Auburn Freshman swimmer Keaton Rice added a letter to the Home v NCAA docket yesterday discussing the impression of roster limits as he implored the court docket to “grandfather” athletes into their applications.
Boise State Assistant Professor Sam Ehrlich posted the letter on X with the delicate info eliminated
One other athlete letter has been posted to the Home v. NCAA docket. This one is from Auburn freshman swimmer Keaton Rice, who says that half of his crew can be reduce beneath new roster limits. He joins others in calling for the bounds to be grandfathered in. pic.twitter.com/mMPJBDbVcN
— Sam C. Ehrlich (@samcehrlich) January 11, 2025
Rice states that “these roster limits are unfair for the coed athletes which can be presently collaborating in school sports activities.” He goes on to debate how half the crew can be launched, and he would lose roughly $30,000 a yr because of the excessive out-of-state value of attending Auburn.
He additionally listed the opposite “financial perks” the athletes would lose as soon as they have been reduce, together with free eating, free healthcare, free tutoring, and free tickets to all sporting occasions.
Rice then goes into discussing his personal private state of affairs, saying “I’m a freshman and they might want to chop 20 males so I’m positive to go,”. In accordance with Rice, it might value his mother and father an additional $40,000 a yr for him to proceed to attend Auburn after being launched, and it is a value they’d not have dedicated to had they recognized he could possibly be launched. He additionally mentions that they have already got a lease settlement for housing subsequent yr along with his mother and father as co-signers which he wouldn’t be capable to break.
He then explains how it’s too late for him to enter the portal, however it’s “value prohibitive to stay with out all of the monetary advantages of being an athlete.”
Rice ends his letter telling the court docket, “you have to take into account the hundreds of us that can be in the identical place and permit us to be “grandfathered in” since we made selections for our future based mostly on circumstances that have been beforehand set in stone!”
Rice is beforehand from Texas, coming from Lakeside Aquatic Membership in Flower Mound. He has solely competed in a single meet for Auburn this yr, the Georgia Tech Invitational, the place he positioned twenty fourth within the 100 free at 44.97 and twenty fifth within the 200 free at 1:38.70.
These have been each slight provides from his greatest occasions of 44.76 within the 100 and 1:38.57 within the 200. He additionally swam on Auburn’s ‘D’ 400 free relay, main off in 44.88, their ‘D’ 400 medley relay, once more main off in 49.15 on the backstroke, and their ‘E’ 200 free relay the place he went 20.55.
Auburn presently has 44 males on their roster. 11 of these swimmers are seniors or graduate college students, however they’ve already signed 10 on for subsequent yr. The SEC roster cap has reportedly been finalized at 22 athletes, which suggests a big variety of males would should be reduce to achieve this restrict.
Faculties don’t want to satisfy the swimming roster restrict by the beginning of the college yr, they only should be compliant by their first meet of the season. This yr Auburn’s first meet was October eleventh.
