basketball, women’s basketball and football. To maintain compliance with the CCDP, athletic directors must have a finalist pool that includes at least one candidate from a traditionally underrepresented background and one non-diverse candidate.
“Improving diversity in college athletics continues to be a priority for the NABC and our Committee on Racial Reconciliation, and we are proud to support those who share this goal,” said NABC Executive Director Craig Robinson. “The Collegiate Coaching Diversity Pledge has the potential to make a lasting impact on our industry. We encourage all athletic directors to take the pledge on behalf of their institutions.”
“The WBCA and our Social Justice Task Force encourage athletics directors to commit themselves and their institutions to the Collegiate Coaching Diversity Pledge,” said WBCA Executive Director Danielle Donehew. “We look forward to the day that athletics administrators and coaches nationwide are as wondrously diverse as the athletics programs they oversee and the student-athletes they coach.”
In August, the NABC and WBCA jointly endorsed the West Coast Conference “Russell Rule,” a diversity hiring commitment that requires each WCC member to include a member of a traditionally underrepresented community in the pool of final candidates for every athletic director, senior administrator, head coach and full-time assistant coaching position in its athletic department.
