The Florida Gators have announced their 2015-2016 schedules with an interesting twist in the lead-up to the 2016 Olympics: two of the team’s biggest rivalry meets will be conducted in long course meters.
Florida will dual Georgia in October and Auburn in January, with both home meets being conducted in long course meters.
The Gators generally field a large roster of international students, so a few long course tune-ups make a lot of sense for foreign athletes preparing to represent their countries at the Olympic Games, as well as Americans prepping for the U.S. Olympic Trials.
Florida also lists U.S. Winter Nationals on its schedule, another long course meet. It appears that meet and the Buckeye Invite in Ohio will serve as the team’s mid-season invitational meets for the year.
The NCAA recently added long course meters back into the rulebook as an approved course, meaning there will be a way to qualify for the NCAA Championships using long course times. It hasn’t been decided yet whether that process will include converting long course times for NCAA rankings and national championship invites, or if the NCAA will merely set a hard “A” cut, where an athlete can earn an automatic NCAA bid with a great long course time, but won’t be able to qualify via “B” cuts in the long course format.
Those two rivalry duals should feature some great matchups, and the long course format will give the matchups a unique twist. The Auburn meet pits NCAA champ Caeleb Dressel against All-American Kyle Darmody in the sprints, while the Georgia dual has a great women’s sprint matchup in All-American Natalie Hinds vs. 2014 NCAA champ Olivia Smoliga.
The slate of short course dual meets includes a few notable opponents, too. Florida will travel to Austin, Texas on October 16-17 to face the defending men’s NCAA champs Texas in a triangular with Indiana. That highlights an early-season non-conference run of duals that includes trips to Vanderbilt and Minnesota.
The fall season wraps with a home meet against South Carolina. The Buckeye Invite and Winter Nationals round out the first semester.
The Gators will face in-state rival Florida State on January 2nd, and will conclude the regular season at Tennessee on January 30th.
The co-ed SEC Championships are set to head to Missouri for the first time since the Tigers entered the SEC, and both NCAA Championships are to be held in Atlanta, Georgia at Georgia Tech’s facility.
Both Florida schedules are below. You can find the men’s schedule here and the women’s schedule here.
Men’s Schedule
Nashville, TN
| DATE | MEET | SITE | TIME (ET) | ONLINE | RESULT/DETAILS | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 18 – 20 | All Florida Invitational |
Gainesville
|
All Day | 7:00 pm | ||||
| Sat, Oct 10 | Minnesota |
Minneapolis
|
10:00 am | |||||
| Oct 16 – 17 | Texas/Indiana |
Austin, TX
|
7:00 pm | |||||
| Fri, Oct 30 | Georgia (50 LCM) * |
Gainesville
|
11:00 am | |||||
| Fri, Nov 6 | South Carolina * |
Gainesville, FL
|
2:00 pm | |||||
| Nov 20 – 22 | Buckeye Invitational |
Columbus, OH
|
All Day | |||||
| Dec 3 – 6 | USA Swimming Nationals (50 LCM) |
Federal Way, WA
|
All Day | |||||
| Dec 15 – 20 | USA Diving Nationals |
Indianapolis, IN
|
All Day | |||||
| Sat, Jan 2 | Florida State |
Gainesville
|
2:00 pm | |||||
| Sat, Jan 23 | Auburn (50 LCM) * |
Gainesville
|
11:00 am | |||||
| Sat, Jan 30 | Tennessee * |
Knoxville, TN
|
10:00 am | |||||
| Feb 16 – 20 | SEC Championships * |
Columbia, MO
|
All Day | |||||
| Mar 7 – 9 | NCAA Diving Zones |
Atlanta, GA
|
All Day | |||||
| Mar 24 – 26 | NCAA Championships |
Atlanta, GA
|
All Day | |||||
Women’s Schedule
| DATE | MEET | SITE | TIME (ET) | ONLINE | RESULT/DETAILS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 18 – 20 | All Florida Invitational |
Gainesville
|
All Day | ||
| Thu, Oct 8 | Vanderbilt (No Divers) * |
Nashville, TN
|
7:00 pm | ||
| Sat, Oct 10 | Minnesota |
Minneapolis
|
10:00 am | ||
| Oct 16 – 17 | Texas/Indiana |
Austin, TX
|
7:00 pm | ||
| Fri, Oct 30 | Georgia (50 LCM) * |
Gainesville
|
11:00 am | ||
| Fri, Nov 6 | South Carolina * |
Gainesville
|
2:00 pm | ||
| Nov 20 – 22 | Buckeye Invitational |
Columbus, OH
|
All Day | ||
| Dec 3 – 5 | USA Swimming Nationals (50 LCM) |
Federal Way, WA
|
All Day | ||
| Sat, Jan 2 | Florida State |
Gainesville
|
2:00 pm | ||
| Sat, Jan 23 | Auburn (50 LCM) * |
Gainesville
|
11:00 am | ||
| Sat, Jan 30 | Tennessee * |
Knoxville, TN
|
10:00 am | ||
| Feb 16 – 20 | SEC Championships * |
Columbia, MO
|
All Day | ||
| Mar 7 – 9 | NCAA Diving Zones |
Atlanta, GA
|
All Day | ||
| Mar 17 – 19 | Women’s NCAA Championships |
Atlanta, GA
|
All Day | ||
I thought ASU sun devils also had “Olympic aspirations” as Bob Bowman said on his initial interview.
Is ASU is not even facing anyone home or away in LCM this season? They have got to be! Anxious to see their schedule announcement. I know many will weight going to these schools based on the fact of racing consistently on LCM over a school who doesn’t. Specially a year from Olympic Trials.
I wait for the day all of NCAA is in lcm.
NCAA shouldhave a one-day time trial on the Sunday after nationals. Athletes from countries with no large selection meet may try to make FINA cuts at that meet. Many federations don’t have a selection meet per se: they rely on results from meets in other countries. If a federation has a few world-ranked swimmers, and doesn’t have two swimmers per event, as the USA and Australia usually do, they let recent results dictate FINA/Olympic participation. Then there are regional meets that help: Uvis Kalnins qualified for Barcelona ’13 in the 100m free at a May meet in Jenks, OK (50.low).
BaldingEagle – in 2012, several of the major conferences did a one-day long course invite after their conference championships. It definitely seems like an idea we’ll see tossed around this coming season, too.
*duel
“Dual” as in “Dual Meet.” Both spellings are probably acceptable, but “dual” is generally more widely used and widely accepted.
Then wouldn’t you just say dual meet instead of saying they will dual them? I got a C in English not a D
I’m assuming Vanderbilt on the men’s schedule is an error since Vanderbilt does not have a men’s program?