I think it is a HUGE shame.

It certainly is a shame, but if you look at it another way, the get the same amount as or more scholarships than:

Golf
Gymnastics
Rifle
Rowing
Soccer
Skiing
Tennis
Volleyball
Water Polo
Wrestling

Sure, it's nice to give as many kids as is possible scholarships, but male swimmers have to earn academic and other scholarships just like everyone else. If they're a really good swimmer, it should give them a leg up in non-athletic scholarships anyways. It's not like they're limiting the roster sizes, and it's not like the kids don't get anything out of being on the team (free coaching, free gear, per diems, free trips, etc.)

Nothing against swimming specifically. I would say the same thing about any sport where there were complaints about not enough scholarships.

JAD AG--Surprising that you're encouraging him to go back to swimming! My parents always told me they wished I had stuck with basketball, because basketball games are way more fun to watch than swim meets.

Besides what Spicewood said, there are other things to keep in mind--

I would definitely get him involved with year-round swimming. Even if you don't want him doing USS and HS at the same time, you should still have him do club for the HS off-season (aka long course USS). Only way he'll have a legit chance at scholys.

Keep in mind that good swimming schools are often good academic schools (See Stanford, Michigan, t.u., Virginia, etc.) and swim coaches, like other coaches, are usually pretty good at getting kids in when their applications might not otherwise warrant admittance. Hidden perk to making a team, even if no scholarship is offered.

Even if he can't get a swimming scholarship, the coaches will often work with the financial aid department to get him a good amount of money if there's a need. I know often getting an athletic scholarship is often a point of pride for kids/parents when they don't even really need it, but if they do have actual need for assistance, they're more likely to get it as an athlete. Some places, like A&M, offer in-state tuition to out-of-state students who get a certain amount of scholarships (athletic or otherwise). So if he has any interest in going out of state, even a partial scholarship is worth a good deal of money.

Another reason to get him in a USS program now is so he can see if he can really handle the intensity that comes with year-round training. It would be a shame for him to give up on basketball only to find out that he is burnt out on swimming, or isn't interested in swimming year round.

Shoot, if he really likes basketball, pull him off the highschool swim team, and have him play for the HS basketball team instead, and then put him on a club team to train when he's not playing HS basketball. Obviously, at big schools with good programs, they're not usually too keen to doing both sports at the same time (overlapping seasons) so this would be a way around that. HS swimming is probably less important than HS basketball to getting recruited, so if he shows some potential in basketball, maybe that would be a way for him to try both for another year until he decides which he really wants to do.

[This message has been edited by gobluwolverine (edited 5/10/2009 2:34p).]

All comments are in-line with what I have seen. The only swimmer that I have known well who received a full scholarship offer anywhere was to Northwestern University 10 years ago and he had ~5 sr. national times. I know that others get full's, but it's rare - especially at top swimming schools.

The point about getting into a school is very important. 3 examples of friends of mine are (1) the Northwestern guy I mentioned above was an above average student in HS, but would not have gotten into Northwestern on his own, now he has a degree from one of the best schools in the country; and (2) a good friend of mine who swam for Texas was not a good student at all, did not receive any athletic scholarship (maybe books?), and even quit the team his sophomore year. Because he was a good swimmer (sr. nat's, HS state champ, etc.) he got into UT and has a well respected degree. Without swimming I doubt he would have gone to college; and (3) another friend who swam 4 years at UT and improved from a walk-on to qualifying for NCAA's all 4 years and scoring in individual events and relays ended up leveraging that into admitance to SMU MBA several years later. Now, he may have gotten in on his own, but the impressive part is that he applied late 3rd round when MBA programs generally have already filled their class and are looking for those few diamonds to fill in the last few spots. His swimming success outshone others with higher grades and test scores and now thanks to swimming he has an MBA from a top rankes school.

GoBlue, when you say "they're not limiting roster size" I assume you mean that NCAA isn't directly limiting how large a roster can be. The reason I say that is that title IX definitely limits roster size because non-scholarship athletes still cost money for the athletic dept. Therefore, rost sizes for non-revenue male sports are, in fact limited.

So there you go, swimming at a major DI school can definitely get you more than just bragging rights of an athletic scholarship, so unless your son's going to the NBA it is at least worth keeping swimming open as an option.

I agree about year round swimming. With very few exceptions - high school swimming coaches in Texas suck. They may have once been a swimmer - but they are teachers first, coaches second. The best coaches for swimming development, are the USA Swimming club coaches. Keep in mind that they vary greatly in quality too.

If you want your son to have a chance to excel - high school swimming alone will not be enough. UIL rules limit the weekly training time - as they do for all sports. If the boy is already a good athlete - with his size as a freshman he may have the frame to develop into a fine college-quality swimmer.

I agree with the comments above.

Goblu - I think college sports is unreasonably dominated by football. So swimming is not alone as you pointed out in the scholarship game.

Not that we need to start a title IX, football versus the world argument here (because I've been to over 100 Aggie sporting events this year, and only 1 of them was a football game), it's hard to cut football down, when they're the only sport that consistently pays for itself (outside of schools like Duke in basketball, probably Auburn in swimming, Arkansas in T&F, etc.). It usually pays for those 9.9 swimming scholarships too.

Also true H2O Polo Ag. I did mean there was no direct limitation. Title IX does limit the number of athletes. But if you're a good swimmer and deserve to swim in college, you'll catch on somewhere, Title IX or not.

Agree that we don't need to go down the title IX discussion path. Just wanted to clarify. Thanks for the response.

My basic point about football is that the number of scholarships should be reduced significantly. A full scholarship should become more special than it is today. Partial scholarships should become common.

So take 30 away from football - and I don't think the game suffers one bit. Revenue won't suffer either.

Outlaw the use of private jets (etc.) and other obscene recruiting tactics.