On April 6, the annual report card from The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport scored college sports a “C+” for racial hiring and a “C” for gender hiring. These grades are down from last year, when college sports averaged a “B” in those categories.

The study also concluded that multi-racial and gender hiring practices have declined from last year, still significantly lagging behind those in professional sports.

The primary author of the report, Richard Lapchick, is also the director of the institute at the University of Central Florida. He has called the report “disheartening.” In this day in age, this revelation is not only disheartening, but disgraceful and disrespectful.

Sports are for everyone. To quote American businessman and Miami Dolphins owner Stephen M. Ross, “Sports is the common denominator in the world that brings everyone together. If there’s any one place in the world where there is equality, it is probably sports. That was something that didn’t always exist.”

Unfortunately, Ross’ message does not seem to have resonated through the walls of many college sports offices. The following includes some alarming statistics from the report.

Of the 128 FBS institutions, there are only 18 athletics directors who are people of color. None of those people of color are women.

In 2016, white people held the vast majority of head coaching positions in men’s sports, with “86.1 percent, 88.1 percent and 91.7 percent of all head coaching positions in Divisions I, II and III, respectively.” Of all athletics directors, “whites comprised 84 percent, 85.7 percent and 92 percent at Divisions I, II and III, respectively.”

The percentage of African-American head coaches decreased in Divisions I and III during the 2015-16 school year. African-Americans only hold 7.7 percent and 4.7 percent, respectively.

Latinos account for 2.5 percent, 2.7 percent and 1.1 percent of the athletics directors in Divisions I, II and III, respectively. Asians and Pacific Islanders account for 0.6 percent, 0.6 percent and 0.2 percent. For comparison, 17.6 percent of the U.S. population is Hispanic or Latino and 5.8 percent of the population is considered Asian or Pacific Islander.

Nine of the 10 FBS conference commissioners are white men. Judy MacLeod became the first woman to lead an FBS conference in 2015. A person of color has never held the commissioner position for an FBS conference.

The lack of African-American representation at the Division III level is so extreme that “the percentage of women coaching men’s teams was actually higher than the percentage of African-Americans coaching men’s teams (5.8 percent versus 4.8 percent).”

For women as a whole, the statistics aren’t much better. The study found that “45 years after the passage of Title IX, women still did not hold the majority of coaching opportunities in women’s sports.”

After considering the previous statistics, remember that “of the total male student-athletes in Divisions I, II and III in 2015-2016 combined, white males represented 64.9 percent, 17.3 percent were African-American, Latinos represented 5.5 percent, 1.8 percent were Asian/Pacific Islanders and Native Americans represented 0.4 percent. Student-athletes that identified as two or more races, ‘other,’ and non-resident aliens represented 10.1 percent.”

In 2015-16, “43.6 percent of all NCAA Division I, II and III student-athletes combined were female and 56.4 percent were male.”

Although not equally diverse as the United States’ population, student-athletes are an outstandingly more diverse group than their coaches and administrators. For the leadership positions across college sports to be so racially imbalanced, it is clear that the long sought-after dream of universal equality has not yet reached collegiate sports’ administrative level.

Minorities have long participated in college sports, and have made significant contributions to those sports and the universities they represent. To put it simply, without the influence of minorities and women, college sports would be nothing compared to what they are today.

To become a coach or administrator of a college sports program is a great honor, and that sense of pride should not be denied to anyone because of their race or gender.

To argue for greater diversity in college sports administration is not to say that minorities deserve greater consideration for leadership positions, or that whites and males should be purposefully denied leadership opportunities. The statistics show that hiring policies are biased against minorities, and that sad truth has to change.

The term “equal playing field” originated in sports and it is disturbingly ironic that nationwide, college sports’ administration does not seem to have one.

In this day in age, for the largest body of athletic competition in the nation to be so unequal in its leadership is a disgrace to all who play college sports. Not only are minorities poorly represented, their representation is worsening.

Hopefully the information released in this report will open the eyes of the many who are blind to this issue.