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High school junior Tate Cutler from Davis, California has made a verbal commitment to Auburn University for 2022-23.
“I chose Auburn because of the coaches and the team. The coaches were always super enthusiastic and I feel they can contribute to my progress as a swimmer! They are striving to better the program as a team and individually. The culture of the team is amazing! After several zoom calls, I realized how close they are and how hungry they are to win!”
Cutler swims for DART Swimming and was a member of the quartet that broke the Boys 15-16 SCY 800 Free Relay National Age Group Record at the 2018 Winter Junior Championships West. That relay featured a 1:34.38 leadoff leg from Luca Urlando; Cutler (then 15 years old) split 1:42.71 on the 3rd leg. TAC Titans eclipsed the DART record in March 2020 at Cary Sectionals.
Cutler was featured as one of the top butterfliers in the class of 2022 on our Way Too Early ranking of boys’ recruits. He won the 200m fly at 2019 Mt. Hood Futures with a PB of 2:02.62, a qualifying time for Winter U.S. Open. He also placed 7th in the 200 IM (2:08.40 in prelims) and 11th in the 100 fly (56.36). All three times were PBs, as was his leadoff 200 free (1:55.47) on the DART 800 free relay. Since then, he updated his 100m fly time to 56.22 and added a PB in the 100 back (58.74) at 2020 College Station Sectionals. Cutler had a strong showing at 2019 Winter Juniors West, placing 12th in the 200 fly and notching lifetime bests in the 200 back, 100/200 fly, and 200 IM.
Top SCY Times:
- 200 fly – 1:46.84
- 100 fly – 48.96
- 200 back – 1:48.64
- 100 back – 50.25
- 200 free – 1:39.81
- 200 IM – 1:51.44
Cutler will suit up for the Tigers with Collin Klingman, Drew Jordan (also on the Way Too Early list), and Lucas Thomas. He wrote on social media:
“I am extremely excited to announce my verbal commitment to swim and study at Auburn University! Huge thanks to my coaches especially Billy, Ray, Reed, Trent and Carolee. I also want to thank my friends and family for helping me reach this point in my career. WAR EAGLE🔵🦅🟠!”
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Y’know, I hate to be a “david downer”, but I don’t understand why the kids are committing two years out. SO much can change including their attitude. Having been a college coach (at the D-III level), it is totally irresponsible for college coaches (and Parents) to let these swimmers make a decision when they are only a rising junior. Parents – wake up!!!!!
This is where the NCAA has failed the very athletes they claim to protect.
Just my opinion – based on many, many years of experience…..
I agree that the recruiting process starts too early. But unless the recruiting start time is moved back to where it was in the past, kids are pigeon holed in to committing early. There is only so much scholarship money and when an athlete waits to commit, they run the risk of getting less money.
It’s actually a pretty smart decision by the kids. By no means is this young man locked into going to Auburn. Rather he has a sense of security knowing he is receiving an acceptable amount of scholarship at a school he would be happy attending. With swimmers committing earlier and earlier, scholarship money goes away earlier and earlier.
If by some chance he decides 6 months from now he wants to look elsewhere, he can decommit and explore those options. But because this isn’t a binding agreement, I say the kids should take full advantage of the opportunity and take some stress off their heads
Kids can commit whenever they want but it doesn’t matter until they sign in November of their senior years. If they choose, they can change their minds and some do just that. Ultimately every swimmer is going to make the best decision for him/herself.
Some coaches will offer more $ if you decide earlier. That can play a factor.
It’s not your life, so I wouldn’t worry too much about it.
Unless the scholarship world has changed from 13-15 years ago, most of these athletic scholarships are not guaranteed and only one year at a time. How the athlete scholarship will be each year depends alot on how they did the previous year as well as how the incoming recruited class looks. In other words, you are only as good as the previous year. Tons of pressure. Unless the athlete is Olympic Games caliber, they are dollars ahead to focus on academics. The scholarships are generally better.
Just my experience as a coach watching my swimmers trying to figure it out. 🙂
Amen.
I believe NCAA compliance states you cannot offer a scholarship for more than 1 academic year or 1 term. However, in my experience, scholarships were never reduced or removed based on performance. I have never heard of first hand knowledge of this happening, expect obviously when swimmers were removed from the team for rule violations. So could a coach technically reduce a scholarship for a poor performing swimmer and give it to another? Sure but I have no knowledge of this happening at the D1 level for swimming. Maybe others have first hand knowledge of this happening. I only know of athletes getting more scholarship money for better performance.
There are actually multiple cases of scholarships being reduced based on poor performance.
In swimming? Division 1? I am curious as I have never seen it first hand. Can you provide information?
I mean I don’t want to call out individual people or teams cause that’s not my place. But it has happened multiple times in my home state in the past 5 years.
The scholarship world has, in fact, changed from 13-15 years ago:
https://informedathlete.com/the-facts-about-guaranteed-multi-year-ncaa-di-scholarships/
At least for Power 5 and Notre Dame. Other schools?
And realize that the only binding offer is with the National Letter of Intent signing. All the verbal offers before that are not contractually binding. So all these Sophomore year verbal commitments from schools are completely non-binding for the school. Just like the athlete can change their mind, so can the school until the NLI is signed.