In the wake of Iowa’s groundbreaking decision to cut its swimming & diving programs, Hawkeye Alumni are assembling in a Facebook group to save the program.
The group is titled “Iowa Swimming and Diving Alumni Unite.” You can find it here. The group writes: “We are the heart and soul of college swimming, the birthplace of the butterfly, and a legacy that needs to continue in the future.”
The group forms alongside a Change.org petition to save the teams. The petition has over 15,500 signatures as of Monday afternoon, well on its way to a 25,000 goal. You can view that petition here.
Iowa announced last week that it would be eliminating its women’s and men’s swimming & diving programs at the end of the 2020-2021 school year. That marks the first Power-5 school to eliminate a swimming team since Oregon State cuts it’s women’s program in 2017, and the first Power-5 to cut swim teams in both genders since Clemson in 2012.
The school estimated about $100 million in lost revenue when the Big Ten postponed fall sports to the spring amid the coronavirus pandemic. A Q&A document released by the school also appeared to rule out fundraising or endowments as viable options to save the swimming & diving programs.
We profiled the Iowa swim & dive program’s place in college swimming history here – the school was one of the earliest to sponsor a college swimming & diving program, is one of just 24 schools ever to win a men’s NCAA relay title, and is considered the birthplace of the modern butterfly stroke.
Get a petition of former Iowa Hawkeye swimmers & coaches together and deliver it to the Iowa State Auditors office.
Ask for an official/ independent audit of the University of Iowa Athletics Department for the last 7 to 8 years.
*Don’t expect The Iowa Board of Regents to do anything without being pushed because they are listening to AD Gary Barta & President Bruce Harreld.
I have on good authority that a well heeled alum called the Iowa AD last Friday and offered 2 million dollars for next season for swim and dive and was told “thanks, but no thanks”
I’ve heard similar rumors, but the dollar amounts have varied from $1 million all the way to $10 million depending on who’s been sharing the rumor. So while we’re working on confirming that, for now, I take it with a grain of salt.
I wonder what the annual budget is at Iowa. I would guess that $2 million would cover a coronavirus-impacted season; I wonder if it would even cover 1 ‘regular times’ season?
The Iowa University leadership declared that Fund Raising was not an option and would not be acceptable.
No offense to the movement, I as much as anybody hate seeing programs get cancelled, and with each day I think we all worry whether it’s our alma mater that’s next, or worse our child’s dream program that’s next; that said, the school literally said fundraising and endowments are out of the question. If those won’t do anything, I hardly think a petition will bring it back. Maybe we as a swim community should shift our focus from those schools that are already lost, and focus on bolstering the support to the programs remaining? We’ll very sorely miss you Iowa S&D…
Your point is a fair one, though I think one benefit of a fundraising movement is that it potentially calls the Iowa administration’s bluff on the motive for the program cuts. Some have speculated (interestingly/rationally) that this is less about cost-cutting and more about boosting scholarship limits in football. If a movement was able to come up with the dollars to fund swimming for some period of time, then seems to me that potentially takes the wind out of the sails of the university’s reasoning.
I always wonder what “no fundraising” means. To me, that means “we spent a lot of time making the best decision we could for what we needed to accomplish, we aren’t interested in your nickle-and-dime fundraising to get to $500,000, because that’s just not going to cut it.”
I would bet if you walked into the AD’s office with a $15 million check in hand, he’d be very interested in having a conversation with you about fundraising. People with that kind of money in hand probably have a direct tap into the department’s fundraising office and wouldn’t be dissuaded by an online FAQ.
U of MD swim and dive raised the funds from what I heard (not verified), they still axed swim and dive. I have no clue what happened to the money raised.
UMD makes tons of $$$ hosting PVS meets and national level meets. PVS went from having zero meets there to one per month. Does Iowa have the possibility of making money from large population of age groupers?
I’d be curious to hear exactly how much U of MD raised.
To fully endow a co-ed Power 5 swim program to the level that they are accustomed takes between $40 or $60 million.
This is not to say that you have to fully fund a program to keep it from being cut. But, I think the sooner you start, the more influence you have when the conversation comes up to cut programs. I would guess that once a cut has been announced, the threshold of “how much has to be endowed to save this program” probably goes up in the mind of an athletics director.
I heard UMD requested a million and that the fund raising got there. And got there easily if you know how well money flows in the DMV. Still rumors. Who knows.
Respectfully, I think the swim community does not appreciate the athletic department’s statement. When they shut the door on private fundraising for non revenue sports, they aren’t saying, “we don’t think it’s realistic, so don’t bother us.” They’re saying, “If you have that kind of money, we’re going to do everything we can to direct it toward revenue-generating sports, even if it means eating our own.” They know better than anyone the reality of finite resources. AD’s are intentionally, heartlessly making this choice. Likewise, the swimming community and allies need to make a choice: we can no longer pretend that we can financially support football and basketball AND swimming.
Make no mistake, the dominoes will continue to fall. The… Read more »
Wouldn’t matter, that money wouldn’t go to the athletic department whatsoever so it’s a moot point.