When Penn State coach James Franklin and Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman square off in Thursday’s College Football Playoff semifinal, they won’t just be playing for a spot in the title game.

None of them had any previous coaching experience ... The first appointment of a Black head coach in top-division college football came in 1979, when Wichita State hired Willie Jeffries, who ...

In the NFL, Black head coaches hold 18.8% of the spots. The latest survey by TIDES, in 2022, found that 52.1% of players in top-level college football were Black or identified with two or more races.

Obviously, when they face off in their semifinal match it won’t be the first time two Black coaches meet in a college football game. However, when the game clock reaches zero at the Orange Bowl ...

John Thompson led Georgetown to the championship in 1984, the first of four Black coaches to win it all. Carolyn Peck and her Purdue women did it in 1999 and Dawn Staley of South Carolina joined her ...