After a busy day one, the transfer portal slowed down on day two and into the weekend. The 45 day window opened this past Wednesday and will close on April 25th.
So far, a total of 178 women from 72 different schools are in the portal. Last year, a total of 191 entered the portal during the 45 day window, including 40 graduate transfers.
Auburn has the most from a single school with 13 women total. Cal Poly has 12 women while Virginia Tech, Indiana, and South Carolina each have nine.
The SEC, which Auburn is included in, is the conference with the most women in the portal so far as 40 have entered. The ACC has the second-most entries with 27 while the Big Ten has 25.
This weekend’s biggest name to enter the portal is Virginia’s Aimee Crosbie. Crosbie competed for the Cavaliers during her freshman season in 2023-2024 but did not compete at all this season. As a freshman, she finished her season at the Cavalier Invite swimming a 22.59 50 free, 49.48 100 free, and 54.36 100 fly. She originally hails from New Zealand and last competed at the 2024 New Zealand Championships last April.
Crosbie becomes the third athlete from Virginia to enter the portal. Earlier this month, the program announced it would cut their diving program as well as have a goal to be closer to 24 swimmers on their roster. This goal is lower than the ACCs maximum of 30.
Let the swimmers that want to go pro do it. NIL is ruining swimming and some of these kids opportunities to be at the schools they chose for their major and to do what they love – swim. I hope this course corrects in the next couple of years…
Why does SwimSwam consistently mention Auburn in articles. They haven’t been relevant in over a decade.
“Why does SwimSwam write about Virginia so much? Just because they’re the best team in the country?”
“Why does SwimSwam mention Auburn so much? They suck”
Some of y’all need an emotional support llama.
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
Zing
They are the only team with 40+ on each side of the rosters, aka most affected program… especially given their conference has opted for 22 person rosters.
The pressure is bound to be up at all of the bigger programs. If you’re near the cut line and don’t show significant improvement over a full season, why wouldn’t the coaches move on and try someone else?
What a sad mess…
The Hunger Games have been playing out in Charlottesville. DeSorbo is understandably frustrated by the men’s team and had them try out for their spots next year. 🤭
Shouldn’t tryouts simply have been ACC’s?
Wow. But please tell me not David or Spencer.
Maybe SeSorbo can’t coach or recruit male swimmers?
Todd can recruit them. 🙄
But I have a feeling Gary will be coaching them so, tho I’ve heard some conflictung goss about GT, he might actually be able to pull the men’s team outside of the quagmire it’s been in.
It’s interesting that not only will there be swimmers cut for teams that have to make a roster limit, teams that are already at/just below the limit will make cuts too because the trickle down of talent. E.g. A Texas or Florida swimmer cut may be a lot better than a swimmer at Missouri or Kentucky, so if they enter the portal and want to transfer, the current missouri or Kentucky swimmer is out of luck if the faster guy wants to transfer.
So true and it’s happening.
A little bit of parity could be great for the sport though, as those Missouri/Kentucky who get locked out could make a massive impact with mid-major programs
I get your point, but I wonder whether or not your widely-shared hypothesis might be a bit of a “misnomer” as to whether or not the bottom P4 swimmers would necessarily make a “massive impact” with mid-major programs. No question, there are some that would be able to transfer and make a significant and immediate impact, but I’m beginning to wonder if the number of athletes is more limited than one might think?
While my “mini analysis” is admittedly limited, I took a look at the bottom 5 women swimmers with remaining eligibility on the Kentucky and Missouri rosters (10 total swimmers) to see how they would have hypothetically scored this year at the Mid-American Conference Championship Meet. Interestingly, only… Read more »
It’s true that some would and some wouldn’t.
There are guys going 1:01 in the 100 breast and women going 2:02 in the 200 free at the bottom end of P4 rosters, and those swimmers would not have a huge impact on most rosters at the mid-major level.
It just underscores the new standard really effs over the walk on kids. Hysterically, boston college men lose just 1 person in a quest for only 30. Vanderbilt women have to lose over a third of their roster to get to 22.
And this was a down year for the MAC in many events. Distance in particular.
I’m guessing a decent number of those swimmers will stay at their schools and give up the sport or do it at the club level. If they were interested in making a big impact on a college team, they likely would have gone mid-major in the first place. Of course there will be outliers, but I’m guessing many would stay put.
I would think that by the number entering the portal many want to still swim somewhere. You are correct some may just be done and will just stay in school. Can’t say enough how sad this all is. It will be pretty normal in a few years I guess but those who are going through it now it’s really awful.
I am surprised no one could find a way to grandfather this in or find a way to make this a 3 year goal to get to the roster number considering the impact.