The College Swimming and Diving Association of America (CSCAA) recently sent out a survey for Division I coaches regarding the changes made to the NCAA Championships this season.
The survey seeks coach feedback on all of the changes made at the beginning of last season, including eliminating ‘B’ finals, adjusting relay formats (timed finals vs. prelims/finals and split sessions), the new qualification process featuring conference champions, and evaluating the diving format.
There are also some big-picture questions, including the idea of adding 50-yard stroke events to NCAAs, changing the timing of the college swimming & diving season so its not interrupted by the winter break, and combining the men’s and women’s championships—even using a combined score is brought up in the survey.
Since the CSCAA sought coaches’ opinions, we thought we’d do the same for SwimSwam readers. We’ve created a Google Form where you can record your responses below.
Note that certain questions are geared specifically for coaches who were in attendance at NCAAs. If you are just a fan and not affiliated with a team, please select neutral on those questions.
Complete the survey here.
See the questions below:
2026 Championship Review
B Finals
- After experiencing the 2026 NCAA Championship, I support reinstating B Finals in the NCAA Championship program.
- From a high-performance and team management perspective, conducting B Finals immediately before the start of the evening finals session is workable.
- I would not support reinstating B Finals if they are conducted prior to the televised finals session.
- Please provide any additional feedback related to B Finals.
NCAA Relays
- My institution had relay(s) competing at the 2026 NCAA Championship meet.
- After experiencing the 2026 NCAA Championship, I am satisfied with the relay format used at the championship meet.
- After experiencing the 2026 NCAA Championship, I believe all relays should be conducted in the same session.
- Relays at the NCAA Championship meet should be competed in a prelim/final format, excluding the 800 freestyle relay.
- Please provide any additional feedback related to relays at the NCAA Championship meet.
Diving Format
- My institution had divers competing at the 2026 NCAA Championship.
- After experiencing the 2026 NCAA Championship, I believe the diving events were conducted in a format that supported competitive success.
- The diving finals format used at the 2026 NCAA Championship meet (3 dives, break, 3 dives) was a positive experience for the athletes from my institution who attended the meet.
- Diving finals at the NCAA Championship meet took an appropriate amount of time.
- Please provide any additional feedback related to diving at the NCAA Championship meet.
Conference Qualifiers/NCAA Selection Process
Editorial: The separate questions for the men’s and women’s championships here is because there has been discussion that the men’s and women’s AQ cut line shouldn’t be in the same spot as a result of different field sizes. AQs took up a larger percentage of men’s spots than women’s spot, and usually would under the current system.
- I understand how the conference qualifier process works and the rationale behind this change.
- I understand the overall NCAA Selection Process.
- Generally, I support providing multiple pathways to qualify for the NCAA Championship, including conference qualifiers.
- The conference qualifier selections for the women’s 2026 NCAA Championship were appropriate in scale.
- The conference qualifier selections for the men’s 2026 NCAA Championship were appropriate in scale.
- Please provide any additional feedback related to conference qualifiers.
Additional 2026 Changes
- Wednesday (200 Medley Relay, 1,650 Freestyle, 800 Freestyle Relay) can be conducted in one time-final session in the evening.
- I was aware of the 2026 Championship changes when they were adopted by the NCAA in September 2025?
Future Championships
Over time, the CSCAA has gathered recommendations from Division I coaches regarding the future of the NCAA Championship. The most frequently recurring recommendations are listed below.
Please indicate your level of support for the CSCAA to explore each of these recommendations as potential future considerations for Division I swimming and diving.
Large Scale NCAA Championship or Season Changes
- I support exploring the addition of 50-yard stroke events to the NCAA Championship event lineup.
- I support exploring the addition of team diving to the NCAA Championship event lineup.
- I support exploring reduced roster sizes for the NCAA Championships.
- I support exploring an expanded scoring format, such as scoring through 24th place, revised relay scoring, or another alternative.
- I support exploring a combined championship format in which men and women compete at the same location at the same time.
