The qualifying standards for the 2026 Division I NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships have been released, with a single standard for each event as part of the proposed championship changes that were approved on Friday.
Previously, the NCAA qualifying times included ‘A’ (automatic) and ‘B’ (provisional) cuts, but now, each individual event has one qualifying time. There are still “qualifying” and “provisional” cuts for relays.
According to the qualifying document, the standards are determined by using the three-year average of the 72nd-best time in an event unless the current standard is faster than the three-year average. The relay qualifying times are calculated using the average 16th-best time over the last three seasons, while the provisional relay standard uses the 24th-best time.
The new qualifying process includes a win and you’re in facet for conference champions, and then the rest of the qualifiers will be selected similar to how they have been previously.
It is important to note, an athlete must swim the NCAA qualifying time in the conference final if they are to receive an automatic Championship bid.
If an athlete has swum a qualifying time previously, like in prelims or at a meet prior to NCAAS, but does not go under the cut to win the conference final, they will not be automatically invited and will go through the same selection process as everyone else.
2026 Women’s NCAA Division 1 Qualifying Times
Individual Events
| Event | Standard |
| 50 Freestyle | 22.28 |
| 100 Freestyle | 48.60 |
| 200 Freestyle | 1:45.53 |
| 500 Freestyle | 4:43.70 |
| 1,650 Freestyle | 16:25.29 |
| 100 Butterfly | 52.52 |
| 200 Butterfly | 1:57.11 |
| 100 Backstroke | 52.65 |
| 200 Backstroke | 1:54.80 |
| 100 Breaststroke | 1:00.30 |
| 200 Breaststroke | 2:11.27 |
| 200 Individual Medley | 1:57.88 |
| 400 Individual Medley | 4:13.20 |
Relays
| Event | Qualifying | Provisional |
| 200 Freestyle Relay | 1:28.26 | 1:28.78 |
| 400 Freestyle Relay | 3:13.62 | 3:14.92 |
| 800 Freestyle Relay | 7:00.86 | 7:05.18 |
| 200 Medley Relay | 1:36.09 | 1:36.57 |
| 400 Medley Relay | 3:30.89 | 3:32.51 |
Diving
| Event | Points |
| 1-Meter Diving | 265* / 220** |
| 3-Meter Diving | 280* / 235** |
| Platform Diving | 225** |
*Qualifying point total in any 6 dive list with standard DD
**Qualifying point total in any 5 dive list with standard DD
2026 Men’s NCAA Division 1 Qualifying Times
Individual Events
| Event | Standard |
| 50 Freestyle | 19.43 |
| 100 Freestyle | 42.55 |
| 200 Freestyle | 1:33.93 |
| 500 Freestyle | 4:18.07 |
| 1,650 Freestyle | 15:06.60 |
| 100 Butterfly | 46.11 |
| 200 Butterfly | 1:43.79 |
| 100 Backstroke | 46.29 |
| 200 Backstroke | 1:42.14 |
| 100 Breaststroke | 52.58 |
| 200 Breaststroke | 1:54.95 |
| 200 Individual Medley | 1:44.13 |
| 400 Individual Medley | 3:46.19 |
Relays
| Event | Qualifying | Provisional |
| 200 Freestyle Relay | 1:16.23 | 1:16.91 |
| 400 Freestyle Relay | 2:49.36 | 2:50.42 |
| 800 Freestyle Relay | 6:14.67 | 6:16.79 |
| 200 Medley Relay | 1:23.61 | 1:23.85 |
| 400 Medley Relay | 3:04.96 | 3:06.20 |
Diving
| Event | Points |
| 1-Meter Diving | 300* |
| 3-Meter Diving | 320* |
| Platform Diving | 300* |
*Qualifying point total in any 6 dive list with standard DD
COMPARING THE NEW STANDARD TO THE LAST TWO YEARS
The new sole time standards fall right in between the ‘A’ and ‘B’ cuts we’ve seen in previous years.
In the relays, most of the qualifying times got slightly faster, while the women’s 800 free relay and men’s 400 medley relay remain the same.
