Notre Dame announced Thursday it is suspending its entire men’s swimming program for the 2024-25 school year following an external review, which uncovered extensive gambling within the program, among other issues.
In a lengthy statement, Fighting Irish athletic director Pete Bevacqua said the law firm that conducted the review unearthed “a deeply embedded team culture dismissive of Notre Dame’s standards for student-athletes, including our expectation that they treat one another with dignity and respect.”
“This independent, external review also documented numerous violations of NCAA rules prohibiting gambling on intercollegiate swimming and other athletic competitions despite clear and recurrent training provided to all our student-athletes by our Athletics Compliance staff about those rules,” Bevacqua said. “These findings are contrary to the University’s values and all that we stand for in Notre Dame Athletics.
“In order to ensure that this behavior ends and to rebuild a culture of dignity, respect, and exemplary conduct, we have decided to suspend the men’s swimming program for at least one academic year.”
According to a report from Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde, Fighting Irish men’s swimmers essentially created their own sportsbook in order to wager on their personal swimming performances.
“A majority of the returning 2024–25 team is believed to have placed bets. “Over/under” lines were established for a swimmer’s times in certain races, with wagers being placed on the outcomes,” Forde wrote.
The women’s swimming and diving and men’s diving programs are not affected by today’s announcement. Additionally, men’s swimming head coach Chris Lindauer and his staff were not disciplined after the review concluded they were “not aware of gambling or the scope and extent of other troubling behaviors because team members effectively concealed such behaviors from the coaches and staff through concerted efforts.”
Swimmers will be allowed to transfer before classes begin at Notre Dame on Aug. 27, but any who were involved in placing wagers are subject to individual sanctions at their new programs.
Additionally, some swimmers were found to have bet on other sports and other institutions, including the NCAA basketball tournaments.
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