By Braden Keith on SwimSwam
Marquette University, an NCAA Division I school in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is adding a women’s varsity swimming program as early as the 2025-2026 season. The school will not feature a diving program.
The team will compete in the Big East conference, where they will join Butler, UConn, Georgetown, Providence, Seton Hall, Villanova, and Xavier.
The school says that the addition was made as part of recommendations by the school’s Securing our Future recommendations as part of gender equity efforts. The school is targeting between 18 and 30 student-athletes on the roster.
“This decision strengthens our commitment to gender equity in athletics,” the school said in a press release. “By adding women’s swimming and adjusting team rosters in accordance with the pending settlement of the House case, we are aligning athletic opportunities more closely with the makeup of our undergraduate student body. These changes help ensure we remain in compliance with gender equity standards.”
According to federal data, approximately 56% of Marquette’s undergraduate student body (4,010 out of 7,160) are women, only 46% (154 out of 331) of its varsity athletes are women. The addition of a full women’s swimming roster of 30 athletes would lift the school to 51% female student-athletes.
The school is home to a brand new 195,000 square foot, $80 million sports and wellness facility that includes a six-lane, 25-yard pool, seating for nearly 150 spectators, and team locker rooms. While the team will host dual meets on campus, they will also have access to the famed Walter Schroeder Aquatics Center 20 minutes away to host larger invites off campus.
The addition of a women’s swimming team comes amid lagging enrollment and budget cuts at the school. In fall 2023, Marquette was about 450 students down from fall 2019 pre-pandemic, according to Forbes Magazine.
The women’s swimming program is Marquette’s 17th varsity sport; it last added sports in 2013, when the school launched men’s and women’s lacrosse programs. 9 out of the 17 sports are women’s sports, and the school does not sponsor a varsity football team – cutting it in 1960.
Marquette’s athletics program is best known for the success of its men’s basketball program, which won the 1977 NCAA National Championship, has three Final Four appearances, and has produced 39 NBA players – including current league stars like Jimmy Butler and Jae Crowder, basketball Hall of Famers Dwayne Wade, and likely future basketball Hall of Famer Doc Rivers. The school also has a renowned track & field and cross country program, producing 13 NCAA Champions and Olympic gold medal winning sprinter Ralph Metcalfe.
It will become the 4th NCAA Division I women’s swimming program in the state of Wisconsin, joining the University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin-Green Bay, and Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Marquette is a private, Catholic university and currently costs around $52,000 per year in tuition for undergraduates.
2025 Big East Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships – Final Standings
Full Results Villanova – 1,588 UConn – 1,516 Xavier – 1,167 Georgetown – 1,040 Seton Hall – 845 Butler – 570 Providence – 475Read the full story on SwimSwam: NCAA Division I Marquette University Adds Women’s Swimming Program
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