2008 Big 12 Conference Swimming & Diving Championships

I get sick and tired of people blaming women's athletics for the cutting of men's programs.... UT has a lot to be proud of with their well rounded sports program, despite employing Mack Brown. (That turncoat...) I agree with geek and I blame schools' inordinate fondness for football. Seriously: look at the number of scholarships and athletes and other resources are devoted to that bloated monstrosity (basketball and even baseball are positively sleek by comparison). I applaud the goal of balance. It is the schools decision on how to address that balance. I believe a lot of football programs lose money for smaller schools (and even for many large ones). I like the sport just fine but do not think it is any more important than any other sport. I think a lot of schools have no business fielding a football team. They will argue that it helps alumni giving but I think that is hogwash. But it would take a very strong-willed university president to cut college football, since s/he would take a lot of flak. Even so, schools could implement a few large girls sports (field hockey comes to mind, I'm sure there are others) but they choose not to do so.

Seriously: look at the number of scholarships and athletes and other resources are devoted to that bloated monstrosity (basketball and even baseball are positively sleek by comparison). Yeah, check this out. These are the maximum number of scholarships for each sport in NCAA Division I competition: Men Baseball 11.7 Cross Country/Track and Field 12.6 Fencing 4.5 Football (Division I-A) 85 Football (Division I-AA) 63 Golf 4.5 Gymnastics 6.3 Lacrosse 12.6 Rifle 3.6 Skiing 6.3 Soccer 9.9 Swimming and Diving 9.9 Tennis 4.5 Volleyball 4.5 Water Polo 4.5 Wrestling 9.9 Women Archery 5 Badminton 6 Bowling 5 Cross Country/Track and Field 18 Equestrian 15 Fencing 5 Field Hockey 12 Golf 6 Lacrosse 12 Rowing 20 Rugby 12 Skiing 7 Soccer 14 Softball 12 Squash 12 Swimming and Diving 14 Synchronized Swimming 5 Team Handball 10 Water Polo 8 I got this info from www.educationplanner.com/.../paying_article.asp 85 scholarships for football. You can bet there are guys getting scholarships who never play a single down. By the way, I'm not sure why the numbers for basketball aren't included.

here's the link www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/.../17264.asp That's Dave Walters he's about 6' 3 or 4" I think he's standing on a starting block in the photo here's an interview www.flocasts.org/.../coverage.php here's UT's roster 2007-08 Men's Swimming & Diving Roster NAME HT. WT. CLASS EVENT HOMETOWN Ricky Berens 6-3 So.-1L Fly/Free Charlotte, NC (South Mecklenburg) Matt Cardell 5-11 Fr.-HS Diving Colleyville, TX (Colleyville Heritage) Bryan Collins 6-2 Fr.-HS Free/Back Mount Airy, MD (South Carroll) Matt Cooper 5-9 Fr.-HS Diving Bethesda, MD (Walt Whitman) Matt Donch 5-10 Fr.-HS Free/Fly Raleigh, NC (Knightdale) Scott Drews 6-3 Jr.-2L Free/IM Jacksonville, FL (The Bolles School) Jeremy Harris 6-6 Sr.-3L Free/Fly St. Paul, MN (St. Thomas) Trey Hoover 6-1 So.-1L Free Winston Salem, NC (Cannon) Jonathan Jackson 6-1 Fr.-HS Free College Station, TX (A&M Consolidated) Peter Jameson 6-6 So.-1L Free/Fly Indianapolis, IN (North Central) Scott Jostes 6-4 Fr.-HS Back/Free Chesterfield, MO (Chaminade Prep) Michael Klueh 6-3 Jr.-2L Free/IM Evansville, IN (Bowie) Matthew Lowe 6-1 Sr.-3L Free/***/IM Minot, ND (Minot) Agustin Magruder 6-2 Sr.-3L ***/IM Highlands Ranch, CO (Regis Jesuit) Alan Maher 6-1 So.-1L Back Nashville, TN (Brentwood) Caleb McDermott 6-4 Sr.-3L Back/IM Canyon Lake, TX (Rolling Hill Academy) Matthew McGinnis 6-5 Sr.-3L Free/Back Raleigh, NC (Ravenscroft) Colin Murtagh 6-3 So.-1L Free Toledo, OH (St. Francis DeSales) Sean Patton 6-3 Jr.-2L Back/Free Charlotte, NC (Butler) Jim Robertson 6-0 Fr.-RS Free Burnet, TX (Burnet) Daniel Rohleder 6-4 Sr.-3L Fly/Back Austin, TX (St. Michael's) Christopher Seitz 6-1 Sr.-3L Back Taylor Mill, KY (Scott) Austin Stahley 6-4 Fr.-HS ***/IM Atherton, CA (Sacred Heart Prep) Hill Taylor 5-10 So.-1L Fly/Back Birmingham, AL (Mountain Brook) Scott Trompeter 6-2 Jr.-2L Back/IM San Antonio, TX (Reagan) Benjamin Van Roekel 6-1 So.-1L Free Ankeny, IA (Ankeny) Ryan Verlatti 6-2 Jr.-2L Free Tacoma, WA (Bellarmine Prep) David Walters 6-3 So.-1L Free Yorktown, VA (Tabb) Andrew Wang 5-10 So.-1L Free/Fly Austin, TX (Westlake) Jonathan Wilcox 5-7 Jr.-TR Diving Bellevue, WA (Florida) Brian Wilson 6-0 Fr.-HS Free Short Hills, NJ (Seton Hall Prep) Dustin Wise 6-5 Fr.-RS Free Beaverton, OR (Southridge) Mike Wong 5-6 So.-1L Diving Cerritos, CA (Cerritos) texassports.com/index.php Ande- there's a picture of the relay team on Swimming World's website along with news of the record. The tall blonde guy in the back of photo looks seven feet tall- how tall is he really?