- I support exploring a combined men and women’s championship format in which diving is contested first and swimming second (for example, diving on days 1–3 and swimming on days 3–6).
- I support exploring a season that does not straddle the winter break/semester break?
- I support providing NCAA Championship access to student-athletes who lose qualifying positions during the selection process due to conference qualifiers.
- I support exploring a complete separation of swimming and diving, in which swimming and diving championships are earned and celebrated independently.
- I support exploring an alternative to Zones as a method for qualifying divers to the NCAA Championships.
- I support exploring the removal of last chance meets from the championship qualification process.
- Please provide any additional comments.
NCAA Division I Swimming & Diving Recruiting Reform
Please indicate your level of support for the CSCAA to explore recruiting reform in each of the three key areas below.
- I would be supportive of exploring a later start date for the start of the recruiting process.
- I would support exploring changes to the recruiting calendar, including revisions to current shutdowns and dead periods.
- I would support exploring alternative transfer window dates to replace the current window.
It’s time for a dual meet tournament separate from this highly individual format.
Tennis has multiple championships and we can too.
24 team bracket. 12 athletes per team.
A committee chooses the top 18 teams, with dual meet records playing a huge role.
The last 6 teams in are the fastest conference champions not included in that top 18.
“Fastest” is decided by data we can argue about later
Upsets aren’t going to happen here like they do elsewhere, though a 24-team field allows for smaller, non-Power programs to fight for a spot and still have an opportunity to compete.
Idk we gotta do something different y’all 🤦♂️
No stoke 50s for the love of god. If you want to do that race at a summer league meet or wait until LC. We have the 50s of the strokes, it’s called the 200 medley relay and it’s awesome
The over commitment to speed has done more damage to the country’s competitiveness on the world stage than helped in recent years so maybe we see if we’re not better off going back to our original NCAA format with prelim and final relays and seeing who can really compete for a full meet
You are not wrong when you say this- “The over commitment to speed has done more damage to the country’s competitiveness on the world stage than helped in recent years”
I just don’t get why people are convinced 20 second races are the solution to our problems when:
1. The most popular sports in the world all have typical run times of over an hour.
2. I imagine it would be close to universally agreed that the best race at last years world champs was the women’s 800 freestyle.
Did I miss switch to LCM in the changes?
Just one big relay, every team has 18 swimmers that swim a 50 and see who wins.
IN ALL SERIOUSNESS:
NCAA Swimming MUST combine the Championship.
Remove clown diving from the meet.
Go to a 5 day format.
Bring back the B “banana final”.
Either throw retirement party for Rowdy NOW or duct tape his mouth shut next year.
The 2026 NCAA Diving Championships were a disaster. Swimming and diving are two completely different sports with different fans, just because they both occur in a pool doesn’t make them the same. Keep the fool who removed the B final away from any further decision.
combine men’s an women’s meets … works for all the other divisions.
add stroke 50’s
bring back the B’s
I think one thing that nobody wants to address is giving viewers consistency. We should be aiming to emulate the Olympic format, ESPECIALLY if we add stroke 50’s and do a combined men’s/women’s meet.
Give the spectators a product they understand from the outset. That doesn’t mean we need semi-finals or a 10 day meet. But we need something that brings big deck crowds and gives spectators and viewers a reason to watch more than 1 swim.
1) SWIMMING MEN AND WOMEN one competition , bigger stands. EG current format men are left without coaching suport for 5 days in taper doing self-timing etc…. Also consider parents who have both man and woman at separate Ncaas ? (brother and sister) So those parents have double costs….
2) DIVING MEN WOMEN one competition not separate and same applies as for swimmers….
If Conferences can do it (no limits in athl) NCAA can do it as well (only qualified athl)
Proper facility with major airport nearby
3) RELAYS all relays evening ss, just shorten entry lists to eg 16 teams, 3 heats evening , this is thrilling funny and FAIR. If All American is a… Read more »