Could College Swimming Changes Lead to More Coaching Exits?
The first departure was a coach who has captured three NCAA team titles while guiding numerous swimmers to individual Olympic gold. Greg Meehan had just led the Stanford women to their best season in six years, culminating in a runnerup national finish, when USA Swimming announced Meehan’s hiring as National Team Director.
Twelve days later, another high-major college coach joined the organization, with former Wisconsin head man Yuri Suguiyama becoming Senior Director and National Team Coach, a role that will effectively make him the No. 2 person for decisions involving major international competition. Suguiyama did not achieve the same level of team success with the Badgers, but his teams were consistently in the national top-25, and both Beata Nelson and Phoebe Bacon won national titles during Suguiyama’s tenure.
Meehan and Suguiyama have both coached Katie Ledecky to Olympic gold, and before leading their own programs, both were longtime assistants to Dave Durden as he built the Cal men into a national powerhouse. USA Swimming’s search for a new CEO has not gone according to plan, with initial choice Chrissi Rawak losing the job nine days after its announcement because of a Safe Sport complaint. On the other hand, the enlistment of Meehan and Suguiyama to manage the wet side of the organization seems as strong of choices as the organization could have made.
Newly-hired USA Swimming National Team Coach Yuri Sugiyama — Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
That said, do these jobs really represent promotions for Meehan and Suguiyama? What factors influenced their decision to uproot their families and move to Colorado Springs, leaving behind seemingly-desirable jobs in the process? Many will naturally connect their departures to the lingering uncertainty in college swimming, with the House Settlement likely to take effect for the 2025-26 school year (although a federal judge recently delayed final approval). The USA Swimming jobs surely provided perks and more-than-adequate compensation packages, but Meehan and Suguiyama surely feel some relief to avoid the ugly aftereffects of direct athlete compensation.
Most teams have already pared down their rosters for next season to comply with the cap of 30 participants for women’s and men’s swimming and diving, with the SEC dropping the men’s limit further to 22. Returners have lost their spots, seeking transfer opportunities or choosing to retire from the sport, while plenty of incoming freshmen have been forced to look elsewhere to continue their careers, with spots on their initial team of choice no longer available.
Meanwhile, scholarship limits have disappeared, with schools able to provide full scholarships to anyone on their rosters, and that has meant a further disparity between well-funded teams and poorly-funded teams. Many schools with traditions of swimming excellence are preparing to fund additional slots while others, likely those who have struggled to achieve conference and national relevance, are sure to cut back and redeploy money toward revenue sports such as football and basketball. When athletic directors are seeking methods of cutting budgets, swimming and diving will doubtlessly be toward the top of their list of teams to eliminate.
Within the past decade, significant change in the realities of college coaching has been a factor in several high-profile retirements in other sports. Look at men’s college basketball, where the quartet of Mike Krzyzewski (Duke), Jay Wright (Villanova), Roy Williams (North Carolina) and Tony Bennett (Virginia) accounted for every national title from 2015 through 2019. All four have since left coaching.
Wright retired in his early 60s despite having just led the Wildcats to the Final Four, and Bennett stepped away in October 2024, days before the start of the season, at age 55. In explaining his decision, Bennett said he was “no longer the best coach to lead this program in this current environment,” referring to the influx of NIL money to the sport and rules allowing athletes to transfer as many times as they wanted. The new regulations created headaches that Bennett decided outweighed the positives of remaining with the Cavaliers program.
There is no indication that Meehan or Suguiyama opted for the USA Swimming route because of the potential issues looming in college swimming, but if further big-name coaches decide to return to club coaching or begin teams of professionals only, the connection will become more evident. The transition to the House era will be a tough one for swimming, and we cannot blame coaches who seek an exit ramp.
