In an informal survey by the American College Connection (ACC) more than 100 Division I swim coaches say their scholarship budget has not been affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
The ACC is a recruiting service and SwimSwam sponsor. Their Director of Swimming Rick Paine says the organization got more than 100 Division I swim coaches to respond to its survey, with 100% of coaches saying their scholarship budget moving forward has not been affected by financial losses from the coronavirus pandemic.
On the other hand, 100% of respondents said their travel budget would be affected. That tracks with an update from the College Swimming Coaches Association of American (CSCAA) that 60 swimming & diving programs in Division I have cut a collective $2.7 million from their budgets to help their athletic departments.
The American College Connection says it reached out to every Division I head swimming coach and got about 70% to respond to the survey. Some other findings from the survey:
- 100% said scholarship budgets will not be affected
- 100% said travel budgets will be affected
- 95% said team roster size will not be affected. (In fact, some programs said their athletic departments are encouraging larger rosters with more walk-ons to provide more financial help for their schools)
- 85% say the size of their travel squad may be affected
- 50% say their recruiting budget may be affected
- 25% say their salary may be reduced slightly
Future surveys are planned for the Division II, Division III and NAIA levels.
Sometimes the absence of understanding/ knowledge/ perspective causes me to overcome my reticence to not get pulled in, but a few points of clarification:
“Programs being cut isn’t an issue for women’s programs, most are safe because of title 9. Men’s teams are the ones that need to worry, specifically mid major programs.”
Not true. In the past five weeks, 50 teams (all sports) have been eliminated, 26 men’s, 24 women’s. Yes more women than men, but not proportionately by any means. Fortunately, the cuts have only affected three of our schools (so far).
Additionally – if this was true, we would expect to see program adds and fewer drops on the women’s side and this isn’t the case. Over… Read more »
Genuine question, are there studies show graduate student athletes donate more back to schools than non athletes post graduation? That is not something I had factored into my thinking but wondering where that comes from
Those numbers may be correct for all sports, but haven’t most of those 50 teams being cuts were from institutions closing their doors completely for all students, those aren’t AD’s making cuts? I haven’t seen many programs (men/women) being cut by an AD yet (Cincinnati men’s soccer, Old Dominion wrestling)?
I don’t know where all the women’s program cuts have been, but I’m guessing they had to have cut multiple men’s teams to get there. Or they had to add another women’s sport that carried more women at less cost than swimming (ie- rowing). Title 9 makes it very hard to cut women’s programs at schools that sponsor football. They need women’s programs because they need equivalency numbers to… Read more »
There is no scholarship budget other than the NCAA limit and whatever the school has set. They don’t spend on scholarships. It is rather unrealized income. It doesn’t cost them anything unless they replace any scholarships with paying students. In today’s world this will not happen.
Budgets are going to be cut, how much they’re cut all depends on if football is played or not and if it’s played with our without fans. If coaches are smart they’ll figure out ways to cut travel and operating budgets to survive the next year.
Programs being cut isn’t an issue for women’s programs, most are safe because of title 9. Men’s teams are the ones that need to worry, specifically mid major programs. However, if AD’s are smart they’ll look and see what an insignificant amount they actually save compared to the vast amounts they waste on football salaries/budgets and how much tuition revenue men’s swimming and diving programs bring into their universities.
I love swimming but i don’t buy the lost tuition argument at all. Mid major college A cuts men’s swimming and 25 swimmers go away, (wouldn’t be 100% but this is for illustration). The college is going to take X number of kids each year whether there’s a men’s swim team or not. They will just fill those 25 slots with your non athlete student types.
What am I missing?
In an unrelated story: 100% of ADs haven’t told their non-rev coaches how dire things are if football doesn’t happen.
In a related response.
Not true in the slightest. I think everyone understands(or is being told) Goodluck if football doesn’t return.
The unasked question “Coaches, rate from 1 being no trust, to 10 being total trust” that your AD is leveling with you about the future of your program”
This is a great survey but it makes the assumption that all these coaches are 100% sure their programs are coming back.