Women’s Individual Standards
| 2024 ‘A’ Standard | 2024 ‘B’ Standard | 2025 ‘A’ Standard | 2025 ‘B’ Standard | 2026 Standard | |
| 50 Freestyle | 21.63 | 22.67 | 21.58 | 22.58 | 22.28 |
| 100 Freestyle | 47.18 | 49.36 | 47.10 | 49.18 | 48.60 |
| 200 Freestyle | 1:42.84 | 1:47.12 | 1:42.60 | 1:46.85 | 1:45.53 |
| 500 Freestyle | 4:37.89 | 4:47.20 | 4:36.89 | 4:47.20 | 4:43.70 |
| 1,650 Freestyle | 15:52.41 | 16:30.59 | 15:52.41 | 16:41.45 | 16:25.29 |
| 100 Butterfly | 50.69 | 53.63 | 50.52 | 53.34 | 52.52 |
| 200 Butterfly | 1:52.86 | 1:59.23 | 1:52.47 | 1:58.93 | 1:57.11 |
| 100 Backstroke | 50.88 | 0:53.82 | 50.66 | 53.53 | 52.65 |
| 200 Backstroke | 1:50.50 | 1:57.07 | 1:50.50 | 1:56.71 | 1:54.80 |
| 100 Breaststroke | 58.02 | 1:01.46 | 58.01 | 1:01.22 | 1:00.30 |
| 200 Breaststroke | 2:05.73 | 2:13.86 | 2:05.73 | 2:13.28 | 2:11.27 |
| 200 Individual Medley | 1:53.66 | 1:59.56 | 1:53.66 | 1:59.35 | 1:57.88 |
| 400 Individual Medley | 4:03.62 | 4:17.30 | 4:03.62 | 4:16.78 | 4:13.20 |
Women’s Relay Standards
| Event | Qualifying 2024 | Provisional 2024 | Qualifying 2025 | Provisional 2025 | Qualifying 2026 |
Provisional 2026
|
| 200 Freestyle Relay | 1:28.43 | 1:29.21 | 1:28.42 | 1:29.00 | 1:28.26 | 1:28.78 |
| 400 Freestyle Relay | 3:14.10 | 3:16.25 | 3:13.74 | 3:15.28 | 3:13.62 | 3:14.92 |
| 800 Freestyle Relay | 7:00.86 | 7:05.88 | 7:00.86 | 7:05.56 | 7:00.86 | 7:05.18 |
| 200 Medley Relay | 1:36.24 | 1:37.00 | 1:36.24 | 1:36.76 | 1:36.09 | 1:36.57 |
| 400 Medley Relay | 3:31.38 | 3:33.48 | 3:30.89 | 3:32.88 | 3:30.89 | 3:32.51 |
Men’s Individual Standards
| 2024 ‘A’ Standard | 2024 ‘B’ Standard | 2025 ‘A’ Standard | 2025 ‘B’ Standard | 2026 Standard | |
| 50 Freestyle | 18.82 | 19.79 | 18.72 | 19.69 | 19.43 |
| 100 Freestyle | 41.50 | 43.46 | 0:41.34 | 0:43.25 | 42.55 |
| 200 Freestyle | 1:31.74 | 1:35.79 | 1:31.21 | 1:35.35 | 1:33.93 |
| 500 Freestyle | 4:10.74 | 4:21.99 | 4:10.64 | 4:21.28 | 4:18.07 |
| 1,650 Freestyle | 14:37.31 | 15:25.12 | 14:37.31 | 15:21.20 | 15:06.60 |
| 100 Butterfly | 44.64 | 47.08 | 44.51 | 46.80 | 46.11 |
| 200 Butterfly | 1:40.16 | 1:45.89 | 1:40.05 | 1:45.34 | 1:43.79 |
| 100 Backstroke | 44.71 | 47.47 | 44.48 | 47.16 | 46.29 |
| 200 Backstroke | 1:39.13 | 1:44.60 | 1:38.80 | 1:44.03 | 1:42.14 |
| 100 Breaststroke | 51.10 | 53.63 | 0:51.02 | 0:53.43 | 52.58 |
| 200 Breaststroke | 1:51.09 | 1:57.44 | 1:50.65 | 1:56.96 | 1:54.95 |
| 200 Individual Medley | 1:41.03 | 1:46.16 | 1:40.75 | 1:45.68 | 1:44.13 |
| 400 Individual Medley | 3:38.90 | 3:50.68 | 3:38.37 | 3:49.53 | 3:46.19 |
Men’s Relay Standards
| Event | Qualifying 2024 | Provisional 2024 | Qualifying 2025 | Provisional 2025 | Qualifying 2026 |
Provisional 2026
|
| 200 Freestyle Relay | 1:16.80 | 1:17.38 | 1:16.51 | 1:17.13 | 1:16.23 | 1:16.91 |
| 400 Freestyle Relay | 2:50.44 | 2:51.86 | 2:49.79 | 2:51.01 | 2:49.36 | 2:50.42 |
| 800 Freestyle Relay | 6:16.02 | 6:18.94 | 6:15.80 | 6:18.42 | 6:14.67 | 6:16.79 |
| 200 Medley Relay | 1:23.71 | 1:24.32 | 1:23.62 | 1:23.90 | 1:23.61 | 1:23.85 |
| 400 Medley Relay | 3:04.96 | 3:06.84 | 3:04.96 | 3:06.37 | 3:04.96 | 3:06.20 |
