End of the Auburn reign?

I think we have beat this dead horse into obvlivion. I am right and you are wrong. US money should go to US citizens. End of discussion. If there were a ton of scholarships in Swimming like football, I'd yield on this argument somewhat. Again, if Eddie can continue to find talent inside our borders, then I encourage other coaches to follow suit........ no pun intended. Back to the issue at hand. NCAAs..... or shall we say the ICAA ..... I will need to bring my pocket dictionary for the various languages at the meet this year. Then again, they probably won't contain the words I will be thinking. John Smith

Originally posted by TheGoodSmith I think we have beat this dead horse into obvlivion. I am right and you are wrong. US money should go to US citizens. End of discussion. If there were a ton of scholarships in Swimming like football, I'd yield on this argument somewhat. Again, if Eddie can continue to find talent inside our borders, then I encourage other coaches to follow suit........ no pun intended. Back to the issue at hand. NCAAs..... or shall we say the ICAA ..... I will need to bring my pocket dictionary for the various languages at the meet this year. Then again, they probably won't contain the words I will be thinking. John Smith John, I have a brother-in-law who went to A State. He played baseball. He gets so mad when I mention all of the foreign swimmers getting scholarships. then talk to him about schools who developed a rowing team just to get women to join so that the school could comply with Title IX. One time, I thought he was going to have a stroke.

Spoken like a true member of the audience. Geek, you wouldn't know what makes "competitiveness" if it bit you on the butt. John Smith

Geek, the Other Smith, You guys slay me. No really, the two of you are a riot...you should be sprayed with tear gas. Matt

Geek, You have yet to prove to ME that training with a top 8 (i.e. finalist) international athlete provides better results to athletes on the same team than training with a US athlete that is for example only top 16. You have yet to definitively prove these wonderful benefits of inviting foreigners to train on our collegiate teams other than increasing point scores. You have yet to show me a foreign athlete that has come to the US to train and successfully returned to their foreign country and publicly thanked their US coaches and teamates for a large portion of their success. Oh.. I forgot.... we're a rich nation and we "owe" them. Oh... I forgot... we're the only nation with great swim programs on the planet and we always win all the gold medals in the Olympics like in the 1970s..... WRONG! You have yet to acknowledge that by training foreign athletes we are merely aiding the competition at the Olympics..... and if you don't think it's a personal war when you get up on the blocks at the Olympics you are clearly out of touch with the word...... "competition". It's not about sharing when you dive in the pool at that level Geek. This is not an age group foreign exchange meet. You have yet to acknowledge that swimming has extremely limited scholarship funds and that every dollar taken by a foreign athlete is effectively NOT taken by a US citizen. That citizen is forced to his/her 2nd, 3rd choice of college or even worse. Actually, I'd rather we discuss the fact that Michael Phelps and others... (Aaron Peirsol) are not allowed to swim at the NCAAs due to their professional status. This to me is pathetic. It down grades the meet. The NCAA needs to change. John Smith

To me, Dr. Spann and others like him are the true heroes of sports. Competing at the highest levels in any sport while not neglecting an education is all too rare. Watching Unfiltered (Phelps/Crocker DVD), I was troubled by the producer's emphasis on bling and adoring fans with nary a mention of actual classes or plans for a life post swimming. Let me stress that I mean no disrespect to Messr's Phelps and Crocker, who I assume had next to no control over Octagon Sport's production of the video. But the message, presumably directed at emerging age groupers, seemed to be that if you can swim at those levels, chicks will dig you and you will, despite being a college student, mysteriously live in a swank apartment and drive a fast car. As a parent, I'm incredibly tired of this kind of crap. In my perfect world, Dr. Spann would have a hundred million dollar shoe contract and Shaq would be scratching out a living endorsing subwoofers for Escalades.

