Garrett McCaffrey posted a video on FloSwimming.org that has sparked a lot of discussion about college swimming program cuts. The video, a round table discussion held after the announcement that Arizona State University’s men’s program was going to be cut, features ASU’s Mike Chasson, with Eddie Reese, Jack Bauerle, Frank Busch, and Richard Quick.

Is this topic going to come up every spring? I hope not, but here we go again! That’s why this video is so poignant, and with the state of the economy, we have all the more reason to fear the axe-man.

I’ve included this graph that I found in a 2004 report prepared by the NCAA, which summarizes sport sponsorship and participation rates data related to the decline in sponsorship of Olympic sports (download the report as a PDF). I posted the Men’s Division 1 graph because it shows the most obvious decline, but as I mentioned in an earlier post “What Happened To My Conference?“, sponsorship declines can be seen in most divisions, but are skewed by small gains in others.

Hmmm… I’m gonna dig around some more and see if I can find some newer information. Check back for an updated report!