If the Black Coaches Assn. is playing a numbers game, it’s losing.

In 1998, there were eight black head football coaches at the 117 Division I-A schools. Today, there are two — and Karl Dorrell, who has been UCLA’s coach for 23 games, has the longest tenure.

The firing of Tyrone Willingham on Tuesday by Notre Dame after three seasons, coupled with the firing of Tony Samuel at New Mexico State and Fitz Hill’s resignation at San Jose State last week, means that three prominent black head coaches have lost their jobs in eight days.

Willingham’s firing sends a clear message, said Floyd Keith, executive director of the BCA:

“It tells you something is really wrong. And it should tell all of America something is really wrong. What’s magnified this thing is, there’s simply not enough African American coaches out there. People know it’s wrong. You have to know it’s wrong. You’ve got such a disparity.”

Keith’s group funded a study of the hiring of NCAA Division I-A and I-AA football coaches and reported that since 1996, only two blacks who had not been head coaches notched head-coaching jobs — Hill, who resigned Nov. 22 at San Jose State, and Dorrell at UCLA. Before moving to Notre Dame, Willingham was head coach at Stanford, where he was hired in 1995.

The only other black head coach in Division I-A is Sylvester Croom at Mississippi State, who was hired after the study was done. Croom is in his first season. Hill said Willingham’s firing as well as his own departure and that of Samuel should be seen as a disturbing trend.

“You don’t have to have a Ph.D. in statistics to realize those numbers aren’t very good,” Hill said. “It is a step backward. We all want Karl Dorrell to succeed because it raises the profile of African American coaches and gives us all hope.”

Dorrell, in his second season, has UCLA at 6-4 after going 6-7 last season. Contemplating his new standing as the longest-tenured black coach in college football caused Dorrell pause.

“I’ve never really thought of it that way,” he said. “I know that at some point in time it might be my turn. I’m just going to work hard and coach the best that I can and be a big influence on this program. That is what drives me, and that’s what motivates me every day.”

Although he doesn’t know Willingham well, Dorrell said he was “disappointed” by Notre Dame’s action.

“Sometimes in this profession you lose sight of the big picture,” he said. “This profession is not the most fair profession to be in, and we understand that.”

C. Keith Harrison, who wrote the report for the BCA, is director of the Paul Robeson Research Center for Leadership, Academic and Athletic Prowess. Harrison is a researcher and teacher at Arizona State in the college of education, division of educational leadership and policy studies.

He is working on an updated hiring report.

“The overall analysis would not be good, since we’re down to two African American coaches in a total of 117 Division I-A schools,” Harrison said. “But life is not fair, and as long as we can recycle some of these coaches — get them other head-coaching jobs — I could feel a lot better.”