Marshall University officially announced it was cutting the women’s swimming and diving program after the season in favor of adding women’s stunt.
Last week, the members of the team were told about the decision to cut the program for “financial reasons”. There was a public meeting discussing the decision on Tuesday while the team was out of town due to their conference championship meet, which is set to start this Wednesday, February 18th.
In a statement released today, Marshall University President Brad Smith announced that the Board of Governors approved the decision to cut the program following the 2025-26 season.
Smith said “Let me be clear about what this decision is — and is not.
This is not a performance decision. Our swim & dive program has represented Marshall with pride, competing with strength and achieving greatness in the classroom. This is a structural decision about sustainability and alignment in a rapidly changing NCAA environment.”
In the statement, Marshall also announced they would be adding a women’s stunt program to remain in alignment with Title IX participation. Marshall will be the 2nd school to cut their swim and dive team in favor of women’s stunt in the last few months, with Cal Poly adding the sport beginning in the 2025-26 school year.
Smith said that this decision was due to “participation and Title IX alignment” highlighting the fact that a swimming roster has roughly 27-30 students while stunt supports up to 65, and that the University is “significantly expanding women’s participation opportunities.”
Smith also discussed the financial sustainability of the program, saying swimming and diving costs $819,000 annually, but a fully developed stunt program is projected to cost $330,000.
In 2024, Marshall spent $243,000 on the swim & dive team according to the EADA report from that year, though the report does not include the cost of running and maintaining the facility.
Smith discussed that in the statement as well, saying that “sponsoring Division I swimming at a championship level requires substantial capital and facility upgrades we cannot responsibly commit to at this time without compromising broader athletic priorities.”
This will be Marshall’s first and only year competing in the American conference after they finished 2nd in the Sun Belt conference last year.
I just love subjectivity judged activities.
I question the $819K figure… the current operating budget is $350K… the Athletic Department does not own the pool, the PE department owns it… When I was at Marshall, administration told me that the athletic department did not pay rent, and only paid for pool chemicals which was on the facilities budget, not swimming…(probably about $12K annually although no exact figure was shared)… so where is the other half million coming from? Even if they do pay rent, it cant be $500K… when Maryland dropped their program, they cited as one of the reasons being the athletic department had to pay Maryland Rec Sports $330K annually in rent. So even if Marshall pays what Maryland was for a 50 year… Read more »
I have no issue with what you are saying here, accounting is often self-serving, rather than objective, which it should be… I think other women’s teams at other universities should have a chill running down their spine about this approach, as I don’t think Marshall will be the last to use it. My one question: I think in a previous post you mentioned that the athletic department moved from scholarships to tuition wavers a while back. This is accounted for differently at different places, but can be a real budget cost charged to athletics or silently absorbed by the institution. Nonetheless, it could be factored into this equation, as administrators are apt to do when trying to make their point…… Read more »
A travesty for the Herd and for the most obese state in the US.
Brad Smith Stinks
Up until now, the prevailing wisdom was that Women’s D1 programs at football schools were pretty safe, given the Title IX balance they provide. This completely blows that up.
Pretty scary. Can’t imagine Marshall will be the only school that uses this strategy.
I think every mid-major with a Title IX issue (e.g., proportionality gender gap over 10%), and a football team, have found a new tool to deal with their budget issues… Clearly why the House settlement included such large roster caps for Stunt/Tumbling/Rowing on the women’s side… Didn’t take them long to start using this approach…
Stunt car driving/crashing, roof jumping and running full speed into a wall are all great stunts.
No media rights or ticket sales. This will be the norm with a lot of programs in the future
“Stunt” is absolutely right.