NCAA swimming officially began conference championship season last week with a few Division II conferences handing out hardware. Division I begins this coming weekend, and the weekend after is when the big-boys-and-girls come out to play in major conferences like the ACC and the SEC.
Every year, about this time, there begins this sort of head-scratching about who is going to rest for conference championship meets and who is not; what the value of a conference championship really is; and whether swimmers who are already ensured of invites to the NCAA Championship meet should really care about their conference events, despite the fact that a large portion of the fan base (specifically – the casual fan that we’d like to get more engaged in the sport) and Athletic Directors definitely care.
There’s a pretty easy-seeming solution to this problem that would clear up a lot of these concerns, and more importantly, spread the excitement, interest, and engagement throughout the season: move the conference championships to December, and instead hold “invites” in February.
For every hardcore fan that says “conference titles don’t matter, NCAA’s are all that count,” there’s at least a dozen more who really say that “winning mid-season invites don’t count.” All this rhetoric really accomplishes is diminishing any reason for anyone to pay attention to anything outside of two weeks in late March, which is in no way a positive for the industry and economy of the sport.
Moving conference championship meets to December, however, would give the season a level of excitement (before the natural lull for the holidays and bowl season), and then create a second building-block and a new context for the second semester. More specifically, it will give more than a four week period coming out of training trips to build to the big NCAA Championship meets, as compared to what now feels like an abbreviated four-week segment from “training trip” to “championship”.
While this plan wouldn’t 100% benefit teams across the board, it would certainly benefit way more programs than it would hurt. With most teams resting heavily for their mid-season invites anyway, this change in plans would allow those teams to only have to rest once in season, rather than rest once for mid-season invites, rest again to impress Athletic Directors at conference championships, and then rest a third time for those swimmers fortunate enough to push through to NCAA’s.
Instead, let teams host invites in the block where current conference championship meets are. This would still allow for a high-level, prelims-finals atmosphere for those swimmers still fighting for spots at NCAA’s, but take some pressure off of those athletes (and their coaches) who have already qualified.
There are a few teams that would either have to rethink their season plans, or else sacrifice their conference championship meets – the few remaining holdouts who don’t have a mid-season taper. But, the number of teams negatively affected that way is dwarfed by the number of teams that are positively affected by the change.
And what’s best is that, unlike many of the needed changes to swim meet formats to increase the sport’s mass appeal, this one would actually benefit the end-of-season, winner-takes-all mentality that we cling to, because the end-of-season balance is made much easier.
The idea seems so obvious that it hurts. The only obvious reason why this change hasn’t happened yet is because it would impact the traditional, all-sport NCAA structure of building a season through a conference championship than an NCAA post-season. As the NCAA, through many unrelated avenues, is being forced to open up it’s arms and embrace creativity, however, perhaps this is the time where the huge and slow-moving governing body of collegiate athletics is ready to make a shift.
An Addendum, based on immediate comments:
One reader brought up a valid point of “those swimmers not going for NCAA’s, then what do they really have to train for in the second semester?” This actually brought a new wrinkle to my mind that could make this even more attractive: make the entire conference dual meet seasons in January and February. Then, there’s a large percentage of swimmers who can make those dual meets their focus, thereby bringing even more attention to the NCAA regular season and conference dual meet titles. It would very much make for a change in mentality, but if everyone seems to be worried about the swimmers who make NCAA’s, not just the ones who score at conference championship meets without advancing, anyway, this would give those swimmers something else to race for. Perhaps even a bracket-style conference championship meet could finish off the season.
This kind of thinking is positive for our sport. While I understand the resistance to change from so many of you commenters out there–this is a concept that I have never seen or even fathomed before; it is a concept that actually makes a lot of sense.
If we continue on the path we are on, our sport, as we know it, will be shut out of NCAA D1 athletics by way of funding and other problems, especially given the soon-to-be move of football away from NCAA funding regulations. Once the money from football leaves the athletic department, you can kiss the benefits of that money goodbye for the big time schools. Swimming, to an athletic department, is not revenue… Read more »
This wouldn’t change anything except the amount teams tapered in December. Right now, very few schools do more than a week taper for a midseason invite. Putting conference then would force teams to train with less intensity in the fall, not a good thing.
