Diversity in university sports isn't just an American issue
CBC Sports report shows majority of top U Sports jobs held by people who are white
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Canadian university sports has its own diversity issues
When people talk about a racial gap in college/university athletics, they're usually referring to the United States. In the "revenue sports" of football and men's basketball, the star players are disproportionately Black. It's their performances that pull in the billions of dollars in TV and sponsorship money that flow through the NCAA and its member schools every year. But much of that fortune winds up in the pockets of a power structure that is disproportionately white. The "stars" of that world — head coaches, school athletic directors, conference commissioners — can command seven-figure salaries while the guys on the field or the court don't get a paycheque at all.
For example: Dabo Swinney, the white head coach of Clemson's wildly successful football team, made $9.3 million US last year. His most talented player — Black linebacker Isaiah Simmons, who went eighth in the NFL draft — received a scholarship package worth tens of thousands of dollars (maybe six figures if you factor in the high-end coaching and training infrastructure he had access to). But, like all NCAA athletes, he was not paid for his work.
It's easy to look at a pay gap like that as a unique (and unfortunate) byproduct of the American economic, political and social structure — all of which are under the microscope right now for a variety of reasons. And in many ways it is. But it appears that the Canadian university sports system also falls short to a degree when it comes to the representation of people of colour at upper levels.
According to the 2016 census, 22 per cent of Canadians identify as visible minorities. But an examination, led by CBC Sports reporters Devin Heroux and Jamie Strashin, of nearly 400 key sports positions at all 56 Canadian universities competing under the U Sports governing body's umbrella found that only about 10 per cent of these jobs were held by Black, Indigenous or persons of colour. Only one of the 56 schools has a non-white athletic director. Read the full story, which is the first in a series examining the issue of diversity in Canadian sports, here. Read the second story, on the challenges facing Black coaches, here.
WATCH | Jamie Strashin on findings of CBC Sports' diversity report:
Quickly...
Hockey all day. Hockey all night. That's what we'll get, starting in less than two weeks. The NHL released its schedule last night for the first phase of the playoffs (what it's calling the Stanley Cup Qualifiers) and the exhibition games before it. Each team gets one of those, beginning Tuesday, July 28 with three matchups: Pittsburgh vs. Philly at 4 p.m. ET, Toronto vs. Montreal at 8 p.m. ET and Edmonton vs. Calgary at 10:30 p.m. ET. The next day has six games, followed by the last three exhibitions on Thursday, July 30. Then the real games start on Saturday, Aug. 1 with the openers of five of the eight best-of-five "qualifying-round" series. Those start at noon ET and are staggered deep into the night, capped by Winnipeg vs. Calgary at 10:30 p.m. ET. At least five games are on tap every day for at least the first few days of this phase. Read more about the NHL schedule here and see it broken down by day and by series here.
John Tortorella has the chance to join a very exclusive club. The cranky Columbus coach was one of three finalists announced today for the Jack Adams Award for NHL coach of the year. The others are Boston's Bruce Cassidy and Philadelphia's Alain Vigneault. If Torts wins, he'll become only the second three-time recipient of the Jack Adams — joining Pat Burns, who did it with three different teams. The shortlist for the Calder Trophy for rookie of the year was also revealed. It's Vancouver defenceman Quinn Hughes, Colorado defenceman Cale Makar and Chicago winger Dominik Kubalik. Hughes notched 53 points in 68 games to become only the third defenceman in the modern era to lead all rookies in scoring (joining Hall of Famers Brian Leetch and Bobby Orr). Makar (50 points in 57 games) battled injuries but was the most productive rookie by points per game. Kubalik led all rookies with 30 goals in 68 games. Read more about the Calder finalists here and the Jack Adams finalists here.
The International Olympics Committee is "preparing multiple scenarios" for holding the Tokyo Games next summer. That's what IOC president Thomas Bach said today on a conference call with reporters, though he didn't offer details. Bach insisted that "the first priority is about the safety of all participants" but also that the IOC remains "fully committed" to staging the Olympics next summer. They were originally supposed to open a week from this Friday, but in March the IOC postponed the Games until July 23, 2021. In other IOC news today, the Summer Youth Olympic Games in Senegal were postponed from 2022 to 2026. Read more about that and Bach's comments on Tokyo here.
And finally...
If a grand slam falls in an empty stadium, and no fans are around to hear it, does it make a sound? Turns out, yeah, a bunch of sounds, actually. To combat the eeriness of games being played in a cavernous Rogers Centre, the Blue Jays have started piping in crowd noise and other gameday sounds to give players (and TV viewers) some sense of normalcy. So when Reese McGuire blasted a grand slam off the right-field foul pole last night, the audio people dialled up the fake din and also played the customary fog-horn sound. The piped-in crowd noise definitely sounds artificial at times, but it does help restore some of the familiar vibe of watching a ballgame on TV. European soccer leagues have also embraced fake crowd sounds, with the English Premier League and Spain's La Liga hiring the video-game maker EA Sports to supply them. This might soon become the norm in North America too, once Major League Baseball and the NBA, NHL and NFL start playing games in fanless venues. Check out the effect for yourself in this video of McGuire's homer.
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