Of the run of swimming & diving programs to be cut over the last decade, Tuesday’s announcement that Eastern Michigan would drop their men’s swimming & diving team is one of the most stunning and perplexing yet. The program is one of the school’s most successful, having won 34 MAC conference titles, including 3 of the last 4. While every cut program leads to an outpouring of emotions ranging from anger and frustration to sympathy and support for those who lost their teams, the latest cut seems to have hit a special chord with swim fans across the country. The emotion seems to be hinged upon the realization that no level of competitive success appears to be enough to save a program, not even if that program is the most successful one on campus. For coaches, that means that being good at your job isn’t enough. For athletes, that means choosing a school that’s a good fit for you, giving all of yourself to that school, and excelling in the classroom and the pool isn’t enough.
While the Clemson and Maryland cuts earlier this decade might have drawn a similar outcry because of the prominence of the schools at large, those cuts came in the infancy of social media (and of SwimSwam, where I reported the news for a predecessor site, The Swimmers’ Circle, that many of you have probably never heard of).
Below, see the Tweets that have flooded our timeline in the hour-or-so since we reported the news. The flood of responses has come at an unprecedented rate, even compared to other recent Division I cuts like Wright State and Buffalo. Take note: efforts to change the course of Eastern Michigan’s decision have already begun, and we will be calling on the same emotion that has prompted today’s reaction on social media and in the comments section in the coming months to support that effort in concrete ways. We know our audience won’t go quiet when that times come, much as they didn’t when the swimming community rauised $85,000 last year to stave off Wright State’s cut.
Included among the respondents is Michelle Swift, mother of Carter Swift, the 2018 MAC Freshman of the Year who moved from Australia to swim at Eastern Michigan. The disgust also rang from local and national competitors, showing that saving our sport is above rivalry. Messages also came from people like Joey Puglessi, who currently swims at Cincinnati, and was a member of the Buffalo men’s team that was cut last year. A high school program in Michigan, South Lyon High, was also deeply impacted – 2 of the team’s coaches and 4 of the school’s alumni swam or dove at EMU. Even Sarah Dunleavy, assistant coach with one of the most successful programs of this generation the Cal women, spoke out, calling it “heartbreaking to see.”
See those and more relevant Tweets below:
@carterswift3 wants to stay in the USA!, such a fantastic coaching team with peter and derek and Tracy and the rest of the coaching staff, and you couldn’t ask for better team mates and lifelong friends… they made his first year in the USA fantastic, #needamiracle
— MICHELLE SWIFT (@SW1FTY1972) March 20, 2018
cutting a program that has had 34 MAC titles is beyond me. buffalo, wright state and now EMU all in one year & it is absolutely heartbreaking https://t.co/5j7jGDkJUa
— shaw (@shaw_barney) March 20, 2018
As not only a swimmer but as an overall athlete, headlines like these are some of the worst things to see. Thinking of all the Eagles today? https://t.co/DeNF1HReQe
— Kelley Reis (@reis_k28) March 20, 2018
It’s incredibly sad when WINNING athletes lose their opportunity to participate in collegiate sports because they don’t bring in the “big” money. https://t.co/24K6cx8eyg
— Hannah (@H_Stahmey447) March 20, 2018
I have watched both EMU’s football team and swim team compete at Miami this season and it is safe to say that they are cutting the wrong program. https://t.co/9sAWZUe1Wl
— charlie siford (@ChucklingCharly) March 20, 2018
If the university actually cared about these kids they honor their schlorships to whatever school they choose to go to, this isn't about money to them it's about a sport and a family they love https://t.co/tb6vgQPrge
— Liam Halpin (@Its_Halpining) March 20, 2018
Another sad day for the world of Men's swimming. It's frustrating to see universities time and time again turn their back on their student athletes, not in favor of balancing a budget, but rather reallocating funding for other programs. My heart goes out to the EMU swim team. https://t.co/1GpNVUpf36
— Tyler Roehr (@TylerRoehr) March 20, 2018
Anybody who knows me knows my love for this program and its coach. I'm embarrassed to be an EMU alum today. They'll keep trotting out a bad football while cutting it's most successful program. Disgusting.#EMUSwimAndDive https://t.co/UNLCcRHRNb
— LHS Swimming (@SplitterSwim) March 20, 2018
This is an incredibly sad day for South Lyon Swim & Dive. Two of our coaches and four of our former athletes (Ryan Fulkerson, Dan Gironza, Max Wilkinson, and Brendan O’Shea) swam or dove for the EMU men’s team. https://t.co/pQVurxaeWp
— South Lyon Swim&Dive (@SLyonSwimDive) March 20, 2018
Eastern is cutting the only winning program at that damn school and I am livid. the actual disrespect https://t.co/wrgKGgTNZE
— Rosé Wine (@BwennaKubs) March 20, 2018
I can’t believe we are at the point where even if you are one of the winningest sports on your campus, you still aren’t safe. Extremely disappointing. https://t.co/FVBwxmxSMu
— Hayden Duplechain (@hayden_dup2015) March 20, 2018
This needs to stop
— Austin Harper (@ajharper__) March 20, 2018
— Jason Bryant ? (@jasonmbryant) March 20, 2018
