Hi Kelly,
Actually, they rarely do occur directly over the sun's equator, though there are a few.

Begining at the solar minumum, sunspots start to appear at higher latitudes at both hemispheres far from the equator. When the solar cycle proceeds toward solar maximum, sunspots gradually appear near the equator from both side. We still do not fully understand sunspot emergence and the solar cycle, but that is what we see through observations.

Yan