Guest commentary by John Leonard, American Swimming Coaches Association Executive Director
FT. LAUDERDALE – One of the key roles that the American Swimming Coaches Association has played in American Swimming since 1958, is to warn of threats to our sport. Today, I am going to tell you about the biggest threat to American Swimming in the history of our sport.
NCAA Scholarship Swimming is under assault. And very likely to become extinct SOON if we don’t act to save it.
This is critical to all of us for two reasons:
First – for ALL of us….the USA is the only country in the world where a young man or young lady taking her/his first swimming lesson TODAY, has NO LIMITS on their future! They can choose to swim a little, swim a lot, excel, (or not) go through high school swimming, move on to the world’s most competitive program in NCAA swimming. (which attracts athletes from all over the globe, seeking what they don’t have at home) and go on to be an Olympian.
Or they can chose to do summer league swimming, swim in high school, move on to academic life, and never swim again.
The Point is, THEY HAVE THE CHOICE
In no other place on earth is that the case. In most of the globe, that young lady or man has almost nothing BUT limits….and most, even if they are serious youth swimmers, have no choice but to quit swimming between 15-18 and concentrate on academics which determine their future. No option of Scholarships, no option of elite coaching…no realistic dreams of being the best they can be. Their swimming careers END between 15-18.
NCAA Scholarship Swimming KEEPS THE DREAM ALIVE! KEEPS THE OPTIONS, OPEN!
It “DE-LIMITS EVERY AMERICAN SWIMMER!” DREAM, WORK, ACHIEVE. (if you chose to.)
Second – for all the reasons outlined above…NCAA Scholarship Swimming is the engine that drives our Olympic/International Success. Those 6,000 NCAA Scholarship Swimmers who keep swimming from 18-24 as they mature (and late maturers are the leading edge of elite athletes) are the “talent pool” which we have drawn on to lead the world in swimming for more than 100 years now. NCAA Scholarship Swimming is the EDGE that we have over the rest of the Swimming world.
IF NCAA Swimming Scholarships go away,
the USA in ten years will look like a second rate swimming nation ….we’ll have similar numbers of “elite” athletes, except some of our friends live in countries where swimming really COUNTS in the culture. You all know where swimming ranks in the USA in terms of cultural importance.
So, what do we do?
You’ll hear lots of work ideas and see lots in action soon. We have about a 12-24 month window to save scholarship swimming and elite coaching jobs in the NCAA. Within 24 months, the path will be set….Universities will be either keeping or dropping scholarships and full time elite coaching jobs by then. All of this DRIVEN of course, by the insatiable need for dollars for football and basketball players, and 6 Million Dollar a year football coaches.
We will need YOU to rally your teams….get tons of letters and emails written to University Presidents and Athletic Directors in support of the “Real Student Athletes”…..swimmers. The College Swimming Coaches Association of America and the ASCA are working together with USA Swimming to develop the plan, and ask you to work the plan.
I am personally so offended by the hypocrisy of the NCAA ad that goes on about “most of them will go pro in something other than sports”. Which implies that the NCAA actually has something to do with that! WHILE the finance of University sport heads inexorably towards the ELIMINATION OF OLYMPIC SPORTS in favor of the semi-pro leagues for football and basketball players.
It’s a toss-up right now whether the IOC/FINA or the NCAA is the most hypocritical organization in the world of sports today…but that’s a discussion for another day.
What is for today is simply this…if you love American Swimming, get ready to fight for it.
We’ll need ALL OF US, TOGETHER, to save it.
Let’s Go USA. We can do this. Plans coming. House on Fire. Man The Buckets.
All the Best, John Leonard
I haven’t been involved in swimming on a day-to-day basis in over 20 years, so please excuse my ignorance of current affairs. I have no idea why Mr. Leonard is writing this commentary at this time. Has the NCAA announced a plan to eliminate? reconsider? reevaluate? scholarships in non-revenue sports? Would someone please be kind enough to provide a LINK to any background material that clarifies the threat against which Mr. Leonard is urging us to fight?
TIA,
Mark
Hi Mark,
CSCAA Executive Director Joel Shinofield alluded to the issues in Swimming World Magazine’s March 2014 edition.
You can read his column here:
http://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/news/march-sw-magazine-ncaa-championship-preview-issue-ncaas-future-is-in-our-hands/
To sum things up, with college football players suing the NCAA for compensation rights, over and above just a full-ride college scholarship, the cost per football player is likely to rise by a large amount.
This could lead many schools to a budget realignment that could include more non-revenue sports being cut to account for the additional expenses.
A sport like swimming really needs to get ahead of these issues as soon as possible. That’s what John Leonard is saying here.
