Per the request of some of our commenters, we’ve gone through and scored out how the NCAA division 1 team battle would go based on the midseason rankings. It should be noted that a handful of teams were without some of their best swimmers. For example, Virginia was without reigning NCAA champ Leah Smith, while Michigan was without All-American Clara Smiddy, as those 2 swimmers missed midseason invited to focus on last week’s Short Course World Championships.
This article only discusses scores based on the women’s rankings, which you can find here. For the men’s version of the scores based on midseason rankings, click here.
A FEW THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND:
- Some swimmers were ranked in the top 16 in more than 3 events. We took their 3 highest finishes and dropped them out of the others, bumping the next fastest swimmers up into the top 16 and assigning scores accordingly.
- It should also be noted that swimmers were able to swim all 5 relays at these invites, which they won’t be able to do at NCAAs unless the only swim 2 individual events.
- Diving will play a role in the team scoring at NCAAs, which isn’t accounted for here.
NCAA WOMEN’S TEAM SCORES BASED ON MIDSEASON RANKINGS
| Place | Team | Score |
| 1 | Stanford | 418 |
| 2 | Cal | 400 |
| 3 | Georgia | 298 |
| 4 | Texas | 281.5 |
| 5 | Virginia | 252 |
| 6 | NC State | 222 |
| 7 | Arizona | 208 |
| 8 | USC | 207 |
| 9 | Texas A&M | 181 |
| 10 | Michigan | 174 |
| 11 | Louisville | 169 |
| 12 | Kentucky | 98 |
| 13 | Missouri | 95 |
| 14 | Wisconsin | 85 |
| 15 | Minnesota | 84 |
| 16 | Florida State | 77 |
| 17 | Ohio State | 77 |
| 18 | Indiana | 59 |
| 18 | UNC | 57 |
| 20 | UCLA | 31 |
| 21 | Denver | 24 |
| 22 | Cincinnati | 23 |
| 23 | Alabama | 16 |
| 24 | Boise State | 15 |
| 25 | Iowa | 12 |
| 26 | Auburn | 11 |
| 27 | Duke | 10 |
| 28 | Tennessee | 9 |
| 28 | Northwestern | 9 |
| 30 | Pitt | 8 |
| 31 | Akron | 5 |
| 32 | Buffalo | 3 |
| 33 | Utah | 2 |
| 33 | FGCU | 2 |
| 33 | Florida International | 2 |
| 36 | Arkansas | 1 |
Great Californian battle in perspective. All small detalis will count. Any relay disqualification will be fatal.
I’m not a college swimming specialist but on paper I would pick Stanford right now only because they have 2 superstars with SM and KL and probably have better relays. But it will be incredibly close. Georgia is never to forget as they always perform very well when it counts. But they seem behind this year. Texas should perform much better than the other years. It will be easy to do better.
Just a question. Where is Florida in these projections? It’s one of the most known US college swimming places and right now they would not finish in the top 36?… Read more »
Hey Bobo. Troy is known to not fully rest his swimmers at midseason, so I’m sure that’s at least a factor. We’ll have to wait and see how the SEC meet goes for them!
Lauren is spot on…Troy will have a good year with the Gator Ladies in 2017 and build them back to final four status by 2019.
I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that Stanford could win it this year.
Could Stanford win despite having for example 120 points less than Cal like in the US presidential elections? 🙂
too soon, bobo, too soon.
I don’t see the UNC men on this list? Based on their times this year they would CRUSH it if they swam in this meet.
lol! Good troll, unc men are relevant comparisons to women. I enjoy your humor. Keep up the great work
Wow….the movement has started. Can they just hire Yuri already! Put an end to this
Thanks for the shoutout! Unfortunately, the University of Northern Colorado does not have a Men’s Swimming and Diving team, but we appreciate your anonymous support nonetheless. Go Bears!
go texas!
Texas women are always up at the top in this point of season. I can’t remember the last time they had a successful NCAA meet. sad
Capitani had a great interview explaining last year’s performance; sickness and a young squad. This year will be phenomenal.
A young squad is just an excuse. Sickness I understand. But if they’ve been consistently underperforming, although a young squad and sickness play a role, it’s probably more that the coaching staff is probably resting th more for different meet/s or just can’t prepare them for ncaas.
Actually you are clueless and need to get the “little brother” chip off your shoulder. Last year was the only year Capitani’s squad “underperformed” her previous seasons not only did she outperform beginning of the season predictions she also beat mid-season predictions and scoring from the psych sheet predictions! Capitani will do great things and the people who are relative to college swimming know that.
Beginning of the season predictions don’t mean a thing. Mid season predictions based on psych sheets don’t mean a thing.
The only thing that matters with the elite programs, and I consider Texas an elite program, is how well you perform at NCAAs.
They are looking fantastic so far this year. Hopefully they can keep it going, and perform just as well at NCAAs.
Using young team and sickness for not performing well are just excuses. Most college coaches know that although both can play a role, it’s more likely a coaching issue.
Yes, but I think there’s an even bigger problem than what’s going on at Texas. There are so many schools out there who have had the same coah for years, but have made no impact on the standings, i.e. Michigan State, Iowa, Auburn, Utah (even tho they went through a lot of crap 5-6 yrs ago, and the list goes on. All the coaches at the programs I’ve listed have been there for at least five years and have either fotten worse or stayed stagnant. I think a better question is: why are consistently underperforming coaches allowed to keep their jobs?
I was talking about NCAA championship psych sheet in which in all previous years she has outperformed expectations. I do agree Texas is an elite program with facilities. academics and a great city to back it up and they should expect to be consistently in contention for a top 4 finish. This is Capitani’s 5th season and her first season with four classes (I believe she walked into a class of 1 freshman her first season) so hopefully they can carry it into NCAA’s. This is why it’s fun to watch college swimming!
Sorry! I posted the above comment in the wrong place!
I was talking about NCAA championship psych sheet in which in all previous years she has outperformed expectations. I do agree Texas is an elite program with facilities. academics and a great city to back it up and they should expect to be consistently in contention for a top 4 finish. This is Capitani’s 5th season and her first season with four classes (I believe she walked into a class of 1 freshman her first season) so hopefully they can carry it into NCAA’s. This is why it’s fun to watch college swimming!
A&M and Stanford in the past have had a young rosters, and they’ve yet to underperform. Definitely a coaching thing.