2026 NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships
- Wednesday, March 18 – Saturday, March 21, 2026
- McAuley Aquatic Center, Atlanta, GA
- Defending Champions: Virginia (5x)
- Championship Central
- Preview Index
- Psych Sheet
- Live Stream
- Live Results
- Live Recaps
Wednesday night’s crowd at the 2026 NCAA Division I Women’s Championships let out “boos” last night as the announcer spoke of the new NCAA Championship format, specifically over the lack of ‘B’ finals.
After the 200 medley relay, and before the 800 free relay, there was a 45 minute break last night. During this break, the announcer at Georgia Tech went through the schedule for Thursday night, talking about how it would be a quicker finals session with the absence of ‘B’ finals.
The lack of ‘B’ final has arguably been the biggest change that the swimming community has been frustrated with. ‘B’ finals are now being scored with the top 9-16 swimmers from prelims, rather than giving them another swim during the finals session.
From a spectator standpoint, the change may also impact the energy of finals sessions, as ‘B’ finals have traditionally helped build momentum leading into championship heats. Last night’s session of just three heats resulted in a smaller crowd as although Wednesday’s crowd has always been mostly families of swimmers, with fewer swimmers now racing at night, this crowd that let out “boos” was sparse even by Wednesday standards.
The absence of the ‘B’ final is an attempt to make the swimming and diving championships more broadcast friendly, making it a quicker session. Other changes that relate to this include awards being at the end of the night, a shorter diving session, and a new event lineup.
As a college swimmer who only got the chance to swim at night in the consolation heat, I throughly disagree with this decision. The NCAA continues to be a joke of an organization. Clearly it no longer cares a whit about the athletes, but only about the TV audience such as it is. There is nothing like swimming at night in a big championship meet and doing away with the consolation heat just deprives swimmers who have worked hard all season of that experience. Shame on the NCAA. Henry Green, Tennessee swimming 1973
Good what is even the point of doing the whole golden ticket thing if you’re not going to even offer a B final. None of the mid majors wouldn’t qualify for b finals I think but why have someone go who doesn’t even have a B cut try to make it into one final just seems so stupid to me.
Scoring to 16 places but not swimming a B final is just plain dumb. Why not do like they do at plenty of other USA Swimming events and swim all the B finals at the end of the session? Or the beginning?
I think everyone needs to take a stance. Speak up athletes, coaches and parents. This is an atrocity. The place is empty and the atmosphere is not nearly as exciting as previous years. This is the worst decision made by the wrong people.
Braden –
Do you know WHO on the Board of Directors and staff voted for taking the consolation final heat out of the NCAA Championship meet??
Imagine squeaking into the b final at 16th place with the swim of your life, the peak of your career as a college swimmer. then there’s no finals because apparently the top 9-16 collegiate swimmers in the us aren’t “elite” enough to be fun to watch. NCAA’s are won in b finals, those points matter an insane amount for the teams looking to place as high as possible. Most ridiculous thing ever, can’t believe anybody involved with swimming is that idiotic as to think this would possibly be a good change.
The stationary camera set up in the jet stream of the facility was nice for prelims. The warped picture was creative as well. Missing a slot of cylinders here.
Several have suggested a session of B finals before the main session each night.