After advocates failed to raise the $26.5 million needed for the reinstatement of Michigan State University’s dissolved swim and dive teams, MSU has indicated the three year-battle marked by a high-profile Title IX case is over.
As reported by The State News student newspaper, the team's advocates still haven't abandoned hope, regarding this latest development as just another obstacle on the path to reinstatement.
MSU announced its decision to cut its male and female swim and dive teams in Oct. 2020, citing "a financial crisis unlike any we've ever seen in college athletics” brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Then-athletic director Bill Beekman later told The State News that the team was on the chopping block since fall 2019, as the school couldn’t keep up with the cost of maintaining the swimmers’ facilities.
In June, the school gave the swimmers another chance when the Board of Trustees approved funding for a new recreation center, which will include a 50-meter pool. Interim president Teresa Woodruff told advocates that if they could get $26.5 million in pledged donations by Oct. 1, MSU would be able to make additions to the pool needed to accommodate a swim team.
Related: Facilities Will Keep Swimming and Diving from Returning to Michigan State
But as of Oct. 1, the advocates only raised between $5 million and $6 million in pledges, according to Mike Balow, leader of Battle for Spartan Swim and Dive.
Now that the deadline has passed, MSU deputy spokesperson Dan Olsen said the university isn’t able to make changes to the plan for the recreation center. Construction for the building is set to finish in February 2026.
“So, the [original] plans are going to go forward,” Olsen said, as reported by Theo Sheer of The State News.
Balow and other advocates are still holding out hope that they can use the money they’ve raised in pledges so far to add more seating, varsity locker rooms for players and a coach's room to the recreation center plans.
“We want you to take the money that we have (and) still let us get more,” Balow said. His group will continue to collect pledges despite passing the deadline and MSU’s unwillingness to comply.
“We think we have a solution here, because it was always kind of the understanding that if we didn't hit the $26 [million], we could see what we could do with the money that we had,” Balow said.
However, the pledge forms state that pledges are conditional upon reinstatement of the programs.
David Habel, a former MSU swimmer who graduated in 2006, said advocates had an encouraging meeting with Woodruff’s chief of staff Michael Zeig on Aug. 26 about lowering the $26.5 million goal. Habel had a similar conversation with athletic director Alan Haller the week before.
But in a meeting last Thursday, Woodruff told advocates that if they didn’t get the last $20 million in the next week, they wouldn’t have a team.
“I'm hopeful this week we will get a better letter from the interim president, but we're waiting,” Balow said.
Olsen was not aware of any conversations being had about working out new terms for the team's reinstatement.
