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It is only a matter of time before a woman is hired as the head coach of a Division I men’s college basketball team.
At least in the eyes of the majority of current men’s basketball coaches.
Matt Norlander and Gary Parrish of CBS Sports surveyed “100-plus Division I men’s basketball coaches” and asked them if they believe there will be a woman coaching a men’s team by 2030.
In the results published Monday, 62 percent said yes.
That is a higher number than the 2014 survey which asked men’s Division I coaches if they thought a woman would coach a men’s team in the next 25 years. Only 58 percent of those respondents said yes despite having a window that lasted until 2039.
“More women are coaching now,” one of the respondents to this year’s survey said. “You don’t see as many assistants on the men’s side, but head coaches, they’re going to come from the WNBA and there’s more popularity and more ADs are going to take a chance on hiring. They’re starting off as DOBOs (directors of basketball operations) now. I was looking at maybe hiring one when I was a head coach. That’s the way it’s going.”
Norlander and Parrish noted there is still a shortage of women coaching in the men’s game at the collegiate level.
“Even as the NCAA just this year changed a rule to allow as many as five assistant coaches (up from three), we haven’t seen an infusion of women into the men’s game,” they wrote. “These decisions fall on head coaches, not athletic directors, and given the increasing numbers of women working in assistant-coach roles in the NBA and NFL, it’s a bad look collectively on men’s college basketball that we haven’t seen at least a slight uptick as of yet.”
This comes as women’s basketball is skyrocketing in popularity.
Last season’s national championship game between South Carolina and Iowa finished with higher television ratings than the men’s championship game between UConn and Purdue. It was also the most-watched women’s college basketball game in history.
That momentum continued with record-setting ratings for the 2024 WNBA draft, and the WNBA has also been setting records this season when it comes to ratings.
Star power such as Caitlin Clark has helped contribute to those numbers, but more eyeballs on the game means more chances to see women coaches thriving in both the college and professional levels.
Perhaps that will help open the door for some to come to the men’s game, even in a head-coaching role.
