The question that I have is how do we change this? How do we get some of the top high school swimmers to want to come and swim for UNC? Does NIL money have a lot to do with it? Are the facilities that bad?
First, no, revenue share is not a major component of swimming. Top swimmers flock to programs with coaches, technology and facilities known to increase chances to get into (or stay) world class swimming. UNC and other programs are trying to increase scholarship counts in swimming. I have no idea where swimming stands in our pecking order among teams, but surely there is a pecking order. It is possible that top teams are prioritizing expanding swimming scholarships faster than we are, but I really have no idea.
- UNC can compete in diving and breaststroke due to specific coaches.
- The UNC natatorium was nice when built but is now the oldest facility on campus in terms of replacement or recent major upgrade. And we do not have cutting edge technology that some of the top programs like UVA have managed to build combining their academic faculty with team performance.
- Koury Natatorium replacement is now tied with decisions surrounding the removal or refurbishment of the Dean Dome. If they were to do the big update to the Dome, KN, likely would need to come down for the extra needed space and thus be replaced. But if it is a tear down I have no idea where that puts KN; not sure if the AD truly knows yet either. But the point is, no decision on KN will be considered until the arena decision is made. UNC has a stated priority of Softball and rowing upgrades (which both obviously take a back seat to The Arena.) So as it stands right now, KN would be at best in the next round of facility upgrades or replacements.... unless the Dean Dome takes their footprint sooner.
So for the near future it seems that we will continue to focus on grinding with incremental improvements through our coaches building a program. It is not like we are failing: The UNC men last season finished ranked 12th and the women were ranked 15th. There was a definite drop-off this year to 23rd men and 20th women, but still relevant.
But we are not reasonably competitive with the UVA and Stanford women, nor the Cal and NCSU men. When we face them it is a bloodbath against those top national teams. I don't see us catching them any time soon. UVA is recruiting Olympic gold medalists on the regular. And their coaches tend to be tied to the Olympic program.
So then the question becomes, is it reasonable to expect to be truly competitive at a national title level in every single sport? Does just the realities of uphill battles in terms of tradition against established programs, and accepting that there will never be enough resources to compete at top money in all 28 varsity sports as a member of the ACC with ACC level resources need to be factored in?
If your goal is Director's Cup points, we are actually doing OK in swimming. If your goal is to be as good as rivals UVA and NCSU (and dook) at literally everything year in and year out, then yeah, we are not there in the sports they succeed in (and perhaps value) the most. I don't have a solution for that above and beyond what we are already doing. Should we expect to match ND in football? Should WF expect to match us in basketball? What is realistic?