West Chester University Complies With Penalties Imposed On Swim Team

WEST CHESTER, PA —West Chester University officials said Friday the university will comply with the penalties imposed by the National Collegiate Athletic Association for failing to abide by a change in the bylaws for the swim team.

The 1994 NAAC bylaws prevented the swim team from sponsoring a local sports club.

The issue was identified in the spring of 2022 by the university’s athletic department and reported to the NCAA.

The students on the swim team are not impacted by the penalties and no other sports teams are impacted by the violations. West Chester competes in Division II sports.

“This is a swimming and diving team matter and comes at no fault of any individual swimming and diving athletes, past or present,” Jeffery L. Osgood, Jr. , senior vice president and provost, said in a prepared statement.

Osgood said West Chester University accepts the findings of the NCAA’s investigation and takes full responsibility.

“The University is confident that a violation of this nature will not be repeated at West Chester University.”

National Collegiate Athletic Association Report

According to the NCAA report issued Friday, Dec.9 :

• Initially, a former swimming and diving head coach owned and operated a local sports club.
• The former athletics director brought the swimming club into the athletics department and aligned the club with its operating procedures for camps and clinics.
• Around that same time, the athletics department began annually transferring $25,000 of the club's profits to the university's athletics department budgets.
• The athletics department also hired a coach for the swim club who also served on the coaching staff at West Chester.

Sanctions and corrective measures:

The NCAA has issued two years of probation requiring these measures:

• Develop and/or continue to educate staff and coaches on the law, submit compliance reports;
• Inform students what happened;
• Publicize information about the violations;
• Not rent facilities to diving or swim clubs for two years;
• Delay recruiting prospective swimming and diving athletes; first-year recruiting is delayed by one year. Transfer student recruiting is delayed by six months;
• Submit a letter at the end of probation confirming full compliance;

Reaction

"President Christopher M Fiorentino has taken decisive steps to correct these practices and to create a culture of compliance by voluntarily hiring outside experts to perform a comprehensive NCAA compliance assessment, Oswald said in the statement.

"The University is confident that a violation of this nature will not be repeated at West Chester University."