Welcome to this edition of
First Downs and Second Guesses
Blog #212 – July 2026
An interesting article was published in Athletic Leader this month. The headline read “Study shows decline in women college head coaches.” The report was from the University of Minnesota’s Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sport.
The article noted that the percentage of women head coaches in NCAA Division I sports has decreased by 0.2% to 47.5%, the first decrease in the last 13 years.
The university, in partnership with WeCoach, released its annual “Women in College Coaching Report Card” on June 24, marking the 54th anniversary of Title IX. The report provided documentation of women in all coaching positions for women’s teams within seven NCAA D-I conferences: American, ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, and SEC.
Head coach turnover was also studied. The report revealed that between the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years, 10.2% of head coach positions turned over and less than half (48.2%) of those positions were filled by women. Overall, the average yearly turnover rate for head coaches in the 11 years the report has been published is 9.8%.
Also, the study reported that women were fired/nonrenewed three times more than men, and women resigned over four times more than men. In that span, three men moved into athletic administration compared with zero women.
The report also gave a grade for each institution based on the percentage of women head coaches in women’s teams. Of the 94 schools, seven received an A grade, 30 received a B, 22 received a C, and 31 received a D. Four institutions received an F grade, meaning 24% or fewer of their head coaches were women.
Michigan State had the highest percentage of women head coaches of women’s teams at nearly 82%.
Race was studied in the report. White coaches held 83.4% of head coaching positions. The percentage of women of color in head coaching positions decreased slightly from 7.5% to 7.3%. Meanwhile, 10 of the 28 sports and 44 of 94 colleges included in the report employed zero women of color in head coaching positions.
This report should be embarrassing to many schools involved in the study. The reasons for a lack of head coaching positions held by women in women’s sports are probably quite diverse. Then the low number of women of color holding head coaching positions in women’s sports also looks bad for some schools.
The most damaging information of the report is that the decrease is the first decrease in 13 years. That fact seems to illuminate that some athletic administrators are not as seriously involved or are seriously considering hiring a woman or woman of color when the next head coaching position opens up in a female sport.
Many times the number of student-athletes of color are larger than white student-athletes on women’s sports teams. If that is indeed the fact, it would behoove athletic administrators to give women of color a strong consideration when searching for a head coaching position. But more importantly, female coaches should be given preference when hiring for head coaching positions in women’s sports.