Sources: SEC Proposes Swim/Dive Roster Limits for Men (22), Women (35) After House Settlement

According to sources, the SEC proposed a roster limit of 35 for women's swimming and diving and 22 for men in the wake of the recent House v. NCAA settlement. Stock photo via SEC Sports

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According to sources, the SEC proposed a roster limit of 35 for women’s swimming and diving and 22 for men in the wake of the recent House v. NCAA settlement.

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May 27th, 2024 College, Industry, News, SEC

The SEC discussed potential roster limits for men’s and women’s swimming and diving with coaches on a recent call ahead of spring meetings this week in Destin, Florida, sources tell SwimSwam.

Part of last week’s proposed House v. NCAA settlement, which would send billions in NIL backpay to college athletes while paving the way for schools to share revenue with them, eliminated scholarship caps in favor of roster limits.

Current NCAA rules limit women’s swimming and diving teams to 14 scholarships and men’s programs to 9.9, but there’s no cap on overall roster size. According to sources, the SEC proposed a roster limit of 35 for women and 22 for men.

The proposed limits would appear to impact men’s rosters more than women’s. The average women’s roster last year was about 33 swimmers, with South Carolina boasting the most at 46. Meanwhile, the average men’s roster was about 26 swimmers, with Florida totaling the most at 41.

The roster limit for the SEC Championships is currently 22, while 18 are allowed at the NCAA Championships.

The settlement is not yet final as U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken still needs to approve the terms. College athletes dating back to 2016 are in line to receive almost $2.8 billion in back damages for lost opportunities from the NCAA’s past restrictions on name, image, and likeness (NIL). The more consequential component of the deal is a revenue-sharing model that would allow schools to share up to $22 million annually with athletes — essentially a salary cap — likely starting in the fall of 2025.

Although the settlement is finalized for now, there will likely be moving pieces in the coming months. One of the lead plaintiff attorneys, Jeffrey Kessler, said the courts will decide “the degree in which Title IX applies” to the settlement. Former Arizona State swimmer Grant House first brought the class-action lawsuit against the NCAA back in 2020 before college athletes were granted publicity rights.

As a non-american, I don’t understand why both genders get a different treatment in this matter Is it because there are less women’s teams ? Or is it more of a “positive discrimination” thing to encourage women to partake in swimming ?

There is a civil rights law in the US called title 9 that requires schools to equate athletic scholarship dollars equally across men’s and women’s sports conditional on participation rates. So if 40% of athletes at a school are women, 40% of the total money allocated to athletic scholarships have to go to women. The biggest schools with American football can have 85 total scholarships for just football, and there’s no female equivalent to match. So schools often allocate more scholarship money to the women’s team in sports like swimming, track, or soccer to cut the deficit caused by football

Can you spell it out for me? Basically, no more walk-ons in the SEC?

Grant House will forever be known as the swimmer that killed college swimming for $12

I’m curious to see his reception in Indy. It should be chilly at best.

yup it was just him and it only happened because he said so

Everyone knows that it only takes one singular person to file a class action lawsuit steve

Hey Braden, what would the swimmer vs diver total be for Men’s rosters? 18 swimmers and 4 divers? The only problem is you don’t really have any backup swimmers for conference if a couple of your swimmers get sick right before conference.

Kinda sad that some really good swimmers won’t be able to have a college swimming experience. Hopefully a lot of these D1 programs will have an associated club or masters program that will allow these swimmers to swim competitively anyway.

D2 and D3 still exist. If a bunch of kids get pushed out of Power 4, they end up at mid majors. Then other athletes who may have been midmajor candidates may end up in the other divisions, and voila! Swimming at all levels keeps getting faster.

Spreading the talent across D1 is maybe a good thing for the sport too, instead of concentrating in a few teams.

This is going to kill more mid-major programs than anything. D2 & D3 May get a little faster, but those types of schools aren’t for everyone. They’re all on the smaller side, many D2 schools have religious affiliations, and many D3 schools have a liberal arts focus.

June 15th is abruptly approaching for these HS Juniors. Kind of hard to recruit and ask these swimmers to commit with so many unknowns on the horizon.

Riley is an associate editor interested in the stories taking place outside of the pool just as much as the drama between the lane lines. A 2019 graduate of Boston College, he arrived at SwimSwam in April of 2022 after three years as a sports reporter and sports editor at newspapers …