{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://bonamici.house.gov/media/in-the-news/oregon-state-hires-jonathan-smith-new-head-coach-confirms-it-complied-state-law", "Oregon State hires Jonathan Smith as new head coach, confirms it complied with state law regarding minority candidates", "2017-11-29", "2017", "2017-11", "Democrat", "House", "OR", "Suzanne Bonamici", "B001278", "bonamici.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Oregon State announced Wednesday night that it will hire\u00a0Washington offensive coordinator Jonathan Smith as head coach. But the steps to get to Smith were different for Oregon State than almost any other public institution in the country.\nIn 2009, the state of Oregon passed its version of the NFL\u2019s Rooney Rule, requiring public universities to interview at least one minority candidate for a vacant head coaching or athletic director role. Via email, Oregon State confirmed to SB Nation that it complied with the state law \u201cas always,\u201d but declined to name a specific coach interviewed during the process.\nThe law has no penalty if schools don\u2019t comply, and little oversight,\u00a0but it is legislation on the books. In recent weeks, a national campaign to lobby the NCAA has been launched by multiple members of Congress,\u00a0spearheaded by Oregon Representative Suzanne Bonamici\u00a0(who is a co-sponsor of Oregon\u2019s version of the bill from her time as a state senator). NCAA President Mark Emmert responded to Bonamici & Co.\u00a0with a letter earlier this month.\nWhen Oregon State\u2019s hiring process began,\u00a0SB Nation posited\u00a0BYU\u2019s Kalani Sitake and Oregon State\u2019s interim Cory Hall as potential minority names the Beavers could look at for its vacancy.\u00a0The Oregonian\u00a0included USC\u2019s Tee Martin, Washington\u2019s Jimmy Lake and Navy\u2019s Ken Niumatalolo as minorities\u00a0on its list of potential candidates.\nOregon State retained a search firm (reportedly\u00a0at a cost of up to $200,000) to conduct the search that eventually settled on Smith. Including search firms in the process can make it more difficult for minority coaches to obtain jobs,\u00a0as explained by an agent to SB Nation earlier this month.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://bonamici.house.gov/media/in-the-news/oregon-state-hires-jonathan-smith-new-head-coach-confirms-it-complied-state-law"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.500351820141077, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}