So start now #saveCofCswimanddive
There is nothing to be done about IOC or FINA, they are international bodies which would probably be keen to see the USA wither in prominence in swimming. It is USOC that has money and influence that can be readily used to help the cause. USA Swimming could help, too, to a lesser extent since it is involved in a different infrastructure.
As a former scholarship swimmer (ASU 75-76), I have witnessed the dismantling of entire programs, especially at UCLA the year after it won NCAA men’s for the first time under Ron Ballatore. It isn’t only scholarships that re at risk. No much point for a scholarship if you are going to a school with only a club team, which is where many programs are headed. And good luck starting up 100+ foundations to endow programs AND scholarships. It is the Presidents and ADs of the universities that have to be sold on the value of the program and attendant scholarships.
I think he is sounding a rallying call, as the threat is there. The NCAA’s supporting schools, and those with big money will act in their own self-interest when push comes to shove. As of yet, the lawsuits have not yet reached the stage where there is an urgent or immediate threat to their funding moving to paying the players. If one suit makes it through, the floodgates open (as other sports could step up to have a go), and we live in litigious society. BUT, football and other money sports support a lot of other sports at major colleges…if that revenue stream is eroded, then other sports will have funding issues eventually. Example: couple of years back former UMichigan AD was asked why he was at the stadium at 8AM game day, and was greeting people. His quote, “Football represents $90 million in revenue a year at Michigan. That revenue funds a lot of other sports at Michigan, and has throughout the years. It is our nest egg. And, I keep one eye on it at all times, and oftentimes both eyes.” Collegiate swimming and many other sports that are “once every four years” in the public’s attention need to develop other revenue streams—and I suspect NCAA schools will do the same, if possible. The sooner the better. The worst thing that could happen is an AD, president, or board suddenly saying to sports or academic departments, “every ship on its own bottom”, meaning you fund yourself. But, it pays to start hedging against that now. Of course, the first institutional responses will be rising ticket and memorabilia (shirts, balls, hats, etc) prices as they attempt to buffer the impact. It also re-energizes an interesting discussion on whether colleges should be funding collegiate athletics. And, yes, I swam in college too and work I higher education. One thing we can’t deny is we live in interesting times, and to quote the late Arthur C. Clarke,”‘The future ain’t what it used to be.”
Also a former NCAA D1 swimmer…I would enthusiastically support this if I knew that those NCAA scholarships were indeed going to AMERICAN swimmers and not being used to train other countries Olympians.
@katie; I believe that would be a tough one [denying scholarships based solely on citizenship]. If the money allocated for sports scholarships stipulated up front “Must be US Citizen”, it would be ok(although probably be challenged in court based on the talent issue)…and there is one scholarship I know of (not sports) that is set aside for US Citizens: Marshall Scholarship, which was a gift from England to the USA for John Marshall’s Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe. And, since most coaches at the big DI programs also run a club that has internationals swimming there in off-season, sets up a real set of issues since it is a “free market” with access to coaching and education. I’m no expert here, but it would also mean no sports scholarships to basketball or football international players, as well as all other sports.
Several points.
First, UCLA eliminated men’s swimming a dozen years after a Bruins won their first and only title in 1982.
As for universities having to come up with additional monies to,fund “salaries” of football/basketball players if the O’ Banon litigation eventually wins out…schools are getting obscenely rich from the new football playoff format and TV contracts so they are in a position to afford continued funding of non-revenue sports for both sexes.
The Big Ten, for example, is expected to sign a new TV contract next year that will generate about $40 mil per school per year. Plus the Big Ten has its own TV network that is a big revenue-generator and atnleadtbthree members — Ohio Stare, Penn State and Michigan — each gave 100,000-plus seating capacities that sell out regularly. The SEC is similarly well endowed and the ot get major conferences (Pac-12, Big 12, ACC) are all fat and sassy from TV money.
Now whether these ” riches” will trickle down to Olympic sports is another matter. The multi-million dollar annual salaries for such coaches as Nick Saban ( Alabama), Urban Meyer ( Ohio State), Bob Stoops (Oklahoma) and Jim Harbaugh (who’s supposed to soon sign the richest contract in college history — six years at $8 mill per — offer further proof of the health of King Football and how there’s no dearth of $$$ to fund the entire athletic program.
Even though UCLA as a PAC-12 member shares equally in the conference’s largesse from its various streams an article in today’s LA Times notes the school has plans to build a $50 mil football practice facility and a similar structure for basketball and the author notes Bruin supporters are beginning to suffer “donor fatigue.”
So…don’t like for a reinstatement of men’s swimming anytime soon.
Maybe endowing “chairs” in various sports as Stanford has done in swimming and presumably other sports is the wave of the future. Hey, it works for the Philosophy Department.
