As we approach July 1st, the date that had traditionally been the “starting block” for the college recruiting season, we notice that fully 13 of our top 20 boys from the high school class of 2018, and 10 of our top 20 high school girls, have already verbally committed to Division I programs. This is in stark contrast to past years, when “early” (pre-July 1) verbals were more of an outlier than the norm. And the phenomenon isn’t limited to the big names in high school swimming; we have already written articles about 83 athletes from the class of 2018. Last year at this time we had reported on 28 verbal commitments, of which 5 were top-20 boys and none were top-20 girls.
In some respects, that this rush to register one’s verbal commitment is happening in 2017 is ironic, given that the industry is moving in the other direction. The most notorious of early-commit sports is lacrosse, where it has become not-unheard-of for 8th graders to announce their verbal pledges to collegiate programs. Before ever having set foot on a high school campus. Most college lax coaches now admit it had gotten out of hand, and support the legislation passed by the NCAA Division I Council on April 14th. In an effort to “put the genie back in the bottle” as it were, the new NCAA rule, which is effective immediately, prohibits recruiting contact between college lacrosse coaches and prospective student-athletes (“PSA”) and their families before September 1 of the PSA’s junior year in high school.
It is with some irony therefore, that the swimming and diving class of 2018 has seemingly upped the tempo of their commitments, securing their spots on class of 2022 rosters before even having taken one official recruiting trip. Here are the colleges that have received early pledges:
| Team | M&W Combined 2018 Commits |
| Alabama | 1 |
| Arizona | 1 |
| Arizona State | 11 |
| Auburn | 2 |
| Cal | 3 |
| Cincinnati | 1 |
| Duke | 1 |
| Florida | 8 |
| Florida State | 1 |
| Georgia | 3 |
| Indiana | 3 |
| Kentucky | 4 |
| Michigan | 1 |
| Minnesota | 1 |
| NC State | 5 |
| North Carolina | 1 |
| Notre Dame | 4 |
| Ohio State | 2 |
| Pitt | 2 |
| South Carolina | 1 |
| Stanford | 1 |
| Tennessee | 1 |
| Texas | 9 |
| Texas A&M | 1 |
| UCLA | 1 |
| USC | 2 |
| Virginia | 1 |
| Virginia Tech | 9 |
| Wisconsin | 2 |
| Grand Total | 83 |
Meanwhile, we now have about 1480 names on the list of athletes from the class of 2017 who plan to swim and dive in all three divisions of the NCAA, in the NAIA, or in junior college. We have added a column to the spreadsheet to show our pre-season ranking, so you can now sort by that criterion as well.
I love how ASU is on the rise again, especially after such a great year. Call it the “Bowman/Phelps” effect, but it’s nice to hope that maybe in 5+ years ASU can be a top 3 contender. It’s exciting and refreshing to have a relatively “new” power rise up other than Texas, Cal, Florida, Stanford, Auburn, etc. (the traditionally “best” teams). I’m personally a fan of how NC State has broken into a truly elite level as well, it’s very cool to see that another school is starting on that same path.
These class of 2019 commitments prior to July 1st are a product of loosening NCAA Swimming and Diving recruiting rules. Swimming and Diving has lagged behind many other sports in the ability to communicate with prospective student-athletes. As of August 2016 division I swim and dive coaches could begin personal written communication with juniors, previously not allowed.
Swimming and Diving have been slow to make changes to recruiting calendars relative to other sports and we will see if this unbridled communication ultimately is positive or negative for our sport.
As a Division I Swimming coach that has spoken with a number of fellow coaches, it is a worry many of us have. I don’t look at sports with… Read more »
90% of the early commits are a product of college coaches pushing athletes to commit NOW. This especially applies to the schools that are NOT top 10 D1 schools. It’s no coincidence that certain schools have higher numbers on this list, and the schools with low/no commits utilize the no-pressure strategy recruiting.
this does nothing to help the swimmers make the right choices of where they should go
Wow, SwimSwam did a great job compiling this list. Thank you. Amazing how ASU already got 11 recruits way ahead of everyone else for 2018 race. Do they have that many scholarships to give?
It is COMBINED men’s and women’s totals. They did graduate a huge class. Will be interesting to see how this program develops.
Cal obviously won the men this year, but Texas got 3 really solid guys.
They should continue to battle for the NCAA championship for the foreseeable future. I don’t see room for anyone else.
How did Cal win when they didn’t win?
the recruiting battle obviously…..that’s what this article is about
Disagree. Texas got crazy fast guys already.
Captain Awesome, because only in America you can win when you lose….
nerd nation continue to steamroll the competition it isnt even fair 🙂
’17 G 4 6 8 10 12 noone else can come close
georgia just 1 thats all
kal a big fat zero whats new
tells u sumin on quality of programs
obvious which school the best recruits all wanna goto
Maybe that’s why the other top programs are starting to recruit more aggressively earlier. Stanford had to wait for a preliminary thumbs up from Admissions, which can’t happen until second semester of a HS student’s junior year, at the earliest. If other top teams swoop in earlier, they can offer guarantees that the Stanford coaching staff can’t.
Well believe it or not, not everyone who is recruited by Stanford wants to go to Stanford.
I’m watching where the 3 breaststokers (Jonathan Cook, Daniel Roy & Josh Bottelberghe) from Washington state land. Cal and Michigan have locked up one each (Whitley and Will Chan respectively). To my knowledge the other contenders – Texas, NC State, Stanford and rising ASU – are yet to do so.