As the 2024 college football season approaches the halfway point, there are three Black head coaches that have a good chance of making the College Football Playoffs. The new playoff system will include 12 universities for the first time which is up from 4 teams in the old system. This has created more interest and more revenue for college football than there has ever been. This new 12 team system means that there is a very high probability that at least three Black head coaches will have an opportunity to win the National Championship this season.
Under the old format, which was based on four teams, it was rare to see a Black head coach in the playoffs, in part because there were so few Black head coaches in the Power 5 Conferences. But Conference realignment and the transfer portal has changed everything. The best teams in the country are now called the Power 4 (Four conferences instead of Five) and consist of 68 universities. And while there is still a major disparity between the percentage of Black players compared to the percentage of Black head coaches, there is also a higher probability that more Black head coaches will lead their teams in the first 12 team playoff.
The Big 10 conference (18 universities) has the most Black head coaches. James Franklin at Penn State is currently ranked the highest at number 3 in the nation. Sherrone Moore at Michigan is currently ranked 24th. Mike Locksley at Maryland, DeShaun Foster at UCLA and Ryan Walters at Purdue give the Big 10 conference 5 out 18 Black head coaches.
The ACC has four head coaches out 18 universities that are Black or minority. Mario Cristobal (Cuban descent) at the University of Miami is the highest ranked in the ACC currently at number 6 A.P. polls. Marcus Freeman at Notre Dame is ranked 12th. Tony Elliott at Virginia and Fran Brown at Syracuse are the other two.
The Big 12 conference now has 16 universities with three minority head coaches. Kalani Sitake (Pacific Islander) at BYU is the highest ranked at number 13. The other two are Deion Sanders at Colorado and Dave Aranda at Baylor.
The SEC (Southeastern Conference) is arguably the best conference in college football now has 16 universities. The SEC has no Black or minority head coaches. The SEC also has 7 teams currently ranked in the A.P. Top 25. Black players/ student-athletes make up approximately 75 percent of those 16 teams.