Boston University is eliminating all future scholarships for the men’s swimming and diving team and 71 percent of scholarships for the women’s swimming and diving team, BU Athletics confirmed Monday.
There are no plans for the swimming and diving programs to be cut as a whole.
Scholarships will not be taken away from the 50 student-athletes currently on the teams. In addition, any scholarships previously promised to incoming student-athletes will be upheld.
The programs will lose 9.9 scholarships apiece, leaving the men’s team with zero and the women’s team with 4.1 of its original 14.
The school made the decision to eliminate the scholarships from the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams earlier this month.
Over the course of the two programs’ histories, they have accumulated 11 conference titles and have hosted 235 All-Conference honorees.
Last year, both the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams placed third at the Patriot League Championships for the second consecutive season. The squads were picked to finish third once again in this year’s Patriot League Preseason Poll.
Further information on the cut swimming and diving scholarships will be available later this week.
Justin is a former Sports Editor for the Daily Free Press. In the past, he has covered the BU field hockey, men's basketball, women's hockey and women's lacrosse teams. Justin has interned at WEEI.com and serves as Editor-In-Chief of the Cleveland sports blog, Straight Down Euclid. Follow him on Twitter: @just_a_pal
My main question – beyond my outrage – is where is the money from those scholarships going to go instead?
This is an embarrassing decision for a university that prizes excellence. The swim & dive team leads all other teams in demonstrating the ideal for student-athletes. The swimmers and divers carry the highest average GPA while consistently competing among the top levels of the Patriot League. It would be a tragedy to see those standards decline but the loss of scholarships will likely discourage the coaches and cause likely recruits to go to BU’s competitors.
New Balance gave money to BU for the field hockey stadium and the new men’s lacrosse team. Programs are getting cut to make way for volleyball at BU, so that Brine, a New Balance subsidiary, can supply equipment for the future teams.