Another detriment to the continued existence of non- revenue sports at major D1 schools is the exponential growth of athletic department personnel and the “obscene” salaries of some coaches.
I was looking at the athletic roster of a prominent SEC school and the number of assistant ADs, associate ADs and other support staff is truly mind-boggling. These departments support several thousand people when you count all coaching and support staff personnel. No otter department within most universities is this large.
And don’t get me started on salaries. When a guy like Will Muschamp (who just got canned as Florida’s football coach) can literally walk across the street — or in this case across the Sunshine State border — and get a job at Auburn as defensive coordinator at a mil and-a-half per the inmates are truly running the asylum.
And don’t get me started on Lane Kiffen!
Dan — isn’t it a “crime” that U.S. Collegiate coaches in ALL sports fall over themselves to recruit foreign kids, give them a free college education, then come the Olympics/World Championships or other major international competitions these self-same foreign athletes are “stealing” our rightful golds?
This is particularly egregious in swimming. No names need be mentioned natch but the coach at the defending NCAA DII champs, the coach at a DII school in the Copper State that has DI aspirations and the coaches @. a couple of major DI universities in the Golden State are especially guilty in this regard.
There ought to be a law.
And Stix/Peter Daland are rolling over in their graves!
First, I cannot think of any DII foreign swimmers who have stolen “our rightful golds” as you have put it, so to single out DII programs as being especially guilty in that regard seems more than a bit unreasonable. DII schools don’t get the pick of the top swimmers – they go to DI schools. American kids who really belong in DII, turn their noses up at scholarships at DII schools because they want to be on a DI team even if it means never being part of an NCAA Championship, so I am not sure what your issue is there. Your argument would be best focused on DI programs. I haven’t really ever looked at it, but it would be interesting to see exactly how many of “our rightful golds” have been “stolen” by foreign swimmer trained in the US. Which also begs the question, how do you know the swimmer would not have won the gold if they trained elsewhere? And also, could it be possible that by training against top athletes from other countries that US swimmers have been made better? You objections to scholarships for international athletes seem a bit jingoistic.
As a former DII, and now a DI coach, and perhaps one of the coaches you are referring to, I recruit fast swimmers from wherever I can find them. That’s my job. My job is not to give scholarships to swimmers from the US who will not move my program forward. I would not have my job long if I did that. Swimming scholarships are merit based awards. If fast swimmers from the US are not interested in coming to my program, then I offer scholarships to fast swimmers from other countries. I certainly have never turned down a US swimmer in favor of an international swimmer of the same ability. If you have a fast US swimmer who wants a scholarship from me, all they have to do is get a hold of me. I am always looking for fast kids who want to come to my school.
There is an argument, I suppose, for whether state schools should give taxpayer funded scholarships to foreign, or even out of state athletes (which would seem to be the logical extension to your objections about scholarships for foreign athletes), but you lose that argument when it comes to private schools. And, as pointed out above, football, basketball and other sports rely on international athletes and certainly on out of state athletes as well, so singling out swimming also seems more than a bit unreasonable.
If you support scholarships for swimming, then you should do so unequivocally. To do otherwise would be counter productive to keeping scholarships for sports like swimming.
@bill: I’ll bite on a rhetorical question; the answer is currently, the way the system is set up, it isn’t doesn’t rise to the level. The collegiate coaches are hired to coach and win for that institution…period. Where they get the talent, as long as the talent meets both institutional and NCAA guidelines is their concern. The “club status” though for coaches coaching internationals (a source of extra income for coaching international club elites and pros) raises some interesting ethical questions for those [coaches] being considered for coaching the USA national team. I also doubt seriously if there was a law that we’d be in the USoA… Interesting we, yes it bugs me too, get exercised about a system that allows this. The great successes in many Olympic sports, especially by swimming, helped create the dilemma. Maybe USA Swimming, NCAA, and USOC ought to have a look. The intersection of those interests [USOC, USA Swimming(& other Olympic sports), NCAA] with the coaches’ ability to pursue marketing their business and earning a living on their brand, as well as meeting their job demands of recruiting and winning will be an interesting discussion. Especially when the discussion is cast in the light of divorcing all that ethically and business-wise from USA National team, and its development and continued success.
Save the teams that are being eliminated because of basketball/football/lacrosse!! #savecofcswimanddive
@Chloe….football has been steady-state to reducing in DI-FCS (at least in Northeast US)…at FCS level, both Hofstra University and Boston College eliminated it within the past few years. Why? Could not get enough fans to games and huge overhead (in the millions to support the team). The colleges look for “new” sports that meet both gender equity and are growing in enrollment among youth…soccer and lacrosse for both men and women, meets that goal…and then some, those, esp lacrosse, is growing quickly in the USA. Swimming, according to USA Swimming has been in a growth period…how much of that growth translates directly to creating and keeping robust collegiate swim teams I do not know…AND is predicated upon the schools having modern facilities (translate expensive, and since recruits are attracted to modern, well-kept pools and support programs), the interest in the sport, and budget to sustain long term.
