Boston University Swimming and Diving is in a tough spot after learning that the Athletic Department has decided to eliminate all of the men’s scholarships and just slightly more than nine of the fourteen women’s scholarships in an effort to save money. The women will still have 4.9 scholarships for their team.
In a meeting on Tuesday morning on the pool deck, Athletic Director Drew Marrochello met with the team to inform them that their scholarships will be phased out. Although there is no indication the department will be cutting the team, many are still worried because of the similar situation the wrestling team was in a few years prior.
Boston University Athletics has acknowledged our questions but have not yet provided answers.
Both the men’s and women’s programs were fully funded prior to the Athletic Department’s announcement to the team this week. With the cost of attendance totaling over over $60,000 per year, eliminating nearly nineteen scholarships will save the department over $1,000,000 per year. The team was told that their current scholarships would be honored through their four years, but no new scholarships will be added.
Alumnus Lincoln Kupke, Class of 2015, told us that members of the team asked why they can’t eliminate one scholarship from each team instead of eliminating the swim team’s funding. The response they received however, was unfavorable, stating that eliminating the swim team’s scholarships was the best option.
Boston University was in a similar situation during the 2013-2014 school year when Athletic Director Mike Lynch eliminated the funding for the universities wrestling team and cut the program at the end of the season. This came just months after the International Olympic Committee voted to drop wrestling from its schedule for the 2020 games.
Kupke also told us that head swim coach Bill Smyth met with Lynch after the program had been cut to ask about the future of the swim team. According to Kupke, Coach Smyth was told that the swim programs would not be cut.
During the 2013-2014 school year, Lynch and Boston University received a ton of criticism from the student-athletes and members of the media. National media outlets such as the Boston Globe, USA Today, and ESPN picked up the story, along with smaller wrestling-focused media outlets, similar to SwimSwam within the swimming community. The wrestling program received a ton of support from around the country, but ultimately the program was still cut. Following that season, Lynch resigned from his role as the Director of Athletics. He never gave a reason for why he chose to resign from his role, but he did tell the media at the time that he did not yet know what the future held for him.
At the same time Lynch made the decision to cut the Wrestling program, the current Athletics Director Drew Marrochello was also on Lynch’s staff as the Deputy Director of Athletics. As the Deputy Director of Athletics, he oversaw all of the daily operations, it’s 24 varsity sports and $25 million budget. In addition, he had direct oversight of the business office and coordinated all of the revenue generation for the department.
It’s a shame but not surprising. Many schools are cutting teams like swimming and wrestling. Also, Smyth has done a poor job coaching overall, with the exception of one or two talented swimmers. I wouldn’t be surprised if they cut the mens program in the upcoming years, unfortunately.
I know that Bucknell offers swim scholarships because we were offered one. Also, perhaps the swimmers like to party but I doubt any of the lacrosse, soccer or hockey players are up at six AM training before class.
Just some corrections and no offense to Bill Smythe, as he is a great coach! BUT he did NOT build the program from the ground-up as some suggest in the comments!
Doc Reagh Wetmore did! We swam in a 6-lane basement pool under West campus and often took on teams like Harvard and Penn State. We had swimmers from all over the world and USA – from California to Florida, Mexico to South Africa). We had NCAA qualifiers like Sybil Smith —she still holds the 100 free team record from 1988!
In 1986, we beat many top ranked D1 teams and even the president of BU (Silber at the time) wrote us letters of congratulations! — I still have… Read more »
If anybody is really opposed to these cuts perhaps they would sell their house and other personal assets and donate the proceeds to create a scholarship endowment.
crickets
Ok, it’s on. I had a kid play youth lacrosse and would state without restraint that I think more highly of FINA than the sport of lacrosse. If you want a poster child for a well capitalized but arrogant, entitled, needy and boorish sport lacrosse is the king.
Quite honestly, I think lacrosse trolls invaded this thread to suggest BU swimmers are the party animals on campus. I have a hard time believing that hockey, soccer or any other sport has kids who never indulge in the social side of college that involves beer or going to parties. It’s college. BU’s swim team GPA for men and women mirrors what is overwhelmingly the case in college sports. Swimmers are… Read more »
Blatantly obvious that the athletic director has made the decision to fund lacrosse over swimming… The timing tells the story!
I think there is a great market for on-line viewing of dual meets. Call it $3 or $5 for SwimSwam to do meets or for the programs themselves to bring in the broadcaster from their other sports. If alums, family, friends and especially SwimSwam fans had this offering — I for one would want it for two reasons: 1. Watch some great swimming and 2. Support college swimming financially in some small way. But small ways thousands or tens of thousands of times really adds up. As long as NCAA rules and money shares can settle out, it would be a great thing to see and would be of financial benefit to NCAA swimming.
I think it’s time we elevate swimming and other aquatic sports to the level of football, baseball, basketball, and hockey, and make it a revenue generating program. I could be wrong, but apart from Olympic and World venues, we are the only sport with spectator seating on only one side of the action, and no color commentary to help spectators understand the sport or get to know the athletes. We have to draw paying spectators outside of friends and family members to our competitions. We have to start thinking like television producers and change things up for the future of our sports. Gold Medal Mel and SwimSwam are on the path, the rest of us have to do our part.