Cal Poly President Jeffrey D. Armstrong told organizers of the movement to save the swimming & diving program from being cut that they would need to raise $25 million to put in an endowment to keep the program from being cut. This is an increase from the prior floated number of $10-$20 million.
Those organizers told SwimSwam that at a conservative 4% endowment return rate, that this would create a budget of $1 million a year to fully-fund a competitive Division I program. “They want to go all in to win or not at all,” the organizer said.
4% aligns with the university’s current endowment distribution policy, which distributes 4% of the three-year rolling average in the fund, with any additional returns going toward growth of the found to “allow the funds to defeat inflation over time.”
The University of California system endowment, which includes Cal Poly, returned 12.8% for the 2023-2024 fiscal year.
While the “administrative budget” from the school, which included travel, meals, and other similar operating costs, was only $120,000, the team last year was tasked with raising $80,000 to supplement that. One organizer told SwimSwam that if things like coaching salaries and scholarships were included, the program costs around $800,000 a year to run at its current level.
When the program was cut last week, Armstrong mentioned the House v. NCAA settlement cost of $450,000 as a primary driver of the decision.
A GoFundMe that was launched to raise $200,000 is at almost $44,000 so far as of Thursday afternoon. Organizers say that this is just a portion of their fundraising effort, and that they are also in conversations with private donors to make up a larger share of that fundraising effort.
While fundraising efforts to save programs has rarely come to fruition, Cal Poly organizers tell SwimSwam that they think it’s doable. “We are going for it.”
As a former D 1 NCAA track and field athlete , i want this program saved…but be realistic . Schools now travel the whole nation instead of locaschools playing local schools and 3 giant pools? Thats crazy expensive to maintain l
The fact that they have 3 giant pools! Thats absolutit ely absurd . It was always be unsustainable . Maddnes that they have all fhat. Heating those is a massive expense
Cut Football….it’s a terrible program. They could potentially add Men’s and Women’s Water Polo if they do that
What a wanka
Sounds like the AD wants the swim boosters to do his job!
Dang, cal poly looks awesome in that picture… they have 2 50 meter pools? Are they planning to keep the pools open for the students even with no team?
Hope they get a nice club program going if they cant raise the 25mil
Posted this on the other Cal Poly thread too …. the AD set the goal post far enough out to make it nearly impossible to make. And while I hope they make it, there’s no guarantee (like Michigan State) that the AD will live up to their promise. They could just find some other “reason” to keep the program cut.
The CalPoly golf team received a $10M gift from Bill Swanson (Raytheon) to establish an endowed program in 2016. It can happen.
Unfortunately the big names in our sport are content to stay silent and keep cashing checks made off of our sport instead of speaking out or helping fundraise