Amid Program Cuts, CSCAA Executive Director Greg Earhart Preparing Coaches for Change

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

Amid Program Cuts, CSCAA Executive Director Greg Earhart Preparing Coaches for Change

The offseason for the college swimming and diving scene has been tumultuous as five Division I schools announced plans to eliminate swimming and diving programs due to the ongoing budget issues from COVID-19, either after this upcoming season or immediately. Athletes from East Carolina, Connecticut, Boise State and Dartmouth, as well as the University of Iowa, have been living the nightmare of having their swim teams cut with no real warning as they fight for survival and hope to change their athletic director’s minds.

CSCAA Executive Director Greg Earhart believes the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed a broken financial model. It is one where Division I institutions rely on football and men’s basketball for survival. The CSCAA, along with members of the Intercollegiate Coach Association Coalition (ICAC), are working to change what is not working.

“We’ve known for a while that the model is not sustainable and the pandemic has exposed it,” Earhart said.

At Iowa, several prominent boosters, some of whom Earhart says “could write a check tomorrow” have stepped in to aid the team’s fight.

“But they are also smart enough that they won’t invest in a bad business. I think the questions being raised are important. What are ways we can not only have swimming and diving survive, but come back healthier? We have a great sport that offers a lot of benefits to people and it is on us to sustain it so that future generations can continue to call themselves collegiate swimmers.”

Greg Earhart. Photo Courtesy: CollegeSwimming.com

So what is this proposed new model that would change college sports for the better of the Olympic sports? It all has to do with not how much money is being spent, but where is the money being spent.

“Some things are so entrenched that they are not going to happen overnight,” Greg Earhart said. “We’ve had the same number of scholarships for men and women for so many years. We have expanded our rosters and these costs are beyond our control. We have been given all these things that coaches don’t want such as a smoothie station. Two years ago, everybody wanted one because they could show recruits. Now that it is being tacked on in the budget and they are saying we don’t want this anymore.”

Until then, the CSCAA continues to wage battles at multiple levels.

“There’s so many fires going right now that (the CSCAA) can’t fight every single one; we just don’t have the bandwidth. What we have to do is work with our coaches so we can equip every single one of them to be a bit of a firefighter on their own campus and look at what is good for their community.

“The association is also expanding its Coach Academy to add a certificate program in fundraising. We can’t generate enough revenue to save each program but what we can do is prepare our coaches, who have never been asked to fundraise, to connect with their alumni and team’s stakeholders so when the time does come that they are equipped to do so. It’s a skill set that today’s coaches need in the modern era.”

Greg Earhart (left) posing with the 2019 CSCAA diver and diving coach of the year. Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

Greg Earhart’s biggest concern with college swimming moving forward is the amount of spending in athletic departments as well as how the COVID-19 pandemic will continue to give departments the excuse to axe Olympic sports like swimming and track.

“There is growing awareness among our coaches that the way our business is operated is going to change,” Earhart said.

Between COVID, Name Image and Likeness (NIL) legislation and growing athlete empowerment, Earhart expects college sports to look far different in the coming years. He doesn’t, however, expect that change is necessarily bad.

“There is a growing awareness among coaches that we’re stronger together. There is a growing awareness among coaches that we’re stronger together. I’m encouraged when I see coaches at power five schools tell their conference rivals: ‘I don’t care how this affects my team, whatever it takes so we still have the same schools in our conference five years down the road.’

“I am just educating folks and trying to make sure they are equipped to handle the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. And when a school is eliminating any Olympic sport that they know what the real costs are. To have ADs that say ‘we are going to cut sports and it will solve our problems’ is tone deaf to the problem and shows a lack of understanding of the bigger picture of what do we do to ensure we have college athletics down the road.”

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