The scarcity of minority head coaches in Division I football is appalling. The NCAA knows that. Coaches and athletics directors know that. Anyone who takes a look at the numbers knows that.

But so far, nobody knows how to fix the situation. The NCAA is trying to find a solution. It held its first Coaches Forum as part of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics convention in Orlando, pairing up 11 minority football coaches with various ADs to build relationships and provide insight into what it takes to get hired.

Currently, there are nine minority head coaches at 119 Division I schools — seven African-Americans, one Latino and one Pacific Islander. Of 582 football programs in Division I, II and III, only 3.9 percent are minorities, excluding the historically black colleges and universities.

"The people who are interviewing these individuals have got to take a chance," said Georgia AD Damon Evans, himself a minority and on the Coaches Forum panel. "Just to do the interviewing — to say you've done that — isn't enough. Right now in anything you do in life, you've got to take a risk or chance to see how that turns out."

This hot-button issue became a heated topic again this past offseason when Auburn passed over Turner Gill, an African-American with a proven history of winning, and hired former UCF and Auburn defensive coordinator Gene Chizik, who was 5-19 in two years as head coach at Iowa State.

Florida defensive coordinator Charlie Strong, an African-American, said before the BCS national-title game that he believes his interracial marriage has affected his head-coaching chances.

The NCAA should be applauded for trying to help, but more needs to be done. It has been suggested the NCAA adopt something similar to the Rooney Rule in the NFL, where teams are required to interview at least one minority coach.

But the NCAA cannot mandate hiring practices for its member institutions. Plus, Charlotte Westerhaus, NCAA vice president for diversity and inclusion, said 27 minorities interviewed for 22 vacant head coaching positions this past offseason.

It is up to each individual state to take up the cause. Florida should follow in the footsteps of Oregon, which has a bill up for review in the state senate that would require public colleges and universities to interview at least one minority candidate in coaching searches for all sports and searches for ADs.

Alabama State Rep. John Rogers told The Birmingham News that he had plans to introduce a similar bill in the state legislature in its next regular session.

If states fail to demand action, then the movement at bringing more minorities into the ranks will continue at its current slow pace. Nobody wants that. Not David Kelly, an assistant head coach and receivers coach at UCF.

Kelly, an African-American, wants to become a head coach. He has interviewed for head coaching positions without success. Instead of lamenting that there are so few minority coaches in the college ranks, he prefers to see it this way.

"The bottom line is it's very difficult for anyone, regardless of color, to get a head football coaching job at a major institution or any institution because there's so few," Kelly said. "There are other things I can say, theories that we all have, but there's nothing that truly validates that."

Getting a chance to interact with ADs as part of the Coaches Forum gives Kelly a chance to not only develop relationships but to put himself out there as someone interested in becoming a head coach. Building the foundation for breaking through the stereotypical "old boys network" is a start.

But it's not enough. ADs have got to start hiring more people like Kelly.