Loyola Marymount University (LMU) announced it will be cutting six athletics teams after the conclusion of the 2023-24 season, including women’s swimming.
LMU is located in western Los Angeles, California and currently sponsors 20 sports programs. According to a press release, the move appears to be financially motivated in order to focus resources on the remaining 14 programs. All six cut programs are Olympic sports.
Full List of Programs Cut:
- Men’s Rowing
- Men’s Cross Country
- Men’s Track and Field
- Women’s Rowing
- Women’s Track and Field
- Women’s Swimming
While LMU is a member of the West Coast Conference (WCC), the conference does not sponsor a swimming championship. Instead, the women’s swimming team competes in the Pacific Collegiate Swim Conference Championships (PCSC), where they finished 7th of 15 teams last season. At the conclusion of this season, head coach Bonnie Adair will have completed 21 seasons with the Lions. Adair is the first full-time women’s swimming coach at LMU.
There are currently 29 athletes on the roster: nine first-years, nine sophomores, six juniors, and five seniors.
LMU will continue to honor athletic financial aid for impacted students, should they choose to stay for the remainder of their undergraduate career. The athletic department also says it will assist students who choose to transfer.
Athletic director Craig Pintens also addressed the LMU athletics community directly in a letter, dated January 23, 2024.
“These changes also reflect the realities of the transformational changes impacting college athletics nationally. The NCAA landscape is changing rapidly, and schools of all sizes must adapt to provide the best student-athlete experience while becoming even more competitive. LMU is no exception,” writes Pintens.
An attached report elaborated further on this statement, citing a number of reasons including the passing of name, image, and likeness (NIL) legislation and the trend of conference realignment. The document explicitly mentions the dissolution of the Pac-12 as being worrisome for the WCC.
Additionally, the report refers to the new NCAA policy that eliminated the “volunteer coach” designation, stating that in the wake of this change LMU had 26 unfilled assistant coach positions. It is implied that this created an untenable expense for the university, though this is slightly misleading as the policy change did not require volunteers to be converted to paid positions.
Pintens closes his letter with the following:
“This is undoubtedly a challenging time for many within our community, but I am confident that this is the best decision to move LMU Athletics forward and to provide an outstanding experience worthy of our students and our university’s ambitions.”
Petition to help save the cut programs
https://www.change.org/p/help-reinstate-athletic-programs-at-lmu?utm_content=cl_sharecopy_37852774_en-US%3Acv_808559&recruiter=1103751593&recruited_by_id=1fed7af0-a52d-11ea-8231-8510e81210bb&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial&utm_term=psf&share_bandit_exp=initial-37852774-en-US
How long until the only college sports are men’s basketball and football?
go D1, go broke?
This was a sad example of university leadership making an efficient decision in a cruel manner. Taking a blunt knife and pretending it is a guillotine is a poor example of leadership and contradicts LMU’s mission as a Jesuit university—to educate the whole person—mind, body, and soul—and prepare students to create a more just, humane, and sustainable world. This was not humane.
Recruiting efforts by LMU women’s swimming currently has (had) 3 commits for the upcoming fall 2024 admission cycle. Last year the swim team attracted 9 freshman and 2 transfer admits, adding value to the team with performance potential and numbers. Attracting quality students who are athletes is a key recruitment strategy. Swimmers have always been academically… Read more »
Bad timing for cutting men’s and women’s rowing after the recent successful release of the movie: Boys in the Boat. There will be a surge of students that will be interested in rowing for their college team and LMU is in enviable position to offer rowing.
I like crew and Olympic sports as much as the next guy, but I think this is a jump.
Sad reminder that college sports cost a lot and universities really have zero obligation to provide them.
LMU had one of the smallest athletics budgets in the nation. It didn’t cost a lot. That’s why it’s so odd that they were cut
If you want to help these student athletes make your voice heard. They are asking that everyone who supports the student athletes send an email to the AD and university president to protest how these student athletes are being treated. If you would be so kind to do so their Email addresses are [email protected] and [email protected]
I am heartbroken to hear about LMU women’s swimming being cut Bonnie is an incredible coach.
It’s amazing that they had a swim team longer than Michigan st who has all the funds in the world to support a team. This is tough on the kids and I wish them well.