A version of the minority-interviewing rule that was the catalyst for the NFL to diversify its head coaching ranks has been adopted by major college football.

 

The college rule is similar to the minority-hiring rule that exists in the NFL and is widely known as the “Rooney Rule.” The college rule differs, however, because it lacks penalties for noncompliance that exist in the NFL and because it was enacted by the athletic directors, not the NCAA or school presidents. In the NFL, the rule was enacted by the team owners, who promised to be personally involved in all head coaching searches to ensure that the policy is followed.

 

“They have set themselves on a course that is changing the practice of the athletic directors going forward,” said Washington lawyer Cyrus Mehri, who serves as counsel to the Fritz pollard Alliance. “You can go different routes. The colleges are going the ‘best practices’ route. We don’t believe any athletic director who’s worth his or her salt is going to want to do something that’s less than the acceptable standards of the profession. We believe it’s a starting place and it will take quite a bit of time, but we think we will begin to see steady progress.” 

 

The NFL owners enacted their minority-interviewing rule by acclamation in December 2002 under the threat of litigation by Mehri and the late lawyer Johnnie Cochran. At the time, there were two African American head coaches in the league.