2022-2023 NCAA Men’s Power Rankings: New Year’s Edition

As in previous years, SwimSwam’s Power Rankings are somewhere between the CSCAA-style dual meet rankings and a pure prediction of NCAA finish order.  SwimSwam’s rankings take into account how a team looks at the moment, while focusing on each team’s NCAA scoring potential (see the CSCAA poll for dual meet rankings). These rankings are by nature subjective, and a jumping-off point for discussion.  If you disagree with any team’s ranking, feel free to make your case in our comments section.

Braden Keith, Spencer Penland, Robert Gibbs, Yanyan Li, and Anya Pelshaw contributed to this report.

As we move into the second semester’s dual meets, which restart at scale this week, it’s time to evaluate where teams stand and where they’re headed mid-season. These rankings were heavily informed, though not dictated by, the mid-season scoring exercise.

Previous Ranks:

• Pre-season Edition
• October Edition

Honorable Mentions: Harvard Crimson, Purdue Boilermakers, Pennsylvania Quakers

T-#25: PRINCETON TIGERS + (PREVIOUS RANK: HM)

Princeton’s been an honorable mention for the last two editions of the power rankings. They’ve cracked the top 25 for the first time this season thanks to strong performances at their midseason, the Big Al Invite, which they won. -SK

T-#25: NOTRE DAME FIGHTING IRISH -2 (PREVIOUS RANK: 23)

After a year off with injury, Jack Hoagland looked solid, but not spectacular, in his mid-season return. He’s got a ways to go before he gets back to his pre-injury, ACC-Swimmer-of-the-Year form, but mid-season was never his forte anyway. -BK

#24: ARIZONA WILDCATS + (PREVIOUS RANK: HM)

Arizona men somehow find a way to sneak in the top twenty five, every single year. Their sprinters impressed at invites. -YL

#23: GEORIGA TECH YELLOWJACKETS + (PREVIOUS RANK: NR)

Berke Saka might be Yellowjackets’ solution for where their NCAA points will come from with Caio Pumputis and Christian Ferraro graduated. Saka did not score as a freshman, but is currently sitting #6 in the nation in the 200 back (1:40.02) and #12 in the 100 back (45.60). Those are both lifetime bests for him, and set him up to be a major part of keeping Georgia Tech in the top 25. -SK

#22: MIAMI (FL) HURRICANES + (PREVIOUS RANK: HM)

Miami’s prowess on the boards should keep them positioned inside the top 25 at NCAAs. -SK

#21: COLUMBIA LIONS +1 (PREVIOUS RANK: 22)

Diver Jonathan Suckow–who scored all of Columbia’s 30 points last year–has been performing well, recently winning both the 1m and 3m boards at the Big Al Invite. Freshman Adam Wu is worth keeping an eye on too; he’s living up to the hype. -SK

#20: MISSOURI TIGERS — (PREVIOUS RANK: 20)

Missouri is one of just two teams to maintain their October ranking. Clement Secchi and Jack Dahlgren remain two great pieces for the Tigers with their strong times in the 200 freestyle/backstroke/butterfly. But the question remains of who is going to step up along with them still needs answering. -SK

#19: LSU TIGERS -3 (PREVIOUS RANK: 16)

The Tigers’ dip in the rankings from October is more a function of other teams on the rise than them underperforming. Brooks Curry was faster than he was at midseason last year, though the defending 50 and 100 free champion is going to have an uphill battle repeating in both. Something to keep an eye on is his 200 freestyle: he was sixth last year and with Drew Kibler, Matt Sates, and Kieran Smith gone, could finish higher on the podium. That would help offset losing diver Juan Hernandez‘s 32 points. -SK

#18: LOUISVILLE CARDINALS -3 (PREVIOUS RANK: 15)

The Cardinals are still searching for identity after the graduation of Nic Albiero, and they’ll have the chance to find it in a stiff spring dual meet schedule. Circle January 21 against Kentucky and January 27 against Indiana as two good barometers. -BK

#17: MINNESOTA GOLDEN GOPHERS +1 (PREVIOUS RANK: 18)

Starting a run of three straight teams with a clear leader, I like Minnesota’s next-best swimmers’ odds of scoring the most. -BK

One of the biggest surprises of the invite season was how strong Minnesota’s 800 free relay was—they broke a team record from 2009. The majority of this team’s star power still comes from Max McHugh, but swimmers like Bar Soloveychik and Kaiser Neverman are making names for themselves as well. -YL

#16: MICHIGAN WOLVERINES -2 (PREVIOUS RANK: 14)

It’s still not entirely clear what the Wolverines are going to look like this year, but there are some bright spots. Bence Szabados was faster mid-season in the 50 free (19.36) than he was at Big Tens, and Gal Cohen has continued his upward trajectory from last season. Michigan had a rough six months or so, but things seem to be stabilizing – at least outwardly. -BK

#15: AUBURN TIGERS +6 (PREVIOUS RANK: 21)

Auburn has been impressive all season long and that continued at their midseason invite. Reid Mikuta particularly shone – his 51.14 100 breast is the top time this year and would’ve vaulted him into the ‘A’ final at 2022 NCAAs. -SK

#14: ALABAMA CRIMSON TIDE -2 (PREVIOUS RANK: 12)

Transfer Victor Johansson broke school records in the 500 free and 1650 at their midseason invite. His 14:39.63 leads the NCAA this season. It would’ve been 10th at 2022 NCAAs, a welcome sign for Alabama, which had no scorers in the mile last year. -SK

#13: VIRGINIA TECH HOKIES -3 (PREVIOUS RANK: 10)