In terms of saving scholarships and programs I’d offer the following modest proposals: 1) get successful alums to either individually or as a group consider endowing swimming scholarships; 2) keep the revenue stream for the scholarship coming in (ie raise money for it)…as far as program “saving”…it is a competition among sports…so it is swimming’s case to make with student body, alumni, businesses, and all that, and get the programs full of swimmers at all collegiate levels. For that you need data on success stories that translate to “swimming at XYZ program did THIS for me.” I’d also offer that what Natalie Coughlin did for Cal Bears Swimming was stunning and well above and beyond…not many can do that like she can, but all alumni modestly donating every year does add up, and convincing your workplace, and supporters to donate is good too. Does it solve the problem? No, but it begins to solve it by buffering against the time funding shifts—the program then can control its own destiny somewhat. The threat is there, but it is always there…and since we’re fine when in school, we tend to ignore the issue for the future. I swam at a program that was eliminated years after I graduated. It is heart-rending and demoralizing, as the alums feel (with justification) the institution no longer cares about them. And, it is difficult, if not impossible to rebuild that relationship between alum and institution. A lot of good memories and good will evaporate. In my school’s case it was the growth of ice hockey for both men and women and a couple of other sports…but swimming did not go alone: football, wrestling, gymnastics also were eliminated. Hopefully, the hard lessons learned will be used by those coming after me.
I think Marshall Scholarship was named in honor of former army chief of staff/Secretary of State George C. Marshall. John Marshall was an early — if not the first — U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice.
Sorry…it is Boston University(BU) that eliminated football…NOT Boston College(BC).
Coach Schaffer:
You’re 115 percent correct.
A coach’s first/last and ALWAYS job is, in the immortal words of the late, great you-know-who: “Just Win, Baby!”
And if to win one needs to,recruit Martians with web feet and green skin so be it — as long as they can swim a sub 18.0 50 or a sub 14::20.0 1650.
I used to,think,it was the greatest thing since sliced bread for toast that the coach at Mission was loading up on Brazilians and Spaniards and Poles while the guy at Berserkeley was winning with ( among others ) Swedes and an Italian or two. Heck, the guy at Mission even brought in some Rooskies — including Vladimir Saknikov and his personal coach — to train there during one Christmas break.
The Rooskies?
Well apparently it didn’t hurt Saknikov nine and I bet Ricky Prado and Djan Madruga were the better for it too. Mire recently I’m sure USC’s Larsen Jensen profited from training in the “Animal Lane” at USC with Ous Mellouli and that goes double for Rebecca Soni/ Jessica Hardy with Jullia Efimova — and vice versa.
Former Georgetown hoops boss John Thompson had no compunction recruiting Africans and his son followed suit, as do most collegiate coaches in all sports as far as recruiting kids far and wide.
Currently Ohio State (Ohio.State) has a pretty good woman sprinter from China (!!!) and men’s coach Bill Wordley has a talented Hungarian flyer/IMer on his squad. Swimming World’s editor’s alma mater (the 2K14 Holiday Bowl champs) has the largest contingent of Chinese students of ANY U.S. College or university so it IS a small small world thanks to globalization.
( Hmmm…wonder if “SC” coach Dave Salo might consider recruiting the
London Olympic Gold-medalist in the men’s 400-1500 frees or perhaps the women’s IMs gold-medalist? All he has to,do,is point to Ous or Katinka! And the Chinese lass just started college in Beijing this fall! Oh they’re pros? Well…just don’t tell Mr. Haden or the NCAA.)
So, American college coaches: go for the best you can recruit but remember your overriding priority is not to look out for No. 1. You gotta help bring home that golden “bacon” for Uncle Sam.
@. Bill Bell: my goof on the Marshalls. Thanks for pointing it out.
John, I don’t understand the 12-24 months in your message.
I know that many schools have dropped swimming. The Pac 12 has only six men’s teams. There are no men’s teams at either Oregon or Washington school.
UCLA, of all places, dropped swimming years ago. I remember when I went on a college tour to UCLA with my son and they had us wait in their hall of fame room. There were pictures of all the Bruin men who had won Olympic medals in swimming and gymnastics, two sports which they didn’t have any more.
Here at Cal things are looking pretty good for swimming and water polo and there is talk of a new pool being built.
Is there some new NCAA regulation that will drain more money from the Olympic sports which very good athletes and students participate in?
Should I be writing to the (new) AD at Cal?