Knowing the Score ...

Turner Gill is staying at the University at Buffalo. That's a good thing, I guess - for UB, for its students and alumni, for the Buffalo Bulls, for Western New York.

I wasn't one of those who necessarily thought Gill would be out of here as soon as the final gun goes off at the conclusion of next month's International Bowl in Toronto. An 8-5 record in the Mid-American Conference doesn't necessarily guarantee a coach the "next big gig" at Syracuse or in the SEC, and names like Randy Edsal, Mike Schiano and now Gill always seem to get mentioned for the NBG and then they always seem to stay put.

Oh, they interview. Last year Gill lost out on the Nebraska head coaching job to Bo Pellini and this year interviewed to replace Tommy Tuberville at Auburn University.

But there's always more to the game than what's on the field.

Gill did more than just win a title. He turned around a program. At the time Gill walked onto the Amherst campus, UB was college football's roadkill. After his initial 2-10 season his Bulls either tied for or won outright the MAC's East Division title and this season upset undefeated No. 12 ranked Ball State to capture the MAC title in just his third season. He shouldn't just have a shot at coaching a big time program, hell he oughta get a shot at solving the nation's financial crisis as well!

But unlike Edsal and Schiano, Gill is black, just one of four African-American head coaches in Division I-A. Four out of 119 schools.

He also just happens to be married to a woman who is white.

Over the last two seasons, Gill has a 13-12 record with two division titles and a league championship to his credit. He lost out the vacancy at Auburn to Gene Chizik, who went 5-19 those same two years as head coach at Iowa State. The excuse given was that Chizik was, "a better fit" for the Tigers' program.

A better fit? How? With Auburn's boosters? Alumni? The state of Alabama? And race wasn't a factor?

Next to Bo Jackson, Auburn's most well know athletic alumnus, former NBA great Charles Barkley, cried foul almost immediately, and a disturbing report ran on ESPN's Outside the Lines sourced two SEC coaches saying African-American head coaching candidates like Gill and Florida defensive coordinator Charlie Strong had no shot at landing jobs in the league because they were married to white women.

Gill hasn't cried foul or blamed Auburn's administration. He won't. He's too decent a man to do so even though like any good coach, he knows the score.

I keep thinking to Election night. I was in UB's press box, up against deadline since the Bulls had just defeated Miami of Ohio for the first time in the program's history - a landmark in its own right.

Around 11 pm, one of the major networks projected Barack Obama's victory and I noticed one of the student press box aides - an African-American girl no more than 20 - in the reflection of the darkened glass. I could still make out her eyes as they grew and the announcement came over the air - America had just elected its first black president.

"He DID it ... He DID IT!!" she exclaimed.

I thought, "How could you know? You're twenty! How could you know all the racial divides that have been overcome? How could you know the struggles of Rosa Parks, Medgar Evers, MLK? This is 2008, how could you be aware of segregation? Separate but Equal? That your own school once refused a bowl bid because two of that UB team's members weren't going to be allowed to play in Orlando because they were black."

And ... in that exact same instant, and I watched her eyes grow wider, I knew, embarrassingly yes, I knew, that that girl knew how important it was in ways I could never, ever know.

We stand on the verge of inaugurating an African-American president, but we still have so far to go as a people, as a nation.

College football should be embarrassed for the lack of black head coaches - four out of 119 - when almost 54 percent of its players are African-American. When the sport itself is mainly driven by its overwhelming popularity in the southeastern United States, and the SEC is the biggest conference in the sport. You'd think the powers-that-be would want to distance themselves from any sort of controversy that smacks of the plantation mentality.

About the only real winner in all this is UB. They extended Gill through 2013. He'll be back next year. But the rest of college football? They're the loser. Big time.