Coaches Round Table

swimming is not leaving the olympics anytime soon, it is a very popular sport in some very influencial countries. NCAA's are not he fastest or funnestt meet every year, or they would be brodcast in "swim nations".
Life does not revolve around swimming, swimming is a part of ones life. Why do we not see swimming organizations working to help save lives? ...like the cyclists and NFL working for cancer. If swimmers are so smart then they should prove it ...do something great for the community, nation, world (then maybe they will give back to you).

i am missing some of the boat here.. why are we fighting to save a sinking boat, which we have never been given control of. There are many top swimmers who never swim in college (its becoming more common) ...are we really 'using' college athletics as a way to manipulate kids and families into the sport? ..i am not getting this.

I dont know anyone who started swimming at age 5, 8, even 12 because they were hoping to swim in college. I cant think of any parent in 15 years of coaching, that got their children into competitive swimming in hopes of college swim futures. Swimmers will stick with the sport into their 20's because they love to swim and race. College swimming can be replaced by new and better USA or Masters programming. Like when we left AAU it is time to take control of our own destiny.

listen close to Bauerle as 12:10 ...this is key!

we dont get our kids into swimming to get scholorships... we get them started to make them safe!

Outside of this table of coaches, who is sticking around 20+ years and being a protecting force for their college teams? When coaches come and go every 5-10 years the bond with alum and community is weakend and "the coach" is never seen as a community leader. The retired coach staying to protect the program for years beyond a 30 year career with a single team is very powerful... this tradition is no longer the norm with college coaches. Who is really invested in your local team?

whats the deal with all these videos being reposted??

I think it's unfair for people to expect that Michael Phelps alone can shoulder the burden of publicity for college swimming. He's only one man! Mike already elevated the status of Olympic swimming and Team USA as a whole in Beijing and we in the swimming community have to be realistic here; swimming isn't the cash cow football, basketball and baseball is. I think USA swimming needs to lobby for more publicity with NBC, ESPN etc and lobby for more financial support from companies. If people saw more swimming events outside the Olympics and World Champs, they would be more interested. At the local level, encourage local people in our communities to come out and support swimming events! I see more flyers on my windshield for raves and frat parties rather than swimming events! Promote, promote, promote! That's key!

considering Phelps didn't even swim in college, wouldn't that be a bit transparent?

Philanthropist -

Because I would rather that money go to people so they can eat and have heath care.

I really have to believe that Michael Phelps could do something to bring awareness about Men's collegiate swimming and the state it's in. Any thoughts on how he could bring awareness?

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has assets of over 35 billion dollars not including the 60 or so billion that will come from Warren Buffet over the next few years... Why can't swimming tap into the 416 billionaires in this country and start a non profit dedicated to saving men's swimming? Assets of just 1 billion dollars at 5% a year would generate 50 million dollars a year, enough to step by step endow every single program in this country and then add new ones - also fully endowed. After every program is endowed and new programs are started you could then turn to facilities and keep the ball rolling. Once every program is fully endowed on both the men's and women's side you turn that 50 million a year over to pay for professional swimmers to keep training. 50 million a year would pay the salaries of quite a few professional athletes.

Do you all think that having NCAAs in an arena similar to Olympic Trials would help raise the popularity of the sport and help gain support of general public? I mean this meet is the fastest meet in the world on a yearly basis and I think it would be incredible to have LIVE coverage with 15,000 screaming fans. I think the meet would have to be made a little more live-TV and spectator friendly (NBC and USA Swimming did a decent job with this), but it could really change the face of collegiate swimming. Primetime coverage would bring in some revenue and would make swimming more visible to the general public beyond swimming alumni.

Without college programs, how would athletes who have already graduated train. Most college athletes stay with their college coaches. Uh...maybe the sport will be cut from the Olympics without college support.

The goal is more important than the scholarships, but if you took football out of the equation when doling out money, there would be a lot more to go to men's programs. The sports with the most finesse suffer the most. Don't give money to foreigners, make all athletes spend at least one full semester in school before they can compete in NCAA's. Only coaches who love to coach should work with young kids. Young kids need comaraderie, fun, leadership and role models. Swimming builds wonderful, well-rounded, ambitious young people who are not brutes, but kind, focused and dedicated human beings. College swimming is amazing. Colleges who support swimming should be applauded. If we could find a way to bring more money to the colleges, they would be more likely to keep it. Unfortunately, there is no revenue building for a college from swimming. All students should be encouraged to attend events other than just the main three. The Olympic Trials was a huge success in part because it was fun and a destination even for people who didn't have swimmers competing. Kudos to them. A great big "thanks" to all the coaches who help guide our scholar athletes. Thank you.

Unfortunately, I see ASU as the perfect example of AD's black mailing programs in to funding so they don't have to do their jobs! Threaten to cancel the program and wait to see if it can be self sufficient. If it can not a problem, if it can't one less program to worry about.

