this was discussed just last week at the bin actually..
and its true that the pool is a FOOT short of being Olympic size..
two scenarios were presented, and noone knows which is true
Sanderson did it on purpose to make sure it was never used for athletics and only for the general student population (the story most of us heard)
but someone else said, Ole Lar did it to make sure he wouldn't have to put out the funds for the new teams.
needless to say, it cant be fixed and made longer now either because of the pool design (water, pool wall, pool water)