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
Virginia Tech head coach Sergio Lopez has voiced his opinion on the new NCAA changes. He has posted his thoughts on Instagram, first saying that whoever voted on the changes has done a “disservice to swimming.”
Lopez is not the first coach to voice their opinion on the new changes as Ohio State’s Brian Schrader spoke out last month on the changes. In Lopez’s first video posted before the start of the meet, Lopez talked about how coaches need to get together to discuss.
In his most recent video, Lopez spoke about the changes and said,
“Food for Thought
2026 Women’s NCAA ChampionshipsFirst congratulate Carmen @carmen_weiler_ and our relay for swimming well this morning
Second and Food for Thought about Finals at NCAA’s. I know in my last post I would not talk about it but I can’t help myself.
I think that ig you don’t have a swimmer or a relay you should not come back to Finals and leave the pool deck empty and the stands empty.
I love FAST swimming and I always watch every race because I appreciate swimming and always trying to learn from competition.
This week and next week unless I have a swimmer/s or relay competing of one of my swimmers wants to come a swimmer I will stay back at the hotel and do work, watch my Kdrama or go out and have a cup of coffee and feel good about my life and VT.”
Lopez’s updated thoughts come after the first prelims session in which places 9-16 are scored out of prelims. Virginia Tech’s Carmen Weiler Sastre entered the meet as the #14 seed in the 200 free with a 1:42.73. She was slightly off that time with a 1:42.91 but moved up three places to finish 11th. With the new changes, she will not have the chance to swim tonight.
In his latest video, Lopez says that he will not attend finals tonight and he urges other coaches that do not have swimmers tonight to not attend as well as he hopes to make a “statement” with an emptier pool deck and stands.
I hope Sergio is saving some of this same energy to argue against the last chance meet qualifiers. I did a quick scan through the men’s psych sheet and saw 18 swimmers (plus an additional 3 on the alternate list) that only made it into the meet due to swims done at a last second glorified time trial under ideal conditions and sketchy officiating. Let’s see a list of the 18 swimmers bumped from the meet because of the last chance qualifiers.
I find it interesting (although not totally surprising) that the most vocal coaches on this are ones from program like VT and OSU that are 2nd tier P4 programs and traditionally have swimmers that are right around the… Read more »
Sergio tried to take his ball and go home, all while asking others to go home with him. No one went home with him, and he ended up at finals anyway. What a big nothingburger.
I normally don’t comment on here, but here goes. I originally was going to boycott the coverage. I’m always one to watch prelims and finals. However I love watching fast swimming, so I watched finals last night. Worst coverage I’ve seen in YEARS. Elizabeth is amazing but to just throw the winning trophy at the winner during the interview is ridiculous. Watching the B heat, in addition to the final heat, was fun to see if teams could move up in place to bring up the projected score. And of course it is always important to give the kids a chance to swim again faster. Bring back the B heat and bring back the award ceremony!!
I did like the… Read more »
Agree 100% that dropping the B finals is a BIG mistake. Does nothing to improve the production or the experience in any way, and I would be shocked if the viewing numbers for finals are up this year. I’m willing to bet that fewer people watch. For a day with 4 individual events, that’s +/-32 sets of parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, and friends who might have tuned in to watch their kids in a B finals, who certainly aren’t going to waste their time anymore. Add that to all of the relay swimmers who now only get a morning swim, and you’ve got a lesser product in almost every way.
DIII is still swimming prelims and finals for relays.… Read more »
Chick Norris was undefeated in life until the elimination of the B final literally broke his heart.
I am a former college swimmer and I live in Atlanta. I was excited to go until I saw the format. I’m not sitting in Atlanta traffic after work to go to midtown, pay to park at Tech, pay to get into the meet, to see such a small amount of swimming and not even get to see my former team’s swimmers in a consolation final. Not sure what the right solution is but this surely isn’t it.
Nobody used to watch golf. Should they have changed the format to 6 holes with only the best 8 golfers jammed into an hour?
The meet production could improve. Let’s do record lines which would make it more fun for novice fans. Could be pool records. NCAA records, even show A final qualifier line during B finals. Innovate.
We watched every night of men’s big ten which was very well produced and it was the best swim meet outside of the Olympics that I’ve seen in terms of production value and meet format.
Keep doing the best version of the sport.
Worst NCAA ever!! Last night we tuned in to the meet and they aired top 8 relays they aired old videos of prior NCAA swims with Katie Ledecky, Missy Franklin! It was absolutely absurd. I turned on the TV to watch our college team swim and got to see none of them swim! ridiculous bring back the B finals and the relays in finals!! I agree with Sergio! Literally, you don’t even need to go to finals. It’s the same people in the second top 8 -same thing they’re gonna be swimming each night. Boring to watch at home! I can’t imagine spending all that money to go to this meet and not get to see all the different teams… Read more »
I do not like changes to qualification system but I can live with it, I cannot, however, accept not having B finals in the evening.