Oregon State announced today that the school will be cutting its swim team. The press release says that the team would be “discontinued by OSU at the end of the 2018-2019 season.” The school only had a women’s team, and they finished ninth out of nine teams at the 2019 Pac-12 Championships last week. The Beavers did win what turned out to be their last home meet last month.
The press release, quoting a statement by Athletic Director Scott Barnes, cites a list of reasons, including the cost of building an on-campus pool, for cutting the team. According to Barnes, OSU’s existing facilities “do not meet NCAA standards.” The team hosts home meets at an off-campus city facility, and according to Barnes, it would cost $18-22 million to build a new facility.
As it typical in these situations, the school has promised to honor existing scholarships, or to help students-athletes transfer immediately should they wish to do so. The roster for this past year listed 21 student-athletes, including 10 freshmen. Both head coach Jennifer Buffin and assistant coach Michael Wong have been with the program since 2016.
While the program has had its successes, including a handful of NCAA All-Americans, the Beavers have never finished higher than 7th in the Pac-12 Conference, in which the team began competing during the 1986-1987 school year, when the conference was still known as the Pac-10.
A list of Pac-10 swimming championship results shows that Oregon State had a men’s team until the late 1970s.
While this means that there will no longer be any Division I swimming programs in Oregon, it is still offered at four Division III schools, including George Fox University, Lewis and Clark College, Linfield College, Pacific University, and Willamette University.
Here’s the full text of the e-mail from Barnes:
Oregon State students,
I am writing to announce that OSU will discontinue intercollegiate women’s swimming at the end of the 2018-19 season.
This decision is based upon the university’s commitment to offer all student-athletes a quality, equitable and competitive NCAA experience in keeping with the Athletics Department’s strategic plan. And to provide quality and equitable facilities for all teams, while balancing financial requirements for athletics facilities.
This decision was not made easily. It followed a comprehensive review of all sports and engaged Athletics Department leadership and the university’s Athletics Financial Sustainability Plan Work Group. This review concluded that Oregon State could not meet its commitments while retaining swimming as an NCAA sport. My decision also was made with thorough consultation with OSU President Ed Ray, who supports this action.
Facility requirements contributed to this decision as OSU campus pool facilities do not meet NCAA standards. As a result, the OSU women’s swim team holds home meets at the city-owned Osborn Aquatics Center, which is not comparable to the competitive swimming facilities at other Pac-12 Conference universities.
Our evaluation determined that it is cost-prohibitive to renovate existing campus swimming facilities. A new collegiate swimming and diving facility would cost $18 to $22 million to build, not including the cost of annual maintenance. Investing in competitive swimming program facilities would negatively impact our ability to serve facility requirements for all sports and all OSU student-athletes.
As a former collegiate student-athlete myself, I am very mindful of our 21 student-athletes and two coaches affected by this decision. I thank Head Coach Jennifer Buffin and Assistant Coach Michael Wong, as well as our swimmers for their many contributions to the OSU swimming program and Beaver Nation. We will fully support swim team members during this transition, including assisting any student swimmers who may seek to transfer to another university to compete. Meanwhile, these student-athletes will retain their athletic scholarships while they continue to make successful progress to graduation.
Going forward, OSU will field a total of 17 intercollegiate sports and will sponsor approximately 550 opportunities for student-athletes to compete in intercollegiate athletics. Women’s sports include 10 programs: gymnastics, volleyball, golf, rowing, basketball, indoor track and field, outdoor track and field, softball, soccer, and cross country. Men’s sports include football, basketball, baseball, soccer, golf, wrestling and rowing.
Meanwhile, the university will continue to support fully student-athlete success in the classroom, in the community and in athletic competition. We will achieve the goals of the Athletics Department strategic plan by maintaining financial sustainability, winning championships and achieving post-season success and national recognition. And we will continue the proud tradition of OSU Athletics by competing and succeeding at the highest levels of intercollegiate sports.
Sincerely,
S. Scott Barnes
Vice President & Director of Athletics
Oregon State University
Ok if this inevitable can someone explain how the Big Ten able to support so many more men and women teams than the Pac 12? Do they have a bigger TV contract? Do their football coaches get paid less? Or maybe they just believe that their schools should support a wide range of sports for their student athletes as a matter of public responsibility. These (Pac 12, Big Ten, ACC, SEC, Big 12, etc) are very large schools and the money to support swimming is short money.
The Big Ten Network was first to the field, and has a massive distribution. I think I saw that BTN revenue distributions have reached $51 million per school. That’s insane numbers.
I have a few other more minor factors that I think could be in play here…but yes, the Big Ten Network is crushing most other conferences. SEC is close, but I think Big Ten is the biggest. The Pac-12 Network model…ummm…I’m trying to say this in a nice way…is struggling. In relative terms.
Braden, any idea if that BTN revenue is going to help University of Maryland bring back swimming? They certainly don’t have a facility problem.
Saori Haraguchi was a national champ in 2008. I think she upset Elaine Breeden. No mention of her? Their relays were scoring as recently as 2009. Pretty impressive for a school with an ancient 7 lane pool, no men’s team, no diving team, and I’d guess not much of a budget.
This is beyond sad. I hope the rest of the Pac 12 can find them all homes by end of Summer. Come on team! Do it!
Scott Barnes, the AD, is a jag off who once was at Pitt. We are thrilled to see him out of our town and are crying a river of tears for yinz in the west. Get him out of sports. Who has the golden parachutes?
It’s a sad day for swimming and for Oregon State. I don’t think the reason that they can’t afford to build a 20 million dollar facility is a legitimate reason. I was told in my first few years at OSU that they would never build a new pool. I think they just wanted the money for something else. Those 21 student/swimmers represented the best of collegiate athletics. Working out 20 hours a week like all the other athletes to go a best time. Still maintaining excellent grades. Oregon State athletics has lost sight of the goals of collegiate athletics. I am sad for the coaches, the swimmers and for swimming in Oregon.
Why do they have to be in the PAC 12? It sounds like this is as much about coming in last as it is about the money. They can switch conferences.
To where?
If the conference a school is in sponsors a sport, then all schools which sponsor the sport MUST compete in that conference. Oregon State could not switch conferences just for Swimming & Diving – and they are not about to leave them the PAC-12 for all their sports.
Switch conferences? Are you nuts? If I’m not mistaken, every PAC-12 school makes about $23 million per year from TV etc….. Almost every university west of the Rockies would love to be a member of the PAC-12. Oregon State is not going anywhere.
Hard to believe a state like Oregon, with a great Track and Field program and support system, can’t find enough people to support and drive a Swimming and Diving program at both major D1 schools. The Conference of Champions just lost a little luster today.
They should ask Nike to sponsor the sport!