Notre Dame suspends men’s swimming program for at least a year after gambling violations

Notre Dame has suspended its men’s swimming team for at least one academic year due to internal gambling violations, the university announced in a statement Thursday. Notre Dame is handing down the punishment as a result of numerous NCAA violations related to sports gambling, according to the school.

Although the statement did not clarify the exact nature of the violations, Sports Illustrated reports that the team created its own sports book to place bets on their own swimming performances. Most of the student-athletes returning for the upcoming season are believed to have placed wagers, per Sports Illustrated.

In the statement, Notre Dame Vice President and Athletic Director Pete Bevacqua said that an external investigation revealed a “deeply embedded team culture dismissive of Notre Dame’s standards for student-athletes.”

“While individual conduct varied, the overwhelming cultural dynamic on the team necessitates a full suspension,” Bevacqua said in the statement.

Sports Illustrated reported that this concern about culture stems from a group text chat, where the members of the team did not demonstrate, as Bevacqua puts it, “our expectation that they treat one another with dignity and respect.” There was no evidence of physical abuse on the team, per Sports Illustrated.

The team was informed of the punishment on Thursday, giving student-athletes (including incoming freshmen) time to transfer before classes start on August 27.

The women’s swimming and diving and men’s diving programs had no involvement and will be unaffected by the punishment. In the statement, Bevacqua also clarified that the coaches and staff were unaware of the gambling and “other troubling behaviors,” and that they fully cooperated with the investigation.

Per the statement, Notre Dame was first informed of potential violations at the end of the academic year, and began conducting an investigation. The school then hired law firm Ropes & Gray to conduct an external review, with the firm delivering the final findings this week.

Individual swimmers who participated may receive additional penalties from the Notre Dame office of student affairs, per Sports Illustrated.

With gambling increasingly becoming a problem on college campus, the NCAA has strict gambling rules in place for student-athletes, which were updated last summer. Per the current NCAA rules, athletes who bet on their own team or on their own schools (in any sport) can face “permanent loss of collegiate eligibility in all sports.”

Some of the Notre Dame swimmers placed bets on other sports and other schools, according to Sports Illustrated; while this is still in violation of NCAA rules, it will yield a lesser punishment than the internal gambling. Punishment for wagers on professional sports or other sports/schools unrelated to the athlete are based on the cumulative value, and increase in severity as the value increases.