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Michigan State Spartans drop swimming and diving programs

EAST LANSING (AP) — Michigan State University is dropping swimming and diving teams for men and women after the 2020-21 season, officials said Thursday.

“MSU athletics is facing a financial crisis unlike any we’ve ever seen in college athletics,” athletic director Bill Beekman and President Samuel Stanley Jr. said, citing the impact of COVID-19. “Our best-case scenario this year projects a revenue shortfall in excess of $30 million. Our worst-case scenario would more than double that number.”

No one will lose a scholarship if they remain as students, the university said. Counseling and mental health services will also be available.

The swimming/diving teams cost $2.07 million in 2018-19. Dropping the teams will improve the athletic department’s long-term finances, MSU said.

The school said it also has struggled to recruit swimmers because it has a “smaller than regulation pool.”

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