The Downstream Consequences of Race-Related Managerial Job Insecurity: Insights From College Basketball Coaching

We examine how in men’s college basketball coaching, race-related managerial job insecurity trickles down to negatively affect the careers of the subordinates who work for them. Using panel data from a randomly selected group of assistant basketball coaches working under the most prestigious and endowed governing body of collegiate sports in the United States—the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I (DI)—we find that, in men’s college basketball coaching, subordinate White coaches are less likely to be involuntarily dismissed than their non-White, predominantly Black, counterparts because non-White subordinates disproportionately work for racially minoritized, predominantly Black, head coaches who themselves face greater job insecurity. We also find involuntary dismissal correlates with whether assistant coaches leave the ranks of NCAA DI men’s college basketball coaching and explains the significant interaction between race and a teams’ performance relative to their respective conferences. These findings illustrate how race-related managerial job insecurity trickles down to negatively affect the job opportunities of their subordinates and, because of homophily, perpetuates racial disadvantage.