Does Masters Swimming Hold The Key To The Future of College Swimming?

Commentary by Brent Rutemiller

PHOENIX – Joel Shinofield, Executive Director for the College Swim Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) believes that United States Masters Swimming (USMS) can have a big impact on saving college swimming programs in the United States.

“Master swimmers can help college swimming in two big ways. First they can support local college programs and their Alma Maters through endowments, fundraisers and letters to college athletic directors. Secondly, they can talk about the value that swimming and scholarships bring to individuals and the community,” said Shinofield in a recent interview with Swimming World Magazine.

The first point is self-explanatory. The second point is more about the intangibles that come from college swimming, which makes the sport more valuable than just dollars. Masters can sell this point better than anyone!

Masters have a unique place in the swimming spectrum. Their demographics point to the fact that a large majority of Master swimmers have a college degree. Most have income in the middle class to upper middle class of society. Many swam in college and a good percentage of those college swimmers had scholarships. Most importantly, many Master swimmers are successful professionals in their chosen careers and have strong ties to their community. Many embody all the values that come through college swimming and have benefited greatly from it.

Master swimmers need to remind Athletic Directors of those benefits. The message should not be one of gold medals, but a message of opportunities that came from the sport and about the discipline that college swimming instilled in them. They need to articulate how that discipline translated into academic excellence and how that translated into successful careers and then into a life-long healthy lifestyle.

“College institutions need to hear from the Masters swimming community. The cost to run athletic departments are rising at a rate of 8% to 12% per year with income for those departments only rising 4% per year. They will have to make hard decisions. The discussion for Master swimmers is not about monetizing the sport. The discussion is about what value the sport brings to the university and community. Colleges will keep the sports that bring the greatest value,” said Shinofield.

College swimming cannot win the dollars game when it comes to producing revenue for their sport.

However, Masters swimming programs that use college pools can help a great deal with the budget. Those programs often employ assistant college coaches to help with coaching Masters. Those salaries help many college coaches earn a better overall income. And pool rental costs for practices and meets help tremendously with the overall operation costs of the college facility.

Shinofield even suggests that Masters should give to college programs by “hosting regular meets as fundraisers for their local college programs or as a means to endow a department chair within the athletic department”.

The need for money is omnipresent. Beginning this year, colleges must provide full meal plans for their student athletes. This is easily a 2 million dollar increase in expenses.

The next new expense for athletic departments is the amount of money that they will have to pay athletes in revenue sports, like football and basketball. The new money needs to reflect the full cost of that athlete attending as if he or she were a regular student. In simple terms, the courts ruled that colleges need to pay additional dollars to those athletes beyond just the value of their scholarships.

Are you beginning to see the picture? With these new expenses, non-revenue sports will be on the chopping block to balance athletic department budgets. Those non-revenue sports that are able to mobilize now, will have the best chance of surviving.

WARNING: The death blow is NOT losing scholarships. It is losing entire programs.

The University of Cincinnati is a prime example of keeping a program alive while scholarships were cut. The community galvanized, started some initiatives and endowments to become better funded. Now, because the program was not disbanded and life was breathed back in, some scholarships have returned; not all scholarships, but some.

USA Swimming has already recognized this threat to college swimming and the domino effect that it will have on the sport. Without college swimming, high school participation will surely drop off and the unique platform that College swimming provides for USA Olympic hopefuls will be removed forever. USA Swimming has unique advantage over the rest of the world because of college swimming and they are going to work hard to keep that advantage.

Last month, the USA Swimming’s Board of Directors pledged $375,000 over the next three years to assist the College Swim Coaches Association of America in its efforts to meet with athletic directors and colleges coaches around the country. The goal is to educate Athletic Directors on the value of swimming and to work with the coaches on ways to bring more value to their programs.

It is important to understand that the NCAA, Football, Basketball and Title IX are not to blame for the current state of college sports.

The NCAA does not run the institutions. All of the institutions are run locally by the athletic directors. Football and basketball bring in revenue for the entire athletic department and much of that goes to keep non-revenue sports afloat.

Title IX actually increased the number of overall participants in the sport of swimming as more women came into the sport as a result of swimming scholarships. The growth of women in college swimming due to Title IX actually made more money for USA Swimming, which in turn allowed for the entire sport to be showcased and in return brought in more males. Did it hurt some men’s programs? Yes, of course! Did Title IX kill swimming? No! It actually helped swimming grow.

So in the end, there are no scapegoats in this issue. No pointing fingers. The community needs Masters’ support as proof that the sport of swimming has more to give than it takes.

“All of our futures are tied together,” concluded Shinofield.

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Sally Guthrie

9 years ago

Absolutely! I am a masters swimmer and I love the sport and appreciate how it has shaped me as a person and promotes my good health (a major issue in a soon to be 65 year old). We have teamed up with local Universities for meets as well as clinics. I often go to local college swim meets and often find at least one or two fellow masters swimmers also sitting in the stands – not necessarily because our own kids are swimming – but simply because we love the sport. I think, at this point, we are an underutilized resource and I intend to send a copy of this article to our athletic director…
Go Blue!

Robert-Marsha Coffee

9 years ago

Looks like they are all shaved for competition!!

HUYNH

9 years ago

Reply to Robert-Marsha Coffee

Is it the most interesting point your noticed about this speech? 🙂

Valentín Figueira

9 years ago

Ryan Carkhuff Us in 50 years

Steve Langendorfer

9 years ago

I think there is strong value in what the writer has to say about the potential influence Masters swimmers could have on college swimming. As an interesting side note, our Masters team who practice in the same pool at the same time most of the year with the University team throws an annual pre-championship breakfast for our University swimmers before they leave for the conference championships. It has developed a great comraderie and much good will among members of both teams.

I do have one small bone to pick with the author: His use of the term non-revenue vs. revenue sports is pure and total mythology! Except for a small handful of the largest and most elite football and basketball programs , there are NO SUCH THING AS REVENUE SPORTS at the College/University level! All sports teams cost more money than they could possibly ever bring in!!

From that perspective, it is obviously important to emphasize the lifelong value swimming (and many, if not all other sports) provide for the student-athletes.

Btw, Ryan Carkhuff – you have met the enemy and he is ME – I am 50 years from where you are – and still swimming!

Bill V.

9 years ago

This conversation is the same one from at least ten years ago. There are some exceptions to the rule, of course, but benevolence usually doesn’t come from penny-pinching narcissists.