CBS Sports college basketball insiders Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander spent a month surveying 100-plus Division I men’s basketball coaches for our annual Candid Coaches series. They polled across the sport’s landscape: some of the biggest names in college basketball, but also small-school assistants in low-major leagues. Coaches agreed to share unfiltered opinions in exchange for anonymity. We asked 10 questions and are posting the results over a three-week span.
Our Candid Coaches series has been a staple of CBS Sports’ offseason college basketball coverage dating back to 2012. Each year, we cycle in a variety of noteworthy questions, most of which haven’t been asked previously.
On rare occasions, there is a topic worth returning to many years after we first asked it. Today’s question isn’t exactly the one we polled coaches on 10 years ago, but it’s in essence the same. And in an ever-progressive period of collegiate sports, we thought it appropriate to circle back and get a new temperature check. In 2014 we asked a wide swath of men’s D-I coaches: Do you think a woman will be the head coach of a men’s D-I team in the next 25 years?
The question gave men’s D-I basketball a runway until 2039. A full quarter-century into the future!
Their response?
Yes: 58 percentNo: 42 percent
It was an encouraging response, but I remember setting the timeline for 25 years because we weren’t convinced that 20 years was more likely than not.
Ten years on, we shrunk the timeline significantly and asked the question again. Here’s how coaches voted and their opinions on it.
Will a woman be the head coach of a men’s D-I team by 2030?
Quotes that stood out
Those who voted yes
“Yes, there will be more than one. Several have already started to make great strides on the men’s side professionally. It’s a matter of when, not if.””Yes, for sure, it’s 2024. In my experience…..
