Two NCAA finalists this past season Josh Matheny and Luke Barr of Indiana have entered the NCAA transfer portal “briefly” to allow for a voluntary reallocation of scholarship money to Owen McDonald, who announced his transfer earlier this week.
Just a day before the transfer portal closed, Matheny and Barr entered with “do not contact” designations. Both entered “briefly because it gave us the option of giving some of our scholarship dollars to Owen,” Matheny said.
Entering the portal allowed Matheny and Barr to “break” their scholarship agreements and voluntarily reduce their scholarship for next season.
“Owen is a fantastic addition to the team-a great guy and an amazing swimmer. We were really excited to be able to play a small role in getting him to IU,” Matheny continued.
The Indiana men finished 4th this past season at NCAAs, only two points behind Florida. The addition of McDonald is huge for the team as they look to stay at the top of the NCAA.
McDonald’s biggest impact looks to fill some of the gap that graduating fifth year Brendan Burns leaves. McDonald was in the same NCAA ‘A’ final as Burns in both the 100 and 200 backstrokes. In addition to his backstroke ability, McDonald also brings value to the IM group as he was 2nd in the event at 2024 NCAAs. Owen’s younger brother Cooper McDonald committed last November and will also arrive this fall.
In addition to McDonald, the Hoosiers also welcome the return of their seniors that swam at NCAAs. Tomer Frankel and Jassen Yep were 2024 NCAA ‘A’ finalists while Gavin Wight swam as a relay-only swimmer for the team. The team also welcomes Brian Benzing from Towson for his fifth year.
Entering the transfer portal allows for schools to realloate one’s scholarship. As scholarships are often signed based on binding contracts, entering the portal is necessary in the case of a voluntary reallocation of scholarship. Matheny and Barr are both entering their senior seasons while Owen McDonald will arrive as a junior.
Speaks volumes to the quality of both of these guys and their families. IU really making a push to try to get a ring, whether it happens next year or not, have to respect what they have built and how they continue to push forward together.
This happening on a common bases, possibly. BUT, at IU and volunteering to do this I doubt it! Knowing how this head coach operates by getting his athletes to sign medical waivers “voluntarily” in order to get out of promised athletic scholarships.
Now that’s a different story.
I haven’t paid attention to scholarships for a while now, so can anyone help explain it?
If I am offered a 50% scholarship out of high school, am I guaranteed that amount for 4 years?
If I swim terribly freshman year, can it be taken away – or if I explode can I get my scholarship increased to 100%?
If adjustments are made, does that happen right after the season?
Are teams usually maxed out on their scholarships, or do they have some wiggle room (like UVA men’s monster upcoming class – can they only offer as many scholarships to that class as the scholarships who are graduating?)
I’m pretty sure scholarships are locked in now and cannot decrease (barring misconduct or becoming ineligible academically), but they can definitely increase. Scholarship conversations usually happen in the spring after championships. There is no wiggle room due to NCAA rules. If the team is fully funded and maxing out, they can only offer new athletes the same amount of scholarships going out with those graduating or leaving the program.
A few years removed from college swimming, I can try to answer:
1) You are guaranteed that amount for four years, unless you quit or are kicked off for some non-athletic reason (behavior, the law, etc)
2) If you swim terribly freshman year, then I don’t think it can be taken away. Even if they cut you, I think you have that scholarship. If you explode, then you can get a scholarship increase. Happened to me my freshman year.
3) Adjustments were made for me at the end of the season, but my coach was very transparent about what could earn you a scholarship increase all season long.
4) I don’t know for sure, but I… Read more »
Important to add, athletes with career-ending injuries keep their scholarship. I have no idea if they continue to count toward the team limit, or if there is an exception made.
If it’s a medical retirement, then it does not count against the team’s limit.
If it is “career ending,” the athlete keeps the scholarship bit it doesn’t count against the limit.
Depends on the contract you sign. Some schools do year to year, which allows for performance adjustments, some do 4 year deals, which is what most scholls offer, but I’ve personally had NU offer me a one year contract with a promise to increase up to a certain percent by year 4
There are year to year scholarships or 4 year. Maybe 2 or 3 year contracts exist. I only know of these two. 4 year is guaranteed for all 4 years and protected by Big 10 regardless of results. Another contract can also be signed to increase scholarship only. It cannot be used to punish athletes for results. But it seems that the coach can strong arm to get their way like this article.
If you can get teenage boys to commit to schools like Texas where they might qualify for the NCAA Championships and be left home, I don’t think it really takes “strong arming” to get them to give up a few scholarship bucks.
I don’t want to get too much into anybody’s personal business, but like…neither family is going to be devastated by the loss of scholarship money, and I believe both sets of parents have college swimming backgrounds, so they understand how the game works.
I think Luke Barr’s grandpa founded a bank. So…
I needed every single dollar of mine LoL!
That headline got me for a second, but I admire this out of them! Great act of selflessness from the both of them! Impressive!
I have to assume they’re probably getting an “academic” scholarship instead to make up the difference. Not sure why they had to declare they are giving up their scholarship publicly though. Very weird. Smells of a PR move via their coaches 😒
It was not a PR move by the coaches. We reached out to them when we saw their names in the portal. My sense from talking to Josh is that they would have been fine if nobody had noticed (they’re already back out of the portal).
I coached Luke’s dad in club for years and I helped Luke get to Indiana with American College Connection. This doesn’t surprise me one bit about this family (mom was an All American at SIU and dad was an All American at Stanford). This about giving back and supporting IU swimming. Every college team needs swimmers and families like this. Great job Luke, mom and dad. Classy
Great attitude!
Purposeful or not, it’s absolutely great PR (or so they think). This is a high-profile team. They know as soon as names from their team enter the portal, someone’s going to reach out for a statement. And they were clearly prepared.
I feel like PVK did this back in the day at UM. It’s not as uncommon as you might think.
That said, in this day and age with NIL, it seems a bit strange considering the IU alumni base and history of the program.
It happens at most schools for sure! The transfer portal just allowed this to happen later in the whole process. Transfer portal is relatively new
What class acts