Oregon's bill would cover the six state universities with football teams: Oregon, Oregon State, Portland State, Eastern Oregon, Western Oregon and Southern Oregon.
The Oregon Legislature plans to introduce a bill this week that would require universities to interview at least one minority candidate before hiring a head football coach. If it passes, Oregon would become the first state with such a law. House Bill 3118 is patterned after the NFL's Rooney Rule, which helped transform the league's head coaching ranks after being implemented in 2003. Oregon's bill aims to diversify hiring in major college football, where seven of 120 head coaches are minorities.
Richard Lapchick, founder and director of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics In Sport at University of Central Florida, said the bill could push the NCAA to drop its resistance to enacting a similar rule. "I think it's very significant and very welcome by people who have been fighting for this for a long time," Lapchick said. Rep. Mitch Greenlick, D-Portland, drafted the measure at the behest of constituent Sam Sachs, a former college football player and minority-rights activist.
"It seems to me it only makes sense," Greenlick said. "Because (the Rooney Rule) has had an effect and because I don't think minority coaches have been given a fair shake in Oregon, certainly in football." The bill contains an exception for a school "bound by contract to promote a member of the institution's current coaching staff." Call it the Oregon Out: In December, the Ducks promised their head coaching job to offensive coordinator Chip Kelly when Mike Bellotti becomes the school's athletic director.
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