Do what youāve always done, get what youāve always gotten.
Itās well past time to try something different in swimming. We donāt need to reinvent the wheel here. Nearly every major sport ends its season with a bracket-style tournament.
Can someone please test swimmingās version of this? Start with 8 or 12 teams. Run head-to-head dual meets over 3 days. Single elimination. One winner.
Weāre moving way too slowly when it comes to ārighting the shipā that is College Swimming.
The ship is sinking.
We shouldāve acted 25 years ago, but today is the best weāve got now.
Rosters and being slashed.
Programs are being cut.
Budgets are being reduced.
Coaching staffs are shrinking.
We need to start modernizing, quickly, if we want to retain any sliver of what weāve become used to over the last few decades.
If not, weāll quickly see the effects of our complacency trickle into every part of the sport at the collegiate level.
Streaming will get worse.
Budgets will continue to shrink.
Programs will continue to be cut.
As we move into this new world of college athletics, weāll be forced into becoming even more reactive as a sport.
That makes what we CAN still do, proactively, all the more valuable.
Fans are the lifeblood of any sport, and the bottom line is that we arenāt giving them a consistently consumable product, in person or online right now.
We need to build that product, or at least start trying.
Iām more worried than ever for this sportās future at the collegiate level, and that worry comes from the heart of a fan whose endurance for hoping for change is running out.