Since 1924, swimming and diving has been put under an umbrella at the NCAA level. It makes sense to the outside viewer because both use a body of water to compete, although that seems to be their only similarity. 

Swimming is objective, focused on who can reach the end of the pool first within a specific time and distance, making it clear who wins each event. On the other side, diving is very subjective — scores are based on how well a competitor can perform a move with precision. Divers are rewarded with points from a group of judges’ evaluation. 

In any level other than collegiate swimming and diving, they are separated in the United States. There are entities like USA Swimming and USA Diving for a reason. 

A contribution to why swim and dive are paired together is the fact that it is a non-revenue-generating sport for many collegiate programs. A prime example of this is Texas, where football is the leading program. 

Last year, during the House v. NCAA settlement, swimming and diving programs across the nation took a hit, with coaches forced to make roster cuts so their programs can stay afloat. The settlement even led to the shutdown of both Cal Poly’s men’s and women’s swim and dive programs.

Displayed in the graph, across conferences in NCAA Division 1 Swimming and Diving for men and women, it is evident that swimmers make up the majority of a team’s total points across conferences.  

With more events in swimming and a chance to score more points, the majority of teams’ rosters are filled with swimmers. Since the settlement, coaches and athletes enter the recruitment process with more intention due to the limited roster spots and amount of scholarships that can be given. 

For context, divers currently count as half of an individual toward the NCAA meet roster limit. This is due to their not being able to score relay points.

Currently, the majority of collegiate programs’ scholarship budgets are allocated for swimmers. With 85% toward swimmers and 15% toward divers. In response to the budget dispersal, schools like Texas and Stanford offered all student-athletes full rides, but not every college has as big a budget as these well-funded programs.  

Programs have narrowed down to three to four divers for both men and women on rosters, with the previous number being closer to six.

Both swimmers and divers bring depth to the teams across the NCAA. What separates good teams from great ones is that they have divers who could push a team onto the podium. An example of this is standout diver senior Carson Tyler from Indiana, who pushed his team from 10th to third at the 2025 NCAA Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships. 

Tyler scored 49 points individually. For comparison, Purdue, also in the Big Ten conference with Indiana, scored 60 points across their divers.

In The Diving Pod, Stanford fifth-year diver Hunter Hollenbeck and co-president for Stanford’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee expressed his thoughts on the state of divers and programs post-house settlement.

“What’s vital for us to do as divers is to advocate for the equal representation and point earning potential within the swimming and diving ecosystem,” Hollenbeck wrote in an article for The Diving Pod. “While this won’t fix the overarching issues with diving being auxiliary to swimming, it creates hope that divers could provide serious firepower to big competitions and contribute a significant share of the team score, proving our worth and value to swim coaches that would rather cut us.”