2025 ACC Swimming and Diving Championships
- February 18-22, 2025
- Greensboro Aquatic Center — Greensboro, North Carolina
- Full Event Schedule (pre-scratch timeline)
- Championship Central
- Psych Sheets
- Live Results
- Live Streaming
- Day 1 Finals Recap
- Day 2 Prelims Recap |Day 2 Finals Recap
- Day 3 Prelims Recap | Day 3 Finals Recap
U.S. Olympian Brooks Curry was expected to swim at the ACC Championships at the time the meet’s psych sheets were released, but the NCAA found something else they wanted to look into regarding his eligibility shortly after they dropped, Cal associate head coach David Marsh told SwimSwam on Thursday.
Marsh said that the NCAA wanted to look further into Curry’s involvement in the Athlete Partnership Agreement, a program from USA Swimming that pays modest stipends to National Team athletes.
While college athletes are now allowed to receive money from their Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL), there are still restrictions on earning prize money from competition and salaries or wages to participate in sports.
The lines for what money is, and is not, allowed is still a bit fuzzy and the subject of ongoing litigation.
Curry swam his first four seasons of eligibility at LSU, where in 2022 he was the NCAA Champion in the 50 yard free (18.56) and 100 yard free (40.84). He was eligible for five years of eligibility because of the bonus year of COVID eligibility awarded to all swimmers who participated in the 2020-2021 collegiate season.
Curry entered the transfer portal in 2024, but at the time he wasn’t expected to swim at Cal, with that entry being so that the two could discuss the possibility.
Since that time, Curry has been training at Cal as a pro athlete.
Curry was on the U.S. Olympic Team at both the Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Olympic Games. He won two relay medals: gold in the 400 free relay in Tokyo, and silver in the 800 free relay in Paris. In both events, he contributed as a prelims performer.
At his last NCAA Championship meet in 2023, he finished 4th in the 200 free, 4th in the 50 free, and 5th in the 100 free, scoring 44 individual points. It would be speculative to guess Curry’s current training condition, given that he hasn’t raced since the Olympics, a 50-60 point impact on Cal’s NCAA Championship meet, including on relays, would be a reasonable expectation for him.
Those points could be crucial to Cal’s outcome in an anticipated tight three-team race with Indiana and Texas.
Even without Curry, Cal has added a couple of big names late in the season to pitch in to their post-season push. Lucas Henveaux, who broke the ACC Record in the 500 free earlier this week in 4:08.83, in his return to the Golden Bears in January; as did French backstroker Mewen Tomac, who was 4th at the Olympics in the 200 back last year.
It is still unclear whether Curry will pursue an NCAA qualification via a last chance meet, or if this will mean the official end of his NCAA career.
The Cal men, competing in their first ACC Championships, take a lead into Friday’s competition.
Team Standings After Day 3:
- Cal – 633.5
- Stanford – 565
- UNC – 517
- NC State – 501
- Louisville – 449.5
- VA Tech – 331
- UVA – 306
- Florida State – 305.5
- Pitt – 255.5
- SMU – 239
- Georgia Tech – 233
- Duke – 105
- Boston College – 62
- Miami – 52
- Notre Dame – 19
Regardless of overall eligibility, I think to be eligible for conferences and national championships, an athlete should be required to compete in at least 2 dual meets.
Anything less and let’s call them what they are..
Hired mercenaries.
Can we be done with all the hocus pocus? Real 4 year students between 18-23 (granting age waiver to anyone doing military, peace corps, church mission service or a Olympic gap year prior to university entrance), working on getting their undergraduate degree while participating in athletics. Nothing more, nothing less.
The hocus pocus where some athlete that has not been competing with the team all season, suddenly arrives for the post season is crazy.
It is also amazing that the only way to stop this hocus pocus is by taking about the money…. Damn the money, the money isn’t the problem here.
The article leaves me questioning if he is even a student.
Cal will always explore every loophole. They’re not going to explicitly lie about him being a student.
I don’t mind grad students who haven’t used all their eligibility, but this thing where there’s no line between a pro and a student athlete and there’s no requirement to be a real part of a cohesive team throughout the year is a bummer. Swimming doesn’t involve the same kind of “on the field” interaction between athletes that you’d find in basketball, football, etc so the only way we really get valuable lessons in our sport about teamwork is by valuing the sacrifices we make together to work toward a common goal as a team that matters as much as our individual goals. It’s fine to go pro and say “I loves my team experience in college and now I’m… Read more »
I’ll record myself dancing in an Oski costume if brooks competes for cal at ncaas.
Go bears!
I thought Notre Dame was unable to compete this year…
Just the men’s swim team, which does not pertain to the divers.
Further proof that swimming and diving are not the same sport
Men’s diving wasn’t suspended. https://swimswam.com/notre-dame-mens-swimming-program-suspended-a-minimum-of-1-year-after-gambling-investigation/
They have another diver, Daniel Knapp on the roster, but he doesn’t appear to be competing (unless he dives platform).
Not saying I moved the needle in any way and not trying to insinuate anything, but I did write an official looking letter to the NCAA compliance office in regards to Curry, Henveaux, Tomac, etc
If it can happen Coach Marsh is the only person smart and clever enough to figure out how to get BC to the NCAA meet for CAL. He is light years ahead of others.
It’s not about intelligence, it’s about prioritizing point total over creating a cohesive team. Plenty of coaches are smart enough to figure out how to exploit loopholes in ways that undermine team culture but gain points at a big meet. Most just don’t think that’s the right way to coach young people. I actually think Dave Marsh is a great coach for a pro athlete taking ownership of their own career. He seemed to be an awesome fit for Cullen Jones and Kathleen Baker when they swam for him, and he’s had tons of other individual success stories at the elite level. But coaching a school team is a different animal.
In other words, it’s not about intelligence, it’s about coaches choosing to coach with integrity.
An embarrassment and a disgrace for all involved!!!!
College athletes can now make hundreds of thousands of dollars through NIL deals, but somehow a stipend program from the sport’s official national governing body is a bridge too far. Nice to know.
A stipend, mind you, that isn’t anywhere close to covering living expenses in the bay area. If he is incredibly smart and lucky, the USA swimming stipend might cover his rent. Maybe. Just barely.
That’s BS from Marsh. All the NCAA athletes on the National Team take their stipend, they just have to show expenses to offset it.
You’re comparing apples to oranges. Pay for play is different from name image and likeness. The rule isn’t “college athletes can be professional athletes as long as they don’t make a good living doing it.”