Four-time Olympic swimming medalist Anthony Ervin has a message for proponents of California State Assembly Bill 252, which he sees as a massive looming threat to broad-based collegiate athletics programs: “Without the opportunity to pursue both an education and sport, morale will wither and we’ll see some of our geopolitical rivals topping us in [Olympic] medal counts.”
Ervin is meeting with legislators in Washington, D.C., this week with two more United States Olympic swimming heroes, fellow gold medalists Summer Sanders and Maya DiRado, to discuss the bill that has passed the California Assembly and is headed to the state senate later this summer.
AB 252 would require the state’s 26 Division I schools to share revenue with athletes, particularly football and men’s basketball players whose sports generate the majority of that money. If the bill becomes law, the diverting of funding from Olympic sports—most of which do not create substantial revenue for their athletic departments —could lead to the widespread elimination of those varsity athletic teams. Most athletic departments distribute their combined sports revenue throughout the entire program.