You know these programs is what progesses this swimming especially in America..it allows great events such as what we witnessed in Omaha last week. Without opportunities such these programs it will effect everyone involved in the the sport of swimming. For people to think it will not are ignorant and it will not only affect people narrowly ie college swimming but people around the country and the world. It takes away a road that leads to something bigger for young people involved in the sport of swimming and people from poorer countries or undeveloped countries to progress in the sport. Without College programs how will these athletes continue and peak in the sport... Its just playing sad! Cause if they take away this there needs to be an alternative such as in Australia with Institues or State programs which have funds provided through govt to coaches and swimmers to allow them to continue in the sport and not have to quit to early because of lack on knowing how it is possible to progress. This cannot be ignored...one would think after such an amazing event in Omaha one would only think that more would be provided a collegiate swimming is the basis for allowing this sport to become better and better not only for swimmers but coaches as well and allivates pressure from support networks. If this trend continues then there will only be major drop out rates in the sport of swimming...which is just not good...for so many reasons its scary. You just have to consider the number of personalities of who has come into the sport becauase of college programs and have given back through this way to fans, parents, communities, inspired others....etc etc...the negative effects of lessing these programs have to far outweigh the positive effect for human reasons especially which will not only affect the swimming, sporting world but the world in itself! And it is always hard to retrace ones steps and over come negative effects because of trends such as this.

That's URI

UrI's men's swimming is being cut, too, et's see some doantion dollars fall their way!

What about the other college teams that have been cut? JMU is a prime example. What about other smaller schools? It doesn't matter if ASU has faster swimmers then guys at a DII school because they are all human they are all students and they are all swimmers. Maybe it takes ASU to bring light upon other teams but when you think about this video make sure to realize that this is a nation wide thing and without DIII all the way up to DI schools, the top schools are nothing. Maybe smaller schools will fall but if the common person lets the small school fall then before you know it, your school's swimming program will fall too

Great video! It's interesting to hear what coaches have to say about the honest state of the sport. Though I must add Title IX always seems to be a huge part of why teams get cut but I see it has a scapegoat. ADs and Admins that decide to cut olympic sports use it as an excuse to say they've got to meet these certain numbers. It really comes down to the almighty dollar and like these gentlemen said relationships. If you watch any profiles on ESPN or FoxSports about 'popular' college sports you notice a tight relationship between the ADs and head coaches of the top tier sports (men's/women's basketball and football)

(I'm not a coward! I forgot to fill in my name! Awesome site!) one more time

title IX may not be directly implicated in this but the politics it has created over the last few decades is without a doubt a wedge into our sport and others
it has empowered the likes of these various A.D.s who are beyond their pay grade
This should give you a better idea: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/stories/070608dnsposcholarship1.3b76d39.html
Women's team handball gets more scholarships than men's swimming! Equestrian gets 15!!!!!!!!!!
These gentlemen aren't going to even whisper title IX in a meeting like this but it is a huge part of what is going on.

title IX may not be directly implicated in this but the politics it has created over the last few decades is without a doubt a wedge into our sport and others

it has empowered the likes of these various A.D.s who are beyond their pay grade
This should give a better idea: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/stories/070608dnsposcholarship1.3b76d39.html
Women's team handball gets more scholarships than men's swimming! Equestrian gets 15!!!!!!!!!!
These gentlemen aren't going to even whisper title IX in a meeting like this but it is a huge part of what is going on.

I don't know anyone at Arizona State, I have absolutely no relation to them whatsoever, but I donated. It wasn't much at all, but I gave what little I had, and I'm proud that I helped, even if my help was microscopic in the long run. I encourage you all to do the same, you get a good feeling about yourself... P.S. nice video Garrett, very, very nice

I think this is going to be the future of Division I swimming. Ultimately nearly all programs will need to be at least partially endowed to survive. I'm sure lots of ADs are out there looking at what ASU did and thinking they could do the same thing to save money.

This was better than a Wednesday workout. Lisa Love needs to watch this.

I asked that question and title IX isn't the issue in the this case. It may have been an issue with which programs they chose to cut, but they were in compliance with title IX before the cuts.

the lunacy of title IX

With the unprecedented level and quality of media attention of the Olympic Trials, swimming has potential leverage in our culture that it never enjoyed before. When Dara made her Leno appearance last night, the audience LOVED her. Guests rarely get that kind of rousing reception. Masters swimming is coming of age (no pun intended) right now too. Swimming has a real opportunity to take advantage of this opportunity to market itself.

A&M and Missouri aren't going anywhere. The rest of the Big 12 should be ashamed of themselves. Of course when a university awards 12 scholarships to the women's squash team, what do you do?

eddie is such a jokester

this is maybe the best video on the site

What a shame that this topic even had to come up! Early on they nailed it...get in with the AD and the community. Make your team valuable to the community and its leaders!

Pretty special group here. I feel for Mike because he has always done a good job, and there he is sitting next to Richard, who just got his stud recruit, because the program got cut at ASU.