JACKSON, Miss.—When Sylvester Croom was hired at Mississippi State five years ago, CNN carried the announcement that the Southeastern Conference finally had a black head football coach to the world.

Croom slipped out the door while no one was looking Saturday, resigning after an early morning meeting with athletic director Greg Byrne. The man who made history was history, another victim of a win-now-or-else mentality in the nation’s toughest conference.

“It’s sad, but it doesn’t surprise me,” Mississippi coach Houston Nutt said. “It’s the way of the world in college foo...

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