All of the sites have been announced for the 2026 conference championships at the Power 4 level. The SEC will be combined at Tennessee, the ACC will be at Georgia Tech, and the Big 12 will be at Greensboro Aquatic Center. The Big Ten splits their meet into a women’s meet at Minnesota while the men’s meet is at Wisconsin.
Power 4 Conference Meet Schedule
- SEC Championships: February 16-21, Knoxville, Tennessee (University of Tennessee)
- ACC Championships: February 17-21, Atlanta, Georgia (Georgia Tech University)
- Big 10 Championships Women: February 18-21, Minneapolis, Minnesota (University of Minnesota)
- Big 12 Championships: February 24-28, Greensboro, North Carolina (Greensboro Aquatic Center)
- Big 10 Championships Men: February 25-28, Madison, Wisconsin (University of Wisconsin)
The only site not on a typical campus is the Big 12 Championships as they will travel to North Carolina. Of note, much of the Big 12 is located far from Greensboro. The closest schools are West Virginia and Cincinnati while some of the furthest schools are Arizona St and Utah. This also is the furthest change of a distance from 2025 to 2026 as this past season’s championships were located in Federal Way, Washington.
In addition to hosting the 2026 ACC Championships, Georgia Tech will also host the 2026 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships. The women’s meet is scheduled to run from March 18-21 while the men’s meet is scheduled for March 25-28.
Georgia Tech also has the largest spectator capacity and is just above Greensboro which just held the 2025 ACC Championships and has been selected to host the 2027, 2028, and 2029 ACC Championships as well. The Big Ten Championships at Minnesota and Wisconsin have the smallest spectator seating, but the meet being broken up into men’s and women’s should help with capacity limits compared to the other three conference championships.
Capacities
| Georgia Tech | 1,900 |
| Greensboro | 1,850 |
| Tennessee | 1,800 |
| Minnesota | 1,350 |
| Wisconsin | 1,200 |
Love the Big 10 set up this year. 15 minute drive to watch the women, then spend most of a week back at my alma mater for the men.
Houston wasn’t available? Seems to me they would at least make an attempt to stay centrally located with such a geographically spread-out conference. And UH and WVU are the only conference schools with indoor venues that can host. The central US needs more indoor, non-university aquatic centers capable of holding meets like this!
I wonder if they considered the Nat in Indy. Carmel High School’s pool seats 1,400, but that’s probably not viable.
Houston has been hosting mid major conference championships. I think they did three last year, and some have multi year contracts. It wouldn’t surprise me if the facility wasn’t available. Also wouldn’t surprise me if the conference refused to go there. They may have fixed some issues, but there was some real issues there, sound being one of them. Also not the most customer friendly place. That those other conferences go there is a testament to the lack of facilities that can host a conference swim and dive meet in this country.
Ah yes because Greensboro is famously central to all the Big 12 schools. Wtf are we doing here.
Yeah I mean Houston has a beautiful pool capable of hosting a meet like this. I don’t know why they wouldn’t use that. Easy to get to, an actual Big 12 school…must’ve been booked already?
UH unfortunately got a bad rep for poorly run/hosted meets and having a meet of fair size has caused some real issues with air quality.
Hosting can be fixed.
But the potential air quality issues in that facility are a legit concern for a meet of that level.
Also lodging. There’s not much around the UH campus or at least there didn’t use to be much.
At least Greensboro addressed their air quality issue after that disastrous Juniors. I don’t think UH ever has.
One of the hosting issues generally in these college facilities is that you’re not dealing with athletics or a special events center staff, but a rec sports staff. Athletics just always rents the pool. Rec sports doesn’t exist to serve athletics or special events, especially swim meets, but to serve campus recreation. Closing for events can be a headache for them, so they don’t like to do it. There also tends to be an attitude of doing the host a huge inconvenient favor by hosting vs a welcoming customer service, even as they charge exorbitant fees for everything. You look at the places that are successful and where everyone returns to, and they are legacy venues built to be in… Read more »
I believe Big12 will be back hosted by WVU in 2027. Houston is hosting the Big12 showdown in January of this year so you’ll get to see firsthand if any issues (Perceived or not) are handled. Maybe after 2027 Houston will be in the rotation.
Big 12 was in Federal Way last year. Must not want any home pool advantage?
It’s worth a 10-12 hour drive for sure
Worth a 20 hr drive to enjoy the beauty, friendly atmosphere and hospitality in Knoxville, TN where the SEC Champs will be decided.