The transfer portal has opened for men’s swimming and diving and a flood of athletes have already entered as of Wednesday morning.
With roster cuts already taking place, the transfer portal is expected to flood, and this morning’s rush already shows that.
Morning/Lunch Update:
109 Division I men have already entered the transfer portal this morning. Highlighting the list is Michael Cotter and Aaron Shackell, both of which transferred into Texas for this season. Shackell has already left Austin and is training with his club team in Carmel, Indiana while Cotter arrived from NC State but did not swim at SECs this season.
They are two out of the eight athletes from Texas to enter the portal so far for the Longhorns. Other names from Texas include Tanner Braunton, Max Hatcher, Jeremy Kelly, Lukas Stibrich, Landon D’Ariano, and Tyler Quarterman. Kelly was a BOTR ranked recruit in the boys high school class of 2024 while D’Ariano was an honorable mention in the class. Neither swam at SECs.
Auburn leads the way with 14 men already in the portal. The team also has the most women in the portal.
The 14 from Auburn include Avery Henke, David Hatt, Aidan Clements, James Allison, Jack Ailshire, Aidan Siers, Britton Spann, Isaac Lee, Alexander Just, Travis Keith, Tate Cutler, Andrew Commins, and Benjamin Chateigner. Travis Keith notably scored seven points as a diver for the team at SECs.
Indiana has nine men in the portal with Saadeddin Saadeddin, Leonardo Pelaez, Lucas Byrd, Harrison Herrera, Wilson Tuttle, William Raches, Ian Everett, Benson Wong, and Ryder Androsky. None of the men competed at Big Tens last month.
Early Afternoon Update:
Arizona State had seven men enter the portal since our last update. The list includes Leo Verschooten, Charles Gould, Cale Martter, Bryce Rohr, Finn Kemp, Isaac Fleig, and Leo Roden.
Martter is the biggest name on the list as he won the Big 12 title in the 200 IM swimming a 1:42.93. He also was 3rd in the 400 IM and 5th in the 200 breast. The 200 IM was a weaker event for ASU this season, partly due to the loss of Leon Marchand and Hubert Kos. Martter is not scheduled to compete at NCAAs next week for the Sun Devils as it took a 1:42.65 to make the cutline but helped the team to an NCAA Championship a year ago as he made the NCAA ‘B’ final of the 400 IM and 200 breast.
Gould also swam at Big 12s last month, scoring in the 100 and 200 backstrokes.
Late Afternoon Update:
Alabama has had men trickle into the portal all day and now bring their total up to six. Jake Kennedy, Sebastien Wenger, Paul Matthews, Leyton Row, Benjamin Kutufakis, and Jeremy Rosen are all in the portal for the Tide.
Roe, Wenger, and Kutufakis all swam at the 2025 Southeastern Championships (different from SECs), a club meet in Huntsville, Alabama, last month. Matthews, a diver, did not compete all season.
That Benjamin Kutufakis kid would be a good pickup for any program. Hard worker, good student as well. Its truly a shame these roster cuts are forcing a bunch of good talent out of these big teams.
Goal: get these portal guys really fast..Olympic Trial cuts or Natio al cuts or improve times. Have club coaches take them and make them better.. Nobody can name who won 1988 NCAA mens or woman’s off top of head except a few. Everyone can name Olympians..
Strikes me as unethical that a coach will recruit and sign an athlete and cut them after one full semester. Seems unethical on the part of the conferences to oversee—or mandate—roster cuts that include student athletes who have not even completed a year of college, particularly the two richest, the Big 10 and SEC.
What is a commitment?
I agree with you. And, the flip side is that athletes are permitted to transfer at any time and are immediately eligible to compete without needing to sit out a year and forfeit a year of eligibility which up until recently was the case. Unfortunately, commitment has clearly been diminished within college athletics.
Doesn’t really make sense that Martter is in the portal for asu. Cant believe they would cut him considering they’re weak in his events for next year. They only have hockwalt in the 4 and th 2 IM. Maybe Herbie’s training didn’t work for him considering he most likely trained with bob last year
SECs Men at 22; I believe some other Power 4 conferences at 30 for Men.
Any consideration going on at NCAA level to equalize those numbers?
I hate this. It’s so disgusting and sad
It’s a pity no one is starting a program in this environment. A school like Maryland (big10 money and a natatorium) could hire Wyatt as coach and take the Texas portal crowd and have a midrange big 10 program right out of the box.
You get get a little deeper dive into the numbers on our IG @SpringboardCreative
Interestingly enough, according to your numbers, none of any Cal swimmers has entered the portal yet, while they are currently projected to have 37 next year.
Also ASU currently have 29 projected for next season, so they did not have to cut anyone in theory, are they imposing a tighter number for themselves or expecting a lot of transfers?
I think ASU is actually closer to 34 by my count when you account for potential returners and incommers. And, I have no inside knowledge regarding ASU…but I would add that not everyone that enters the transfer portal is cut. Some are leaving for their own personal reasons, just like prior years when the roster cut impact was not in play.