This moment in the College Football Playoff is historic

For the first time in the history of the College Football Bowl Subdivision, a Black head coach will play for a national championship. Some of you will read this sentence and roll your eyes because you do. But there’s no denying this fact: This is a pivotal moment in sports history. In fact, it is one of the most important.

Either Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman or Penn State’s James Franklin will make this story. In many ways it is another unique moment. Back then, the Super Bowl had its first black head coach. Actually trainers…plural. Super Bowl XLI 2007 featured Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith.

Why would this moment in FBS history possibly equal or even surpass this one? That’s because of how the NFL and college football have tried to diversify their coaching ranks. The NFL, for all its shortcomings in this area (and there are many), has at least tried to fix the problem using the Rooney Rule. The rule is anything but perfect. But it was always an acknowledgment of the problem.

In college football, however, there has been a woeful failure to diversify the ranks of its head coaches. In many ways, college sports have historically been hostile to black coaches (particularly in the South). The NFL is slightly better. (Emphasis light.) But it’s better.

The NCAA has neither the muscle nor the political will to ever create the college equivalent of the Rooney Rule, so it’s college football’s racist Wild West.

Overall, if you look at the history of the sport, it is more difficult for a black head coach to reach this point than it was in the NFL. Or college basketball in particular.

It’s true that it was only a matter of time before this happened at universities. It’s just remarkable that it took this long. The year is 2025. We should have had flying cars and black head coaches in the championship game a long time ago.

Why should this moment be recognized and celebrated? Let the first Black head coach in Notre Dame history, Tyrone Willingham, explain it to you.

“Because it’s never happened before,” Willingham told Andscape. “It’s a first, and we should celebrate all firsts as long as they are positive. It is an achievement for us as African Americans, especially if you know history. When I first started coaching, there was maybe one African-American coach on staff.

“Notice I said, ‘Maybe.'”

The interesting thing about this story is that college basketball passed this mark decades ago. It was 1984 when John Thompson won a national championship with Georgetown. That was 41 years ago. Other black coaches would follow in Thompson’s footsteps and win championships.

“Perhaps I was the first black person to be given the opportunity to compete for this award. “You have discriminated against thousands of my ancestors by denying them this opportunity,” Thompson once said. “So I felt compelled to define that, and I got a little bit of criticism for saying it…”

(I say all this with great humility, too. My company, the journalism business, hasn’t historically been great at diversifying its own workforce. We don’t have a Rooney Rule. We definitely need one.)

This moment with Franklin and Freeman (no relation) is crucial because it can create a future permissions structure for ADs. We shouldn’t need these permission structures. But we do it. Franklin remembers how the Dungy and Smith Super Bowl, for example, likely opened doors for coaches like him to walk through later.

“I remember as a coach thinking about how important that was to the profession and how important it was for young coaches to see these guys in that role,” Franklin said. “I also remember there being a lot of conversations at the time about what impact this would have on the profession. Will these impacts create opportunities for men?”

Freeman noted during a recent press conference that while his father is Black, his mother is South Korean. This makes Freeman the first head coach of Asian descent in the CFP.

“I’m going to work tirelessly to be the best version of myself,” he said, “and that’s great because even the guys in our program can understand, ‘Don’t put a ceiling on what you can be and what you are .’ can.'”

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This moment in the College Football Playoff is historic

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