Originally posted by hrietz It seems pretty ironic that Stanford recruited the youngest Dumais brother... Heather: This kind of recruiting happens all of the time. I think Stanford has learned that no matter how good you swim, if you have no divers that score and the other team has two divers like the Dumais brothers, then odds are you are not going to win the championship. This past year, Texas and Michigan recruited the Pattons. Matt swims for Michigan and Sean swims for Texas and they will both be swimming at the NCAA meet in 2 weeks. I wonder what school the parents will be cheering for? This year Michigan got one of the top recruits in the Nation named Scott Spann, who is up there with Ricky Berens. The reason I bring him up is his sister swims for Texas. His dad swam for both Auburn and Texas for 2 years a piece. The older Scott Spann is one of the greatest NCAA college swimmers ever. In fact, I believe he is the only man to have Short Course Yards American Records in the 100 ***, 100 Fly, and 200 IM and he set those while competing for both Auburn and Texas. He also is the only person to have World Records in the same events in Short Course Meters. His son being recruited by Michigan was a big suprise because neither Texas or Auburn got him. By the way, the kid as gone a 1:58 in the 200 ***. Here is a link about what Scott Spann is doing today. www.kxan.com/.../story.asp

Originally posted by BillS To me, Dr. Spann and others like him are the true heroes of sports. Competing at the highest levels in any sport while not neglecting an education is all too rare. Watching Unfiltered (Phelps/Crocker DVD), I was troubled by the producer's emphasis on bling and adoring fans with nary a mention of actual classes or plans for a life post swimming. Let me stress that I mean no disrespect to Messr's Phelps and Crocker, who I assume had next to no control over Octagon Sport's production of the video. But the message, presumably directed at emerging age groupers, seemed to be that if you can swim at those levels, chicks will dig you and you will, despite being a college student, mysteriously live in a swank apartment and drive a fast car. As a parent, I'm incredibly tired of this kind of crap. In my perfect world, Dr. Spann would have a hundred million dollar shoe contract and Shaq would be scratching out a living endorsing subwoofers for Escalades. I think that some of this "don't think about the futre" we are seeing in the promotion as in the above mentioned program is done to compete against football and basketball. In both of those sports, so many people get invovled for the "love of the money," and there are some people who think swimming can't compete. OF all those in that weird world, Shaq is probably one of the most grounded. I have a friend who has worked with him. He said that Shaq was very quiet and worked hard to get the things done for a benefit for the hospital.

1) Swank appartments: When it comes to the Phelps-meister, there is no mystery about how he can live like that. He skipped his college elligibility to accept cash prizes and endorsements that made him a formal professional. He lives in Ann Arbor, works out with the same club team as the Michigan varsity swimmers when they are not swimming for the Univ., is a volunteer coach for the Michigan varsity, and maybe even attends classes there (I'm not sure). However, he earns and keeps every penny from his swimming. WRT to Ian, please correct me if I am wrong, but hasn't he used up his eligibility at UT? If so, once again, he's a legit professional and entitled to live like an NFL player (well, maybe the place-kicker, or the long-snap center) on his earnings. I would hope that "bling-bling" is not the only thing people look at when they think about world-class swimmers. However, unlike the popular impression of the NBA, swimming does not have a problem with people immediately thinking of overpaid thugs and/or knuckleheads with too much time on their hands. If anything, our image could use a couple of "M&M" figures to balance out all the future professional school students and Rhodes Scholars. 2) Shaq: I also seem to remember reading that they guy is an auxiliary policeman for the State of Florida. Went through the same training as any other aux. officer, and does the usual patrols. Real down to earth guy, and can you imagine any miscreant trying to pick a fight with all 7' of him during a traffic stop? Matt

Originally posted by Matt S 1) 2) Shaq: I also seem to remember reading that they guy is an auxiliary policeman for the State of Florida. Went through the same training as any other aux. officer, and does the usual patrols. Real down to earth guy, and can you imagine any miscreant trying to pick a fight with all 7' of him during a traffic stop? Matt I read a while back in the Orlando paper that Shaq would like to run for sheriff of Orange County when he retires. And I agree that all 7 feet 300+ pounds of him would cut an awesome figure for anyone who runs afoul of the law on his watch.