how many more men’s swimming and diving teams are going to be cut? how many student athletes lives are going to be torn. colleges continue to cut men’s swimming and diving and the sport is going to continue to shrink. enough is enough https://t.co/HnSsgIGrZr
— JernⓋ (@Journiln) March 20, 2018
I am always saddened when a college cuts a major program like swimming & diving. In general, too much money is given to football and basketball and we ignore the contributions of other athletic programs. https://t.co/LV6wOedxGU
— Deanne Faye (@deannefaye) March 20, 2018
Devastated is an understatement. #SaveEMUAthletics https://t.co/C7GRv7IjyQ
— Sid the Kid ❁ (@ShomasTydney) March 20, 2018
Very sad to see so many phenomenal teams be cut in recent years. The history and tradition of @EMUSwimDive is beyond impressive, and heartbreaking to see that go. Hoping we all find a way to fight to change the way this trend is going… https://t.co/yt2Li3vWuz
— Sarah Dunleavy (@Coach_Dunleavy) March 20, 2018
This is becoming too familiar. I don’t even know where to begin. EMU has a great group of guys with incredible talent who have put so much work into building a powerhouse. Absolutely outrageous; I’m heartbroken for the men AND the women as they are losing half of their family. https://t.co/m2X2R1hu9c
— Joey Puglessi (@jpuglessi98) March 20, 2018
Absolutely ridiculous! The tuition money they take in from the mens swim team FAR out weighs the cost of the program. The board did this to satisfy an out cry for over spending on sports ie unsuccessful sports…so the response was to cut the most successful program on campus. Prez and board should be replaced!!!
As a parent of a college swimmer (elsewhere), this story breaks my heart. I know how much work, both in and out of the pool, it took for my daughter to get to where she is. She’s a freshman in college and not only loves her coaches and teammates, but she’s come to find a home at her university with academics, her honors program, other clubs and organizations, and friends outside of swimming. She would want to continue to swim, but if she were in this situation, she’d have to transfer to do that, and uproot her entire life that she’s built this year. These kids at EMU are no doubt looking at the same decision, and I feel for… Read more »
Truly disgusting. Summer swim lessons at a college can make a good amount of money.
This is a sad announcement – they have seemingly abandoned the core principle of student athlete development. Focus should really be at how Michigan has effectively defunded higher education which exacerbates budget pressures. In the end it’s the students (and here the student athletes) that lose out.
Is there any value to a college in supporting a program that draws students to apply, creates lifelong boosters and financial supporters of the school, that creates goodwill, enthusiasm and good PR for the school? My swimmer would not be going to his college and paying tuition there if he was not drawn in by the swim program. Personally, I would not be such an enthusiastic financial supporter if my child was not swimming there, and I know my student-athlete has created such a connection to the school that he will continue to support the program and the school for years to come. EMU sounds like the type of program that would create these benefits for the school. Perhaps eliminate… Read more »
This. My rower (HS senior just finished with application season) wouldn’t consider a school without an active boathouse, even though she has no intention of rowing varsity in college. Activities shape campus culture, and many schools seem to hire ADs with “football culture” as their goal. Cutting programs affects many more students (and prospective students) than ‘just’ the athletes directly representing the school.
” when it comes down to it, swimming doesn’t make many places any money at the college level”
Holy crap what is wrong with this country?! This is a college! They’re not supposed to be selling the talents of the kids there! Do they not make money off the papers of anthropology majors? Is the math department not in the black this year with school profits? Did the psychic department have bad marketing this year and now they’ve gotta re-coup the losses by firing Freud?
Colleges and the NCAA have WARPED our perception on what a school should be with the commercialization of their football and basketball programs. The highest paid public employee in most states is a college… Read more »
Spot on. WARPED
sign the petition: https://www.thepetitionsite.com/661/343/754/save-emu-mens-swim-and-dive/
EMU being cut brings about an interesting question for the remaining men’s programs in the MAC: Will the conference even continue to sponsor Men’s Swimming and Diving now that there are more affiliate members than full members participating? If I remember, the conference had a tough time putting together a championship a handful of years ago and held a joint championship with the Sun Belt. Then they added Evansville, SIU and Mizzou State and began conducting a separate championship again. I’m concerned for the guys at the remaining 5 schools in the conference. Is this the beginning of the end for their programs?
It’s Missouri State. Mizzou specifically refers to University of Missouri. No one calls the state of Missouri Mizzou. Besides that, I agree with your point. The other schools in the conference are even more at risk.
There’s the CCSA that has a bunch of swim programs whose conferences don’t have swim that is an option.
Yes, but one factor schools who have cut teams consider is the sport’s membership in the school’s primary conference.