Most people have heard about or watched college football or basketball, but what about the “non revenue” sports like swimming, volleyball, and tennis? With the NCAA settlement which allows schools to pay Division 1 athletes and seeks money in regards to NIL damages, universities and colleges had to decide whether to keep or cut certain sports. California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) was one of the schools subject to this cut, specifically towards their men’s and women’s swim and dive team [1, 2, 3].
In March of 2025, Cal Poly officially announced that it would immediately be cutting their men and women’s swimming and diving team. While the team of 58’s scholarships would still be valid during their time at Cal Poly, these student athletes were abruptly stripped of their sport [2, 3]. Cal Poly made this decision under the likelihood of losing $500,000 to the settlement and likely losing millions in dollars in state funding. While the institute originally decided that fundraising was not a long term solution, swimmers were later told that Cal Poly’s president changed his stance and would need $25 million to bring back the program [3,6]. If the students were able to raise $10 million by April 15th, they would get another 60 days to raise the other $15 million. The team quickly started fundraising as well as set up a petition on change.org [3]. Ultimately, they fell short and only reached $7.5 million by April 15th. However, the university president told them that by June 15, they now needed $20 million [4, 5]. Despite all the challenges that have been thrown their way, these student athletes continue to fight to bring back their sport to Cal Poly.
While Cal Poly’s journey has gotten a lot of attention in the swimming community, there are multiple other schools dealing with similar problems. Grand Canyon got rid of their men’s volleyball team. University of Texas at El Paso disbanded their women’s tennis team. While teams like these are upset, other teams are excited for new opportunities as the settlement allowed schools such as Marquette to add a women’s swimming program [1].
Despite all the hardships that encountered, captain Alex Seybod tells Mustang News, “We’re going to prove we can save this team. This group of people has more grit than anybody I know, and we’re not going to stop until we’ve done everything we can” [3].
If you are interested in joining their fight to bring back the Cal Poly swim and dive team, you can donate at this GoFundMe link.
[3] https://mustangnews.net/cal-poly-swim-and-dive-athletes-battle-for-reinstatement-after-team-cut/
[6]
https://gopoly.com/documents/2025/3/6/Swimming___Diving_Q_A.pdf