One of your major points is that, with this format, NCAAs would be faster. I’m going to venture that they would be slower. At the moment, the fastest swimmers only do a marginal taper for conference meet and I see no problem with that. Having a conference meet in the fall would limit their fall training, leading to slower swimming in the end. The magic isn’t in the taper, it’s in the training that comes before… Read more »
I don’t understand why this would be a good idea at all. High level swimmers have to cope with two important meets and two tapers all the time, and do it quite successfully. I’m assuming that if you are that good, you don’t fully taper for conference. It’s good practice for the upcoming Olympic Trials/ Olympics in a year. Swimmers have to prime themselves just to make the team and then switch gears, travel around the world and get ready for the Olympics. Champion swimmers should be able to handle these circumstances.
I’m stealing someone else’s overall idea here but I can’t recall who… and I’m not 100% behind this nor can I justify many of the issues it would create… but it was interesting and I’ve never forgotten it.
Sep-Dec) SC Team season culminating in your conference meets in December around when all the invites and nationals are held.
Jan-Apr) LC Individual (no relays) season culminating in a NCAA-like meet in April.
Some benefits- we get our top kids racing/training more LC (obviously training is dependent on facility) which helps Team USA… potentially takes some of the sprinter heavy recruiting away… can create some more interesting conference meet formats.
Some drawbacks- the bulk of teams don’t have NCAA qualifiers… so what’s the goal of the LC season? I would say there’s some kind of progression with regiona/conference qualifiers and such… but you can only qualify LC.
The only advantage I see of having conferences in December is that the swimmers who need to taper to get their NCAA cuts can taper again for NC’s
No casual fan is going to understand a conference championship in the middle of the season. There’s no real reason for teams to rest mid-season, it’s mostly just tradition. I think as more teams modernize their training approach to allow their swimmers to perform high-level swims “in-season” the need for a December shave-and-taper meet goes out the window. For that reason alone, don’t screw with the conference meet. What I haven’t yet understood is the conferences that split men’s and women’s conference meets. It’s already 4 days long, are the sessions really so packed they can’t do men’s and women’s together in a reasonable time-frame? Same with NCAAs.
Some numbers:
By my count there were 53 men’s team with a swimming qualifier at Div. I NCAA meet. Of these, only 6 men’s teams had 10 or more NCAA swimming qualifiers last year. Two in the SEC (Florida, Georgia), 2 in PAC12 (Cal, Arizona), 1 in the BIG10 (Michigan), and 1 in the BIG12 (Texas).
13 teams had between 5 and 9 qualifiers.
13 teams had 2, 3, or 4 qualifiers.
21 teams had only one qualifier.
A vast majority of division I teams don’t have an NCAA qualifier.
Interesting idea, but I would argue pretty much the opposite should be done. Let’s require all qualifying times be performed at the conference meets held within 4 – 6 weeks of NCAAs. It would be a closer match to our current Olympic Trials / Olympic Games process as well as ramp up the stakes of those conference meets for everyone.
ole 99 – that’s not a bad idea either.
And mandate that all conference meets are held on the same dates and times. East coast starting at noon/7pm and west coast 9am/4pm.
Ridiculous. This isn’t the same situation as a World Cup group stage, now is it?
lol no not too worried about corruption, but this would significantly level the playing field by giving coaches less options for qualifying those on the bubble, and would make for a very compelling spectacle weekend for the sport. If everyone(fans, parents, friends) knew that they could tune in that weekend, see all but the superstars swim their best, and find out who is and isn’t qualified for NCAAs in nearly-real-time, then I think we are moving somewhere towards making this a spectator sport. Gotta create some drama 🙂
PS you could also allow A standards to count for qualifying at any time of the season, to account for injuries or other reasons why one would miss conference. Just an idea