All these crazy tall swimmers, none less than a half foot taller than wee little Stud.

Collegiate athletics has become less about building student-athletes and more about how much money can the University make if they win a bowl game or make it to the big dance! College athletics has evolved into nothing more than a farm system for 2 of the 3 major professional sports (football, basketballl). anything that interferes with that premise gets cut.

Another myth is that bowl games are a windfall for schools. Other than the small handfull of super huge games (BCS) the majority of bowls barely pay enough for the schools to break even by attending. However, once concession I will make is that bowl games and the NCAA tourney do drive apparel sales. Apparely merchandising leads to direct financial benefit to the university. Even the best swim team is never gonna drive sales compared to football or basketball, where you may have tens of thousands of items sold. I still don't think you need 85 football scholarships, however.

The web site that Kirk found says that an NCAA D-I school can give out 9.9 full men's swimming and diving scholarships. But the Texas roster that Ande posted shows something like 33 men. How does this work? Are they all getting partial scholarships? Are they sharing them with the divers? Anna Lea I think the 9.9 are full scholarships. I know of a lot of schools that will split up scholarships in many of the sports so more athletes can get financial help. Also some could be walk-ons.

Ande- there's a picture of the relay team on Swimming World's website along with news of the record. The tall blonde guy in the back of photo looks seven feet tall- how tall is he really?

Yeah, check this out. These are the maximum number of scholarships for each sport in NCAA Division I competition: I got this info from www.educationplanner.com/.../paying_article.asp By the way, I'm not sure why the numbers for basketball aren't included. I plugged the numbers from that page into Excel and summed the total number of scholarships. (We don't know why basketball isn't included in the Div. I numbers, but I assume it is roughly equal for men and women, so it probably doesn't make much of a difference in the totals). I used the 85 figure for Men's Div. I football. Total # of Scholarships: Men, Div. I: 190.3 (would be 168.3 if D-1AA) Women, Div. I: 198 Men, Div. II: 154.9 Women, Div. II: 218.2

Title IX is still not the cause of the demise of men's collegiate swimming. Football may not be the sole cause, but I am certain it is a big portion along with big basketball programs. I've heard it said that it's the huge amount of income those programs bring into their athletic departments which allow funding of money-losing "secondary" sports. I have no idea if that's true or not. Certainly the costs of running big-time football and basketball programs are large, but I have to believe they at least break even, at least at most Division I schools. Title IX certainly forced the realignment of priorities for many athletic departments. Before Title IX men generally had many more opportunities than women to compete at the intercollegiate. Title IX changed that balance a lot. Skip