A report by Fansided’s DearOldGold.com says the University of Iowa’s men and women will be swimming and diving, along with two other sports at a press conference later today.
Update: the school confirmed the news in a press release.
Iowa will hold a press conference today at 12:30 p.m., DearOldGold reported on Twitter. DearOldGold is an Iowa Hawkeyes-focused website that is part of Fansided’s multi-sport network. The tweet says that Iowa will cut four programs (swimming & diving, men’s gymnastics, men’s tennis) by the end of this school year, news that another source has confirmed to SwimSwam.
#Iowa will, at the end of the school year, per source, men of men and men swim, men of gymnastics and men of tennis. Salaries and scholarships will be honored through graduation. Press conference today at 12:30 p.m.
– Dear Old Gold (@DearOldGold) 21 August 2020
Iowa is competing in the Big Ten, which announced this month that it would postpone the fall football season. Iowa was already sitting on about $ 15 million in athletic budget reduction due to the global coronavirus pandemic, and that was to cancel football.
The Hawkeyes finished 9th among 13 women’s programs and 6th among 10 men’s programs at the 2020 Big Ten Championships. They had two women and two men qualified for the NCAA Championships, which were canceled amid the coronavirus pandemic.
An Iowa cut would be by far the biggest program cut in an offseason that has already been brutal for Division I college college swimmers. I have already swam & dived five schools in the division this swimming season:
- Boise State (women)
- UConn (men)
- Dartmouth (women and men)
- East Carolina (women and men)
- Western Illionis (women and men) – indefinite detention
You can see a complete list of aquarium program cuts here.
Iowa would be the first Power-5 school to cut a swimming and diving program since Clemson eliminated its men’s swimming and diving and swimming programs in 2012.
A cut in Iowa would also be surprising, since the school has one of the nation’s better (and newer) facilities. The $ 69 million Campus Recreation and Wellness Center opened just ten years ago in 2010. (The school put $ 5-6 million into pool repairs just last summer).
That pool has already hosted several Big Ten Championships along with the 2015 Men’s NCAA Championships. Iowa is also hosting the 2021 NCAA Men’s Championships – if the reports are correct, that would be the potential final encounter for Iowa’s program before it is eliminated.
Update: President of Iowa Bruce Harreld and athletic director Gary Barta published the following statement:
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a financial requirement that threatened our continued ability to adequately support 24 inter-collegiate athletics programs at the desired championship level. With the postponement of the Big Ten Conference of the Fall Competition on August 11, UI Athletics now lost project revenue of about $ 100M and an overall deficit between $ 60-75M this fiscal year. A loss of this magnitude will take years to overcome. We have a plan to recover, but the journey will be challenging.
