I did mention that swimming is a popular sport in the Americas, and is a great college sport. This perhaps leads to a more understandable analogy.

 Are people more likely to know the names of college football players, or NFL players? College players are not yet fully physically developed (guys peak at 30 and women at 40 (?)), and no rational human would select a college team to defeat an NFL club in a game (the same applies to hockey, soccer, baseball etc...).

You could draw a direct parallel between the development of swimmers and football players through to their college years, but swimmers do not have the allure of the 'pot of gold' that football players do to focus on achieving athletic success. I believe that swimmers are therefore unlikely to achieve the same relative degree of physical development that college football players do.

Swimmers also have a marketing and dilution issue with so many events... There are some thirty five events, and 35 current title holders...