By Aidan Burns on SwimSwam
College athletics are changing. With recent developments such as athletes’ potential to earn money through their name, image, and likeness (NIL) as well as a shifting conference landscape, athletic programs across the country are rushing to keep up with all the changes.
As is the way with any business, funds have to be allocated appropriately. In college athletics, this often means perks enjoyed by the money-makers, such as football and basketball, are not enjoyed in the same way by sports that don’t make money for the school, like swimming.
Additionally, as a result of the House vs. NCAA case, college sports are seeing a major increase in their scholarship limits nearly across the board. Men’s swimming will see an increase from 9.9 to 30 while women’s swimming will see an increase from 14 to 30.
While this sounds promising, there is no guarantee that all these scholarships will be utilized each year. The scholarship increase came about because athletes can now be paid directly by their school, eliminating the need to have a strict limit on the number of scholarships.
Another adjustment resulting from the House case is the advent of athletes’ ability to enjoy revenue-sharing based on the financial success of their program. One of the potential consequences of this, however, is the effect this will have on how scholarships offered by the universities are truly allocated between programs.
Athletic directors around the country have started discussing what this will mean for all their programs, with Ohio State and TCU taking the stage this week.
TCU AD Nonati Comments on Changing Landscape
This week, coming on the heels of Ohio State AD’s comments about expecting roster cuts, TCU athletic director Jeremiah Donati held a press conference where he discussed how the NCAA settlement and coming scholarship expansion will be affecting other programs—namely, Olympic programs like swimming.
Donati did not definitively say that there would be scholarship reductions in these smaller sports, but he did say that the expanding scholarships for football, baseball, and basketball “will need to come from somewhere.”
“The plan is not to add new scholarships, it’s potentially reallocating them. We’re going to be focused primarily on putting the $21 million of revenue share in the hands of the student-athletes.” However, he also noted, “the revenue should be commensurate with the programs that generate revenue.”
“We have no plan to eliminate sports right now,” Donati stated, “however, I can tell you that they’re probably going to look different.”
“The irony of this House case is [Grant] House was a swimmer at Arizona State, he was from a non-revenue sport. I don’t think if he were sitting here in this room this is the outcome he probably would have imagined… I’m not throwing jabs… that’s just where we are at.”
Undeniably, there will be major changes coming each year as athletic departments work to balance revenue, scholarships, and student-athletes’ well-being. Donati reiterated that while there is no imminent change coming for TCU, he said of the future: “Changes are coming.”
The full press conference can be seen here.
Read the full story on SwimSwam: TCU AD Discusses Shifting NCAA Landscape and “Irony” of Settlement In House Case