Eddie Reese has officially filed an objection to the terms listed in the NCAA House Settlement, particularly when it comes to roster limits.
Reese is one of, if not the, greatest coaches in NCAA History. He started his objection by describing his coaching prowess and his 46 years as the head coach of the Men’s Swimming and Diving Program where he led the team to 15 National titles.
Reese focused his declaration on the impact of roster cuts. He wrote “Texas has already told 13 swimmers on its men’s swimming and diving team that they are being cut. I know these young men well because I recruited all of them ,and coached most of them, and they have continued to communicate with me. Texas told them that these cuts are a result of roster limits that were announced as part of the class settlement with the NCAA and the conferences.
He emphasized that Texas is currently ranked as the number one Division I team in the country, and that the 13 men who are being cut have the potential to reach finals in the NCAA Championships, and that they all should receive the opportunity to continue competing.
Reese went on to describe the way that these forced cuts are creating a sort of “Sophie’s Choice” for all the swimmers. They can go to a new school and enter the portal, but a big reason that athletes choose colleges is because of the academic opportunities at a particular school that may not be available at other institutions. He said they also have to walk away from important relationships and “pull up roots that come with belonging to an institution”.
After addressing the small-scale issues of roster limits, he ended his declaration by talking about the way this will affect swimming on the large scale, saying “Presently there are over 140 Division I men’s swimming and diving teams… I believe that if the proposed settlement is approved by the Court without change, then within five years the number of Division I men’s swimming and diving teams will be reduced to under 50”. He also said that “Nobody is taking the side of the great majority of college athletes who just want to compete, including the thousands of swimming and diving athletes who will be cut, first individual and then when their entire team is eliminated.”
This letter came out after the men’s transfer portal opened this morning. Eight University of Texas athletes entered on the first day the portal was open, including Aaron Shackell, Michael Cotter, Tanner Braunton, Max Hatcher, Jeremy Kelly, Lukas Stibrich, Landon D’Ariano, and Tyler Quarterman.
They are joined by 14 swimmers from Auburn, nine swimmers from Indiana, and seven swimmers from ASU, including a Big 12 Champion.
You can read the full objection here.
I’m a little confused as to how this would drive down the number of teams. I’d be inclined to guess that it would drive it up, as more programs that couldn’t attract quality talent would now be able to.
As I understand it, part of the rationale for introducing roster caps is to limit liability and requirements for treating NCAA athletes as employees and as potential recipients of the settlement fund. It’s going to become more expensive to build competitive teams when only a handful of schools can offer 25 scholarships, and many athletic departments may choose to concentrate athletic investments and cut sports instead of having a team with 0-10 scholarships that continues to “lose”.
The NCAA House settlement is really bad for sports other than football and basketball (it makes sense to me why those players should participate in the revenue generated).
Where can I read the objection letter he wrote? The link in the first paragraph takes me to an article about those who have entered the portal, not Reese’s objection letter. Thanks!
Here is a tweet from Sam Ehrlich that contains the objection: https://x.com/samcehrlich/status/1901829396975243594
The other end of this controversy is what is going to happen to senior swimming in the future. It is going for force club coaches to push developing 13/14 years old swimmers harder earlier in order to achieve times to actually be recruited. We will be asking these athletes to make decisions about college swimming earlier than they need to be.
Not if swim coaches are interested in long term development of athletes – our kid didn’t swim club until end of sophomore year of high school. Develop kids into good people, students, and well-rounded athletes, the rest will take care of itself. Chasing a scholarship, etc as a 13/14 yo is not something I’d recommend.
Isn’t it a little late for this push back? This commentary and protest was needed last year.
Aaron Shackell to transfer again?? Andrew Shackell should be the one transferring. His time is not impressive at all.
This just means we must produce 3-5 Andrew Wilsons per Olympic cycle. Simple.
NCAA sports have become a big mess now!
It’s a shame that schools aren’t able to pick up sports at this time. Think about a school like Oklahoma or Arkansas that basically just starts a men’s team and picks up all the transfers from Texas, A&M, Missouri, SMU, and some other schools down in the southwest. Or a Maryland (or Michigan State) that scoops up all the B1G leftovers. Alas, this is only in my dreams where more opportunities are created for male swimmers.
If only the NCAA raised the minimum number of sports to sponsor.
40 sports would be awesome!
Interesting idea I had not thought of. CO has a nice pool and no teams. That would be a great Win. Too bad the NCAA sucks.