Georgia Tech announced on April 18th that they will be hosting a knockout-style dual meet tournament next season, scheduled for October 17-18.
The format will feature eight teams, including Georgia Tech, NC State, Auburn, Minnesota, Georgia, Army, Florida State, and George Washington.
Seven dual meets will be contested throughout the competition, with the first four being scored head-to-head between two teams. The winners of those meets will advance to round two, where two more meets will be scored head-to-head, with the winners advancing to the final competition.
It is unclear at this time if all of the teams will swim together in the first and second rounds, or compete in separate head-to-head meets throughout the day. Additionally, it’s not yet clear which teams will face off in the first round. SwimSwam will share more details as they become available.
Making dual meets more fun has been a hot topic in the sport over the past several years, and this innovation for next season could inspire others moving forward. Texas and Virginia have been at the forefront of this effort for the past few seasons.
On the first day of their November 2022 dual meet with Virginia, Texas experimented with a new format by scoring the men’s and women’s competitions together, rather than separately as is typical. Bevo, the University of Texas’s official live Longhorn mascot, was present at the Lee and Joe Jamail Center that day. The meet also featured music, a DJ, a light show, and ISL-style swimmer introductions before the races. The 100 IM and mixed 400 freestyle relay, events not usually included in NCAA competition outside of intrasquad meets, were also swum on Friday. The Longhorns have since incorporated elements of this format into two of their meets each season.
At the UVA–Texas dual meet in October 2023, Virginia introduced two unconventional concepts: “super finals” and “winner-takes-all” events. Super finals took place after the regular heats of the 100 back, 100 breast, and 100 fly, with each team selecting one swimmer—who did not compete in the standard 4 vs. 4 heat—to race head-to-head. The winner earned five points, while the loser received none. The University of Tennessee also incorporated the super final format into its annual invitational this past November.
Prior to that, the only semi-comparable events were the USA College Challenge meets held in both 2016 and 2017, as well as the ACC vs. Big Ten Challenge contested in late 2018.
The USA College Challenge pitted National Team members against all-stars from the Pac-12 Conference in a format similar to a college dual meet, much like the famous Duel in the Pool. The same format was used for the ACC vs. Big Ten meet, but with all-stars selected from both of those conferences.
If we are going to get something on TV I’d like to see the best against the best not a dual meet with a few big hitters competing and chances are the best races won’t be seen because you get strategic in dual meet and won’t put your best against their best in all cases. Goofy idea when you really look at it. Especially when you are trying to peak at one / two meets. This would be better mid season training trip stuff to do over the week / 10 day period you are somewhere.
Nothing changes until NCAA/ESPN give us more visibility. Coverage of the DI finals was barely visible even on delayed broadcast. Yet how many gymnastics meets, wrestling meets, lacrosse games and even bowling have made it on to the network? Gymnastics was on PRIMETIME ABC last night.
And see ESPN views it in opposite – they’d like us swim fans to show more interest, then they’ll give it more airtime.
Everyone’s waiting for ESPN to save us, but swimming needs to save itself. Just like volleyball, softball, gymnastics, etc. etc. have all done.
For starters:
Eliminate long boring swim meets – Swim 25s, 50s and 100s ONLY!
Get rid of diving.
Add tag team water fighting – no blood not win.
We must think outside the box.
Let’s avoid “sunk cost bias.” Instead of being driven by what most swimmers have spent time training for, let’s think about what audiences would find most fun and exciting. It’s probably not hours of 500s or even 200s. 25s, 50s, and 100s are exciting and short enough to hold attention. Look at the popular sports: A player can score or blow open a game in under 10 seconds in baseball, basketball, football, soccer, tennis, and even golf. Yes, occasionally a swimmer makes a big move during some lap in the middle of a 500, but that’s rare, so most non-experts watching will just tune out, and you’ve lost them. On the flip side, those “skins” races in ISL were great… Read more »
Nothing is going to be “given.” Needs to be earned. Earned media. This is a step to earning buzz.
Bring back the big 12 versus ACC meet!
This is ISL format, cool I guess, however I think organizers will use 2 parralel pool decks, and winners advances to winners, defeated advances to defeated, this way all will get same work load …. only the noise from 2 pool decks will be problem but this can be solved as well
Lots of club meets run both ends of the pool for yards meets. The noise isn’t a problem. The starters just have to pay attention so they aren’t starting a heat at both ends at the same time.
I like it!
If we want the sport to change, the sport needs to change. I love when teams aren’t afraid to try things like this.
Best case scenario, it’s extremely fun and captivating and adds life to the sport and other teams adopt it, and worst case scenario, it’s a flop and then it’s back to the drawing board. I see mostly upside here.
Yeah I think everyone wants to see this, and I think the format that works exists and will be easy to find.
The hurdle is how to time it long-term. This is the experiment, but how do we work this into a championship season? That’s where most of the discussion should be, IMO.
would be cool if it was televised
After the gymnastics national championship meet this weekend I can’t help but wonder if that format could translate to swimming. There are two semifinals on one day with 4 teams each. Those teams are selected as the top two finishers at each regional meet that takes place before nationals. The top two teams in each semifinal make it to the final for a final quad meet to determine the national team title.
I like the idea of this format because it doesn’t require as much overall structure change to the full season the way something like a giant dual meet bracket might, and I often worry that too much change too quickly would create too much turbulence in the… Read more »
I wonder if the best comparisons are to golf and tennis. I could very well be wrong, but I believe those sports do a team championship that would compare to a dual meet championship in addition to a championship that compares to what swim/dive NCAAs is. Do you create two seasons, or do you do like basketball and sort of recognize a regular season conference champion while naming the conference meet winner the official champion. And would the need to travel to more dual meets create enough of a financial burden that it hurts the sport long term?
Tennis is in the first season of piloting a fall singles/doubles championship and a spring team championship.
Golf is run in sort of a hybrid. They switched to a new format in 2009. Now it’s 54 holes of stroke play, and then there’s a cut to the top 15 teams + the top 9 individuals not on one of those teams.
Those 15 teams + 9 individuals play a fourth round of stroke play.
For the individual championship: whoever has the lowest score after the fourth round of stroke play are crowned the individual national championships.
The top 8 teams after the fourth round of stroke play then advance to a knockout (match play) competition, which fully shifts the focus… Read more »
You know what? Good! Try something a little different!
Maybe it works and maybe it doesn’t but I’m all for throwing mud at the wall and seeing what sticks. Now, the real issue comes with marketing it and filling out that pool with spectators in order to create the environment that can prove to be replicated. Good luck! I hope it provides some excitement
wonder why ND wasn’t invited …
They can be trusted with brackets yet