The Notre Dame men’s swimming program has been suspended for a minimum of one academic year after an investigation into potential gambling. The men’s swimming and diving programs are coming off their best combined finish at NCAAs in school history as they were 10th at the 2024 NCAA Championships.
Just after U.S. Olympic Trials in June, the school announced that the law firm, Ropes & Gray LLP to conduct an external review after “potential issues with the culture” of the team. Sources have told SwimSwam that the investigation has been ongoing at least since January and authorities were allegedly monitoring activity during US Olympic Trials.
The review found that gambling was an occurrence for most of the team members that were set to return for this upcoming season. Swimmers place “over/under” lines on swims at meets. One former member of the team says they even took wagers on “how many women would cry after their races.” In addition to betting on swimming, some of the athletes participated in betting on other sports such as the NCAA March Madness tournaments.
The school issued a statement today from athletic director Pete Bevacqu. “The external review confirmed and expanded on our initial concerns about a deeply embedded team culture dismissive of Notre Dame’s standards for student-athletes, including our expectation that they treat one another with dignity and respect,” said Bevacqu.
“This independent, external review also documented numerous violations of NCAA rules prohibiting gambling on intercollegiate swimming and other athletic competitions despite clear and recurrent training provided to all our student-athletes by our Athletics Compliance staff about those rules. These findings are contrary to the University’s values and all that we stand for in Notre Dame Athletics. In order to ensure that this behavior ends and to rebuild a culture of dignity, respect, and exemplary conduct, we have decided to suspend the men’s swimming program for at least one academic year.”
“While individual conduct varied, the overwhelming cultural dynamic on the team necessitates a full suspension. We profoundly regret that the small number of team members who did not participate in the conduct, and those who were planning on joining the team this fall, will also suffer the consequences of this decision”
“The coaching staff participated in and fully cooperated with all aspects of the external review. The review found that the staff was not aware of gambling or the scope and extent of other troubling behaviors because team members effectively concealed such behaviors from the coaches and staff through concerted efforts. According to the review, when the staff became aware of certain isolated incidents of unacceptable conduct, they treated them seriously and professionally. We appreciate the continued service of the staff to our women’s swimming and diving programs and our men’s diving program during these difficult times.”
The program just finished its 2nd season under head coach Chris Lindauer. The men’s team had a historic 18th place finish at NCAAs in Lindauer’s first season before surpassing that finish this past March as they were 10th. The team also was 2nd at the 2024 ACC Championships, also a program-high finish.
130 out of the 132 points from the team at 2024 NCAAs came from swimming. Daniel Knapp was the only diver to score, with two points coming from a 15th place finish in the 1 meter event.
In addition to success at the NCAA level, the team also sent rising senior Chris Guiliano to represent the US at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Guiliano earned one gold and one silver as a member of the US men’s freestyle relays. According to Sports Illustrated, Guiliano is not thought to be one of the swimmers wagering on his own team. Lindauer was named an assistant coach for the US in Paris as well.
According to NCAA rule 10.3, sports-wagering is prohibited for student-athletes. “The following individuals shall not knowingly participate in sports wagering activities or provide information to individuals involved in or associated with any type of sports wagering activities concerning intercollegiate, amateur or professional athletics competition. (a) Staff members of an institution’s athletics department; (b) Nonathletics department staff members who have responsibilities within or over the athletics department (e.g., chancellor or president, faculty athletics representative, individual to whom athletics reports); (c) Staff members of a conference office; and (d) Student-athletes.”
Terrible but they should let the fans do this $$$
Betting on sports by NCAA athletes is against their rules. Can’t join the org, agree to follow their rules, break those rules, then cry/complain when the school levies punishment for breaking said rules.
The program already has a lawsuit against it for pregnancy discrimination. Betting on women crying makes the program look awful in today’s society. It’s not 1985 anymore.
Doesn’t matter if this goes on elsewhere, wrong is wrong.
Since Covid, even before, schools are looking at their budgets a lot closer. Non revenue generating programs are under the microscope more than the ones that fill arenas and stadiums. It’s not fair but colleges are businesses as much as they are learning institutions. They are going to… Read more »
But church BINGO is ok?
Is church sponsoring NCAA programs?
How many football and basketball teams have similar issues?
I wonder if filling out the NCAA brackets that the NCAA puts out would be considered gambling.
it’s definitely not. you are putting any money down when you’re filling out FREE to play brackets
The NCAA rules quoted in the Sports Illustrated article indicate that the penalties get progressively worse with increasing amounts of money gambled.
For them to be suspending the program for a year, based on that quote, it seems like a lot of money must have been involved. Much more than I could have afforded in college.
That doesn’t make it okay. It’s not fair but non revenue generators are on the chopping block and will be looked at more harshly than the big programs
I fail to see how anyone was harmed in this. If anything, it seems like they had incentive to perform. And ND had one helluva showing at USA Trials.
Notre Dame is run by a bunch of hypocrites. A supposed Catholic University that abandons the Catholic doctrine in a drop of the hat. I live in South Bend, and if this is the standard that ND wants to apply to athletics then several teams need to go, including Football and Lacrosse. While an extremely rich University, ND is still frugal if it’s not football. They’re going to need a new pool, they’re going to have to pay their swimmers. This is essentially the death penalty. They won’t come back from this! This is an excuse to cut the program and give a little more $$ to the football team.
Must I remind you, this is a recently endowed… Read more »
I’m confused, will the men still be able to practice and train under the program? Is only competitions suspended? Or is training too?
And we wonder why the next generation is always weaker than the previous generation. Its because the weak are slowly taking over the world, and push “Make an example of them” for every situation. Keep your heads up Irish, sounds like you have a weak AD.
Ah yes, our grandfathers were strong and defeated the Axis of Evil in WWII because they were allowed to checks notes place bets on their own sports team in violation of NCAA rules.