2026 Men’s Big Ten Championships
- Dates: Wednesday, February 25–Saturday, February 28
- Location: Soderholm Family Aquatic Center, Madison, WI
- Defending champions: Indiana men (4x)
- Teams: Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, USC, Wisconsin
- SwimSwam Fan Guide
- Championship Central – Big Ten
- Championship Central – Wisconsin
- Live Results
- Live Video
- Recaps:
For those unfamiliar with swimming terminology, the concept of “Ups” and “Downs” is a good way to track which teams performed best at prelims. In prelims, swimmers qualify for one of three finals heats: the top 8 finishers make the A final, places 9 through 16 the B final and places 17 through 24 the C final. In finals, swimmers are locked into their respective final, meaning a swimmer in the B heat (spots 9-16) can only place as high as 9th or as low as 16th, even if they put up the fastest or slowest time of any heat in the final.
With that in mind, we’ll be tracking “Ups,” “Mids” and “Downs” after each prelims session. “Up” refers to swimmers in the A final, “Mid” to swimmers in the B final and “Down” to swimmers in the C final.
These projections do not include diving
Team Scores After Day 1:
- Michigan – 116
- Ohio State – 114
- Indiana – 110
- Wisconsin – 102
- Northwestern – 100
- USC – 98
- Purdue – 96
- Minnesota – 92
- Penn State – 40
We are two sessions down at the 2026 Big Ten Championships, and there are battles brewing all over the leaderboard.
The Day 2 prelims session saw the Indiana and Michigan men both pick up eight ‘A’ finals swims. Indiana earned more total swims, putting six men into ‘B’ final position and two into ‘C’ finals. They are looking at picking up 300 individual points before diving or relays, which is 25 more than the Michigan men. After the session is over, Indiana is projected to lead by almost 30 points over Michigan.
Ohio State and Wisconsin both earned 5 ‘A’ finalists and have a projected score separation of 7.5 points in the session before relays or diving. Ohio State is projected ahead of Wisconsin despite the fact that Wisconsin earned more finals swimmers because Ohio State swimmers are in better positions.
| All | 100 Fly | 400 IM | 200 Free | 100 Breast | |
| Indiana | 8/6/2 | 1/2/1 | 2/2/1 | 1/2/0 | 4/0/0 |
| Michigan | 8/3/3 | 3/0/0 | 2/1/1 | 2/1/1 | 1/1/1 |
| Wisconsin | 5/5/4 | 0/1/2 | 1/1/0 | 2/1/2 | 2/2/0 |
| Ohio State | 5/4/3 | 1/1/0 | 2/1/1 | 2/1/2 | 0/1/0 |
| USC | 2/4/3 | 1/0/1 | 0/0/1 | 1/2/1 | 0/2/0 |
| Northwestern | 2/2/9 | 1/0/4 | 1/1/1 | 0/1/0 | 0/0/4 |
| Penn State | 1/3/0 | 0/2/0 | 0/0/0 | 0/0/0 | 1/1/0 |
| Minnesota | 1/2/5 | 1/1/0 | 0/1/3 | 0/0/1 | 0/0/1 |
| Purdue | 0/4/2 | 0/1/0 | 0/1/0 | 0/0/1 | 0/2/1 |
Projected Points Per Event
| 100 Fly | 400 IM | 200 Free | 100 Breast | |
| Indiana | 57.5 | 87.0 | 56.0 | 100.0 |
| Michigan | 77.0 | 74.0 | 69.5 | 54.5 |
| Ohio State | 43.0 | 70.0 | 81.5 | 15.0 |
| Wisconsin | 21.0 | 36.0 | 75.0 | 70.0 |
| Northwestern | 49.0 | 52.0 | 12.0 | 10.0 |
| USC | 29.0 | 3.0 | 57.0 | 34.0 |
| Minnesota | 40.5 | 26.0 | 9.0 | 5.0 |
| Penn State | 32.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 38.0 |
| Purdue | 13.0 | 14.0 | 2.0 | 35.5 |
Projected Relay Points
| Indiana | 64 |
| Ohio State | 56 |
| Michigan | 54 |
| Purdue | 52 |
| Northwestern | 50 |
| Wisconsin | 48 |
| USC | 46 |
| Minnesota | 44 |
Total Point Projections
| Day 1 Total | Day 2 Projected | Total Projected | |
| Indiana | 56 | 364.5 | 420.5 |
| Michigan | 64 | 329 | 393 |
| Ohio State | 50 | 265.5 | 315.5 |
| Wisconsin | 46 | 250 | 296 |
| Northwestern | 54 | 173 | 227 |
| USC | 48 | 169 | 217 |
| Purdue | 52 | 116.5 | 168.5 |
| Minnesota | 44 | 124.5 | 168.5 |
SwimSwam has given up on Penn State at this meet….
Well ……
IU simply toying with the underlings
Was just looking at the diving qualifiers. Here’s one not on my bingo card, Michigan is qualified to score more in diving than Indiana! Sheesh!