By James Sutherland on SwimSwam
Cal Poly Athletics is cutting its men’s and women’s swimming and diving programs effective immediately, multiple sources confirmed to SwimSwam on Friday morning.
The Cal Poly Mustangs, which represent California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, Calif., are a Division I school competing in the Big West conference.
In an announcement of the decision obtained by SwimSwam, the athletics department said “financial realities” were at the root of the decision, specifically pointing to the House v. NCAA settlement as the cause of their programs losing at least $450,000 per year.
“Cal Poly Athletics announced today that Cal Poly’s men’s and women’s swimming and diving programs will be discontinued effective immediately,” the athletics department said in the announcement. “While this is disappointing news to share, the financial realities made the decision unavoidable. Cal Poly Director of Athletics Don Oberhelman met with the impacted student-athletes, coaches and staff to share this news.
“Unfortunately, Cal Poly is not immune to the rapidly evolving and changing NCAA Division I landscape, which presents many challenges and uncertainties for collegiate athletics programs. The House vs. NCAA settlement, which addresses past and future compensation for student-athletes related to name, image and likeness (NIL) rights, will have a significant financial impact—resulting in a loss of at least $450,000 per year for our programs. This comes amid additional national class-action lawsuits pending against the NCAA, further compounding financial and operational challenges for collegiate athletics.”
Directly addressing if the House settlement was the reason for the cuts, the school said: “The overall financial health of the athletic department is the primary reason (for the cuts), and certainly the House v. NCAA settlement (loss of nearly $500,000 per year) has an impact on the department finances, along with the state cuts (nearly 8% for Cal Poly) impacting the entire university.”
The school added that all scholarship commitments for current team members will be honored throughout their time at Cal Poly should they choose to stay.
In an FAQ published by the athletics department, they specifically say “fundraising is not a viable solution” to save the program in the long-term, and claim to have “worked to raise private funds to support swimming and diving for many years, but unfortunately those efforts have not yielded the results necessary to support or maintain the program.”
The department said that while budget issues are an ongoing concern, there are no plans to discontinue any other athletics programs “at this time.”
Cal Poly has 58 swimmers and divers on their current roster, 29 men and 29 women.
The Mustangs are coming off competing at the Big West Conference Championships in mid-February, where the women’s team placed 6th out of six teams and the men finished 3rd out of five teams.
Last August, Cal Poly brought in two co-head coaches for the co-ed program, Traci Granger and Kim Foster Carlson, after former head coach Phil Yoshida was placed on a leave of absence and ultimately did not return to the program after 24 years as part of the coaching staff.
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