Braden Keith contributed to this report.
The annual Collegiate Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) meeting is underway and will conclude tomorrow in Chicago.
These meetings provide several networking opportunities for coaches across the country. Last year’s meetings, primarily during the Division I breakout session, were largely focused on the marketability and fan interest of swimming.
Here, a coach who was in the meeting described it as a less contentious affair than last year, citing that even Power 4 coaches in attendance seemed fairly on board with much of the conversation.
Among the key topics of the meetings was the target of having 10% of the NCAA Championships field consist of automatic qualifiers who would not have made the championships otherwise. This, in a way, was a slight callback to last year’s breakout session, where conversations sparked as mid-major programs continued to advocate for automatic qualifications, thus giving smaller programs a bigger path to the national championship.
Last year, the actual number of AQs who would not have qualified otherwise were 6% of the field for the women’s meet and 14% for the men’s championship.
The plan is to look back at the times from the year prior and see what would have made that 10% of the field automatic qualifiers who would not have been invited otherwise.
The proposal will include a new caveat that should placate the coaches at the top of the pile: swimmers who were bumped out by those automatic qualifiers will still be able to go, via institutional funding versus the NCAA paying their way. This is similar to changes made by diving a few years ago, where the highest-priority divers qualify for NCAA reimbursement to cover travel expenses, while more can still participate, but must have their school cover the costs that come with that.
One of the big takeaways was the reintroduction of B finals to the national championships, which seemed to be a well-supported, though that could change depending on the TV deal, and they decided to push back on that. At the women’s NCAA Championships in March, fans began chanting “bring back Bs.” Fans even booed at the absence of the B finals during the Wednesday finals session.
It is important to note that these changes would be a CSCAA proposal to the NCAA, and would need to be approved by the NCAA Division I Swimming & Diving Oversight Committee. The CSCAA does have an advisory spot on this committee, but is not the final decision maker.
I can live with the AQ concept provided they lower time standards a bit and they allow swimmers who would have qualified but were displaced by slower AQs to attend the meet on their institution’s dime. Seems like a good compromise.
I think the AQs should be able to attend in the institution’s dime, rather than the swimmers pushed out by the slower AQs.
Go to a full 4 day meet
What about 5 days?
Truly unbelievable that they did not see that the qualifying times based on the same line for men and women would lead to the men’s meet being nuked by AQs.
Basic statistics and probability would have modeled out something like ~5% of the women’s meet and ~15% of the men’s meet being AQs based on QTs vs total number of athletes alone.
How you move forward without thinking about that really shook my faith in the CSCAA.
What I think would be great…
B finals come back
Keep auto qualifiers (gives them more of a chance from smaller schools)
Change the 200 back and IM from being the same day
200 IM not on the last day maybe potentially switch with the 100 fly
and move 1650 to last day
I thought moving the 1650 to day 1 (aka “day 0”) was the best part of the schedule rebuild.
I agree
1650 day 1 is fine. My issue is 1650 and 4×200 on the same day as distance swimmers are already marginalized enough by the event options. I realize it’s impossible to not have a relay and individual event conflict and I may just have too much of a soft spot for distance swimmers. I still just want the one relay that is likely to overlap with the 1650 to not.
Yes, I agree. I like the 1650 on Day 0.
1650 on day one: yes
800 free relay on day one: no
The problem isn’t so much the 1650 being on day 1, but if you do that, does it make sense to have the two longest additional races be on day 2 and 3 with the 400IM and 500 free? Wouldn’t it make more sense to take a break and have those other races later?
The part that made the least sense about the schedule is that it seemed like they didn’t do a simple analysis of which top swimmers overlap which events. You can go back for years and check pre conference rankings (pre conference so that end-of-year taper times in the post season schedule don’t bias your overlap findings) and you can see which are the most common events… Read more »
I’d be okay with spreading them out – though I’d argue that putting the 500 free and 400 IM on the last day would run counter to the mission of having a hyper exciting final day – especially if they add back B finals. That being said, I’m not sure the current final day schedule is really maximizing that either.
I watched one meet on TV and one meet in person, and even with that, it’s hard for me to process whether I like the new schedule or not, because the format was so bad in so many other ways that were far more significant to the bad presentation and bad energy.
I think there are some immutable truths about… Read more »
Yes, I have three swimmers, one who does the 2 free, 5 free, and mile, and another one who does 5 free, 4IM, and mile. Both also do the 800 relays. My third is a rising college freshman and only knows she’ll be doing the 2 fly. The front-heavy the distance event schedule is rough for those kids
I just want to see the fastest racing! And B finals.
B finals need to be back because it’s an awesome opportunity for extra swimmers to get 2nd chances and night swims, plus brings a lot of depth into play. If the network continues to be stubborn, just bring them back and don’t telecast it. B finals should be brought back regardless of what corporate says.
Yes. It makes it more exciting and can change up the trajectory of points. Also, gives swimmers who did not like what they did in the morning a chance to learn and fix it at night rather than that being it.
What are chances NCAA would not accept the proposal to return the B Finals to the Championship Meet?
It would be the network pushing back more so than the NCAA.
The tv product was so bad. It was dead air with little swimming. They understand that people want MORE swimming to fill that time, right? Are they not even addressing how bad the tv product was?
Normally I would say less than zero. But with the bozos at the NCAA, it is probably 50-50.