In the Summit League Championship this weekend, the Eastern men’s and women’s swimming teams will be competing against Oakland University.

Currently, Oakland has 18 of the 21 overall top male times in the Summit League this season.

This means only three other male swimmers in the entire conference have a better time in a single event then those of Oakland, who just also happens to be hosting the Summit League Championship at OU Athletic Center in Rochester, Mich.

It gets even worse on the women’s swimming side as Oakland boasts 19 of the 21 best times for an event this season. Oakland’s female swimmers sophomore Alyssa Vela and senior Sophia Gustafsson each hold five of the top individual swim times this season.

Oakland men’s and women’s swim teams also have had at least one member of its squad finish no lower than second in every single swim meet this season.

With daunting statistics such as these, it has begun to bring about the question of whether or not Oakland should be moved to another conference, one that would be more suited to give better competition to them.

As with most situations like this, money is the root of the issue. Simply put, Oakland has a lot of capital and the rest of the schools in the division simply don’t have as much.

To put this in perspective you can look no further than the amount of full scholarships that Oakland gave out to the swimmers of its team. Oakland gave out exactly 14 full scholarships between their men’s and women’s swim team, while other schools in the conference typically gave out two or three.

Eastern head swimming coach Matt Bos explained that it is no secret why Oakland is as successful as they are.

“In our conference, as far as funding and facilities goes, Oakland is far and away more advanced than any other team in the conference,” Bos said. “The fact of it is that Oakland is funded to be that good, so we try to focus more on competing with teams like Western and IUPUI.”

Bos said that for the Eastern swimming squads it is more about competing with the teams that are similar in funding and facilities, than trying to compete with Oakland.

Bos’ statement makes one wonder why the Summit League has not begun to take a further look into moving Oakland into a more competitive conference for them.

If one team is completely dominating a conference and it is because of financial availabilities, someone should step in and at least examine the situation.

Neil Schneider can be reached at 581-7944 or jnschneider@eiu.edu.