The National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), along with 43 current and former college basketball coaches, has submitted an amicus brief to the United States Supreme Court on August 13, 2012. The amicus brief, or “friend of the court” brief, was submitted on the Fisher vs. University of Texas at Austin, et al. lawsuit.

This case involves whether universities can use affirmative action in admissions. The University of Texas-Austin considers race, among many factors, in its admissions process. Abigail Fisher claims she was denied admission because she is white and claims that the university’s use of affirmative action discriminated against her based on her race.

It is the position of the NABC, in filing this amicus brief, that universities, in order to admit diverse classes, need to be allowed to use affirmative action in their admissions programs.

In the brief, the NABC points out that coaches have had decades of experience coaching teams with student-athletes from diverse backgrounds, and that based on experience, can affirm that student-athletes are stronger because of their experience playing on diverse teams.

When schools are banned from considering race in their admissions programs (as Fisher argues that the Supreme Court should do), sometimes many of the minorities that are able to gain admission are student-athletes. For example, when “Proposition 209” passed in California, there were only 96 African-American freshmen out of an entering class of about 5,000 students at UCLA, and a large number of those students were also athletes. This is isolating for our athletes, and perpetuates stereotypes that students of certain races or backgrounds are only on campus to play sports.

In addition to the NABC, supporting UTA with amicus briefs in this case are over 100 universities, more than 50 large corporations, the U.S. Government, over a dozen state governments, and hundreds of other educational, labor, religious and civic organizations of all kinds. No universities, no corporations, no governments, and only a relatively few, very small organizations are in opposition.

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