SwimSwam Pulse: 38.2% Pick Big Ten As Most Wide Open Men’s Conference This Season

SwimSwam Pulse is a recurring feature tracking and analyzing the results of our periodic A3 Performance Polls. You can cast your vote in our newest poll on the SwimSwam homepage, about halfway down the page on the right side, or you can find the poll embedded at the bottom of this post.

Our most recent poll asked SwimSwam readers which conference championship title is the most wide open this season on the men’s side:

Question: Which men’s conference title is most up for grabs this season?

RESULTS

• Big Ten – 38.1%
• Pac-12 – 24.9%
• SEC – 21.2%
• ACC – 15.6%

Nearly half of readers voted the SEC as the conference title most up for grabs on the women’s side last week, and in our recent men’s poll, the Big Ten came out on both, though opinions are more split than they were for the women.

38 percent believe the Big Ten title is the most up for grabs among Power Five conferences (not including the Big 12, where Texas is a lock), though the Pac-12, SEC and ACC all received at least 15 percent of votes.

Indiana is coming in as the defending Big Ten champions after topping Ohio State by 93 points last season, giving the Hoosiers their fourth title in six seasons.

Indiana had two swimmers score the maximum 96 individual points at the 2022 Big Tens, Brendan Burns and Andrew Capobianco, and both are back this season. Other top scorers from last year such as Tomer Frankel and Quinn Henninger also return, while youngsters Josh Matheny and Rafael Miroslaw are also expected to make an increased impact this season, so it’s easy to pencil in IU as the favorites.

After placing second last season, Ohio State has performed well through the 2022-23 campaign, though they have lost their top scorer from the 2022 championships, Hunter Armstrong.

Taking second in the poll with nearly 25 percent of votes was the Pac-12, where the reigning NCAA champion Cal Bears will have to fend off the charging Arizona State Sen Devils, who thumped them 211-87 in a dual meet last weekend. Stanford placed second to Cal last year, but based on recent performances, it figures to be a battle between the Bears and ASU for the win.

Florida and NC State have been dominant recently in the SEC and ACC, respectively, though it’s notable that the SEC (21.2 percent) picked up more votes than the ACC (15.6) despite Florida absolutely demolishing the SEC last season by nearly 500 points, while the ACC was more competitive and Louisville is only two seasons removed from upsetting NC State for the title.

Below, vote in our new A3 Performance Poll, which asks: Will Leon Marchand hold both world records in the men’s individual medley events by the end of the 2024 Olympics?

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ABOUT A3 PERFORMANCE

The A3 Performance Poll is courtesy of A3 Performance, a SwimSwam partner.