Diversity in College Athletics: What can the NCAA do to recruit and retain female college coaches?

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit association committed to providing opportunity for more than 460,000 college student-athletes who compete in 24 organized sports sponsored where student-athletes are enrolled (NCAA.com), yet, currently, only 40 percent of NCAA women’s teams are coached by a female head coach. The purpose of this study was to determine the factors that are keeping women from pursuing careers in the college coaching industry, and determining how athletic directors can create a bias free hiring process. In order to answer the research question the researcher sought the insight and counsel of industry experts through interviews, to learn and understand how to recruit and retain female college coaches. Results of the data collection indicated that few athletic directors have recruitment plans in place to hire the best possible candidate, and that gender bias is keeping women from applying to head coaching jobs. Conclusions from the brief Literature Review, and the results of the subjects’ responses indicated there needs to be a more extensive recruiting process to find females to fill coaching positions. Based on the projects conclusion, and the researcher’s professional knowledge the researcher recommends that at each NCAA institution, there should be gender bias training, a standardized hiring process, and mandatory recruitment plans to find the best possible candidate regardless of gender.Metropolitan School of Professional Studies, Master of Science in Management, Capstone Project, 2018