Three nights after Barack Obama became the first minority
President-elect of the United States, I'm left wondering about
one of the most tried-and-true topics in college football: the
scarcity of black head coaches.  If an African-American can be
president, why not coach football?  Indeed, feeding off the
election and the departures of Ron Prince and Ty Willingham,
numerous media outlets have reported the number of African-
American head coaches at FBS schools dropping to four.  FIU's
Mario Cristobal adds the lone Hispanic and Ken Niumatalolo at
Navy, a Samoan-American, brings the grand minority count to
six.*  That would be roughly 3.3% black coaches and 5.0%
minority, an apparent disparity against the 55% of players who
are minorities.  Why, in a world where an African-American can
rise to the highest office on the planet, do minorities have
such a hard time getting head coaching positions in a sport they
dominate at the player level?  The answer to the apparent
paradox is a conclusion that might startle som