The team still had strong performances from some of their NCAA crew from last year, but the incoming freshman still seem to be adjusting. -AP

#12 GEORGIA BULLDOGS -3 (PREVIOUS RANK: 9)

Luca Urlando…oof…. -YL

Losing Luca Urlando for the rest of the season is a brutal blow. He was their highest scorer at 2022 NCAAs with 50 points and factored on four scoring relays. In the three freestyle relays, he was UGA’s fastest split on all of them 18.79/41.71/1:30.58. He and Matt Sates scored 86 individual points in 2022; subtract those and UGA would have been 13th. They had some strong performances at their midseason invite, but it’s a steep challenge to make up those points. -SK

#11: TEXAS A&M AGGIES +6 (PREVIOUS RANK: 17)

Thanks to a sensational team performance at midseason, the Aggies have catapulted up the rankings, moving up six spots from 17th to 11th. Baylor Nelson is bringing exactly what the Aggies hoped he would bring, transfer Anze Fers Erzen hit an ‘A’ cut in the 400 IM, and Alex Sanchez has the #2 200 breast time in the country (1:51.09). That’s a solid foundation for A&M to build on and hopefully reverse their slide down the standings. -SK

#10: OHIO STATE BUCKEYES +1 (PREVIOUS RANK: 10)

Hudson McDaniel is still on the team’s roster, but didn’t race for the Buckeyes in the fall. If he shows up, that really shores up the breaststroke crew, and makes this a more complete team. -BK

#9: STANFORD CARDINAL -2 (PREVIOUS RANK: 7)

Minakov not being here hurts Stanford, but I’m still looking to see if strong freshman class will breakout (which I don’t think happened at invites) -YL

Is Andrei Minakov going to compete for the Cardinal this year? If not, that’s a big loss – not only did he win an NCAA title last year, but he swam all 5 relays. Their freshmen class has enough potential that I’m not yet ready to move them down from #7, but both Virginia and Tennessee are surging. -SK

I expected more from Stanford mid-season. They’ve got some ground to make up if they want to get into the top 10. -BK

#8: TENNESSEE VOLUNTEERS +5 (PREVIOUS RANK: 13)

Becoming a sprint powerhouse. -AP

Jordan Crooks and Gui Caribe have quickly become one of the best 1-2 sprint punches in the NCAA. -SK

The Crooks/Caribe duo have become one to fear on the back half of relays. They are gonna need more firepower to actually finish fifth like their midseason rankings project them to, but the improvement of swimmers like Landon Driggers and Nick Simons have me hopeful. -YL

#7: VIRGINIA CAVALIERS +1 (PREVIOUS RANK: 8)

Noah Nichols has been having an excellent season, currently ranking third in the nation in the 100 breast (51.51) and ninth in the 200 (1:52.62). Sprinter Matt King was faster than he was this time last year. They won’t really show their cards until the postseason, but with teams that finished above them in the standings last year losing crucial pieces, look for Virginia to try to use the opportunity to climb up higher in the top 10. -SK

#6: INDIANA HOOSIERS – (PREVIOUS RANK: 6)

With Arizona State on the rise, I currently have Indiana on the outside looking into the top 5. But as always, their diving could be the difference maker for them. -SK

#5: NC STATE WOLFPACK -1 (PREVIOUS RANK: 4)

NC State is a very good team, so it feels weird to rank them so low (#6) on my ballot. But this year’s top 5 is going to be a bloodbath, and there’s going to be a great team left out. -BK

#4: ARIZONA STATE SUN DEVILS +1 (PREVIOUS RANK: 5)

It’s the way that this team is going to be even better than what they are now when Hubert Kos arrives… -YL

ASU was impressive at their midseason invite: Leon Marchand did Leon Marchand things, their relays were sharp, and they showed depth even in the events they aren’t typically known for. This team with Hubert Kos is well set up for the postseason, making the top 5 race even tighter. -SK

#3: FLORIDA GATORS -1 (PREVIOUS RANK: 2)

This Florida team is living up the the early season hype. They have the potential to do some incredible things in the sprint relays come championship meet season. -SP

Florida had a lot of hype earlier in the season, even though Texas had plenty of fast swims too. Josh Liendo looks great, and they had some fast swims by relatively unheralded swimmers like Alekas Savicas. -RG

#2: TEXAS LONGHORNS +1 (PREVIOUS RANK: 3)

Impressive for Texas to be ranked second in the midseason rankings even with weaker relays and swimmers like Carson Foster, Caspar Corbeau, and David Johnston not swimming at invites. For that reason, I think they’ll be just fine. -YL

Texas swam so fast this fall it’s making me wonder how much faster they’ll be at the end of the season. That being said, if they’re firing on all cylinders in March they have a very real shot at winning NCAAs. -SP

The core is as strong as ever, with a floor of about 11 A-finals and a ceiling of maybe 18. The problem is that they don’t seem to have a lot of B-final type swimmers right now, and the relays are still a mess. There’s enough talent on this team that I still think they could push Cal at NCAAs with a few things going right. -RG

#1: CAL GOLDEN BEARS – (PREVIOUS RANK: 1)

Both Texas and Arizona State have a lot more top ten indiviudal performances than does Cal thus far. But the relays look to be in great shape, and that, plus Hugo Gonzalez‘s impending return and Texas’ relay issues, are enough for me to join in with the rest of the writers and move Cal to #1. -RG

Cal’s swimming roster is just so stacked. Especially with Hugo Gonzalez slated to return, it seems the most likely outcome is that the Golden Bears repeat as national champions. -SP

With Hugo Gonzalez set to return to Berkeley this semester, Cal’s got a clear shot at repeating as national champions. -SK

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