EAST LANSING — Swimming and diving won’t be returning to Michigan State University, a trustee said during a Friday board meeting, despite court rulings that the school is not in compliance with Title IX.
The university’s swimming and diving programs for both men and women were cut in late 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic because, the school said, it could not afford to upgrade facilities to match other Big Ten universities.
An August 2022 court decision faulted the university for violating Title IX rules, which prohibit sexual discrimination in education, but stopped short of ordering the school to reinstate the program.
The program would need a major investment in facilities, something MSU Board Trustee Melanie Foster said MSU does not plan to do now.
“We do not see a viable path to establish a swim and dive program,” Foster said. “Most prohibitively, without sufficient existing fundraising, there is not a path to build a new competition pool without assessing a fee to the entire student body, something we do not wish to do. We appreciate the advocacy those supporting the swim and dive program have shown. While we know this is not the answer supporters are seeking, we feel we owe an honest, transparent and definitive statement on the issue.”
Foster, while providing a report on MSU athletics at a Board of Trustees meeting in October, said university officials would reach out to MSU swimming and diving athletes and supporters to “strategize a plan forward for the team in the next academic year.” There was no indication Friday of why the university changed course.
If swimming were reinstated, the program likely would use McCaffree Pool at IM West. The pool was built in 1958 and is 25 yards long with six lanes. It meets NCAA competition requirements, but does not have the eight lanes and 50-yard Olympic length available at other Big Ten universities.
The programs cost the department $2 million as of 2019, which amounted to less than 2% of the $140 million budget for the entire athletic department that year. That cost also included the partial scholarships it handed out to the equivalent of 24.7 athletes, according to the NCAA’s Financial Reporting System.
Supporters of the programs said, in a statement Friday, university officials have not seriously considered their proposals and they have been able to identify $10 million “in pledges, endowments, and estate donations.”
The Battle for Spartan Swim and Dive, a group that has advocated for the return of the program, said there have been meetings between swim and dive advocates and university officials, including the athletic director and interim president.
The group said said the financial concerns expressed in one recent meeting were about Olympic-caliber program support like team nutritionists, chartered plane travel and designated athletic trainers, according to the advocates. In another meeting, they say, it was suggested if swimmers could fund half of the operating expenses for the next five years, about $6.5 million, the university could negotiate for the return.
The board’s decision could be reversed and university officials could still meet with advocates and resurrect the program, the group said.
“While our hope in the potential for the new leaders at Michigan State to do the right thing has waned, we see this for what it is: another attempt to move the goal post with no clear rationale or explanation.”
A group of women filed a lawsuit in January 2021, three months after MSU officials announced they were cutting the men’s and women’s teams. The women said by getting rid of their swim and dive team, the university is violating Title IX, which requires schools to provide equal opportunities to male and female students.
The two sides argued earlier this year before U.S. District Court Judge Hala Jarbou as to why she should or should not reinstate the team in the time leading up to a potential trial. Jarbou denied a previous February 2021 request to reinstate the team, but the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned her decision and sent the case back to her for reconsideration.
In August, Jarbou ruled that the decision by then-Athletic Director Bill Beekman to drop the program in October 2020 violated Title IX law, which prohibits gender-based discrimination in schools or education programs that receive federal funding. The judge, however, did not order the program reinstated.
MSU was ordered to submit a plan to get in compliance with Title IX November, but the deadline was extended until after the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether to weigh in on the case, MSU spokesperson Dan Olsen previously said. It’s unclear when the court could decide whether to review the case.
Contact Mike Ellis at [email protected] or on Twitter @MikeEllis_AIM
