Yesterday we reported that Notre Dame’s men’s swimming program would be suspended for a minimum of one academic year after a gambling investigation. So what now?
There’s still a lot of uncertainty, but I’m wondering what the athletes will do in response. I’m not sure how long the Notre Dame team has known about this, but the news is coming right before the start of the school year and I’m guessing many incoming athletes have already moved in and started training with the team (if the team is allowed to train at all).
For those who are senior or 5th years, this could be their last chance to compete in the NCAA with their teammates. Specifically, rising senior Chris Guiliano is coming off of his first Olympics where he won gold and silver.
Transferring may be an option, but we aren’t sure if athletes will have to sit out a year or not if they end up elsewhere. For many student-athletes, waiting an extra year to start a career isn’t be a viable option.
For incoming freshman and non-seniors, will we see redshirts? Gap years? More transfers? My guess is probably a mix of all of these, but coming so close to the beginning of the year, I’m sure many won’t get an ideal situation out of this.
Seems like they’re in the middle of a FAFO situation to me. They get to study is my guess. Could be worse.
They’re just looking for ways to try to cut teams now.
Is this an issue at ND only? It seems farfetched to me, to assume other institutions are not facing the same problem.
Ruining kids swimming is just a classic move for such an institution
can we get odds on how many will end up at SMU?
Wasn’t that part of the problem?
Do the coaches still get paid this year? Feel bad for them if it really was without their knowledge as the report said, and the new head coach doing great things in his first two years, then… this.
Yes. The women’s team carries on, and most coaches in combined programs (the one exception I know of is Dave Durden) don’t have a separate contract for the men’s and women’s teams.
NCAA allows a different # of staff members for single and combined programs. Will this be a problem? Typically in unique situations, you have to submit an appeal the NCAA to get special allowances.
That’s a good point. I wonder if the men’s diving team still competing clarifies that problem without getting too deep into the complexities of appeals and such.
Will the punishments from NCAA on each swimmer’s eligibility be announced publicly? Or do we just have to figure out ourselves from whether they compete after the suspension or not?
The NCAA very rarely announces individual athletes’ names in sanctions.
This is fairly-unprecedented though.
Can you imagine what they might find if they investigated, lets say, the ND football team for casual sports betting / gambling? What would they would do if they found that the ND football players make small bets, using online betting apps, on professional and NCAA athletics? Suspend the football team for a year? Ridiculous.