Men’s 2026 NCAA Championships: SEC Scores the Most Points, Big 12 Reliant On ASU

2026 NCAA DIVISION I MEN’S SWIMMING AND DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Dates: Wednesday, March 25–Saturday, March 28
• Location: McAuley Aquatic Center, Atlanta, GA
• Defending Champions: Texas (1x)
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  • Prelims: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4
  • Finals: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4

The SEC and ACC are the dominant two conferences in terms of depth across the board, and the held true at the NCAA championships this year. All except one of the individual champions came from either the SEC or ACC, with Ilya Kharun of the Big 12 the exception in the 200 fly. The story was turned on its head in the relays however, with Arizona State (Big 12) winning four of five while Texas (SEC) won the other.

The Big Ten had no event winners this season, coming closest in the 200 IM where Owen McDonald was 0.09 seconds behind Maximus Williamson for the title. They did however outscore the Big 12, coming in third in terms of total points scored.

The SEC scored the most points at NCAAs out of any this year with 1226.5, 35.5% of all available. That is 178.5 points more than the ACC, the only other conference to break the 1000-point barrier.

The Big 12 scored the least points of the Power Four conferences, and 328 of their 361 points came from ASU (the other 33 were scored by Arizona). At 90.9%, that is by far the most concentrated points distribution within a conference.

We have separated out the Ivy League from the other Mid-Major conferences

There were some events where one conference held a clear edge. The SEC’s stranglehold over the backstrokes is one of the more obvious. The conference took 141 of the 310 points available, including 83 out of 155 in the 200 back, as it put five swimmers into the ‘A’ final – Hubert Kos (Texas, 1st), Johnny Marshall (Florida, 2nd), Tommy Hagar (Alabama, 5th), Ruard Van Renen (Georgia, 6th), and Nick Simons (Tennessee, 7th).

However, the distance freestyle events are where the SEC truly stands out. In the 500 free they had nine of the 16 scorers, including six swimmers in the ‘A’ final, and scored 103 points. The conference scored 89 points in the mile as well, with three of the top four finishers, and across the two events it scored 192 points out of a possible 310 – 61.9% of all available.

Mid-Majors scored all 35.5 of their points across just two events – the 100 breast and 100 back. They had three swimmers score in the former, with Matvei Namakonov (Delaware), Logan Kelly (IU Indianapolis) and Kohen Rankin (Army) placing in the top 16.

One event where the Big 12 did stand out was in the 50 free. The conference scored 55.5 points of the 155 available, the most of any conference, but all 55.5 points were scored by a single school – ASU. They not only outscored every other team in that event thanks to Ilya Kharun (3rd), Remi Fabiani (5th), Jonny Kulow (6th), Tolu Young (9th), and Adam Chaney (T-13th), but also every other conference.

The SEC and ACC had the most scoring swims by far, with the former the only conference to hit double figures with 100. The ACC had 97, followed by the Big Ten (59), Big 12 (20), Ivy League (9) and Mid-Majors (4). The Mid-Major scorers were split across the Patriot League (2), CAA (1), and Horizon League (1).

The Big 12 dominate the points-per-scoring-swim metric, as nine of their 14 scoring swims were in ‘A’ finals. In terms of points per swim however the SEC leads the way with 5.48 – their average swimmer placed T-11th.

The ACC (3.83), Big Ten (3.91), and Big 12 (3.83) are almost identical in terms of points per swim, with the Ivy League not too far behind with 2.29. Mid-Majors had just 0.5 points per swim from their 71 individual races, but had an average of 8.88 points per scorer.

ASU winning four relays from five gives the Big 12 a whopping 21.56 points per swim in the relays. The ACC had the most scoring swims with 31, and also led the way in terms of total relay points with 514. They did however have the lowest points per scorer out of the Power Four conferences, with only six top-five finishes across the meet – none of them for Cal.