The 2026 Women’s NCAA Division I Swimming & Diving Championships will be held March 18-21 at Georgia Tech’s McAuley Aquatic Center, and the men’s championships will be held the following week, March 25-28, at the same pool.
The women’s mile time is troubling. The future of women’s distance swimming is far better than that.
How can the Men’s 50m freestyle NCAA Div. 1 standard (19.43) be lower than the current world record (20.91). Can someone make sense of that and explain to me please?
There’s this thing—a form of measurement called a “yard”. The Brits used to use the yard and then grew up and switched to the metric system and now use “meters” as the main form of distance measurement. The Yanks, about 250 years ago, decided they didn’t like kings anymore and rebelled. They created their own country but being halfway rebels kept those feet, yards and miles as their form of measurement. While the rest of the world swims in meters and follows the metric system those silly Americans still measure stuff in yards and even swim in yards pools—which are shorter than meters, btw. Sigh. I guess doubling down on yards makes America great again.
Porque é em jardas
So does diving qualify from zones or from these point standards?
Zones. Those are zone qualifying scores.
I think this might be better since you know for sure if you are in rather than have people guess at what the cut off between A and B times are.
I wonder if there will be any conference championship that win that are far from the cuts.
Do smaller D1 conference champions still go? Like Patriot League?
From the NCAA swim & dive oversight committee’s September meeting report:
Based on currently available information, the following conferences will be eligible: America East Conference; American Athletic Conference (women’s only); Atlantic Coast Conference; Atlantic Sun Conference; Atlantic 10 Conference; Big East Conference; Big Ten Conference; Big 12 Conference; Big West Conference; Coastal Athletic Association; Horizon League; The Ivy League; Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference; Mid-American Conference (women’s only); Missouri Valley Conference; Mountain Pacific Sports Federation; Mountain West Conference (women’s only); Northeast Conference (women’s only); Patriot League; Southeastern Conference; and The Summit League.
I think there is still going to be a guessing game because it’s the same selection process of taking only a certain number of total swimmers. The 50 cut of 19.43 is not going to get you into the 50 free unless you win your conference title.
Will the faster qualifying times have an impact on the number of relays at the meet?
How will relay qualifying work. Will it be like last year, or will it be conference champ + provisional time.
So are they still only taking top 30-ish? Otherwise NCAAs will have about 2000 athletes.
I don’t think you quite understand what’s going on.
Ah, a condescending response attempting to disguise itsself as a half-brained attempt at sarcastic humor. Why don’t you actually help this swimming fan out instead of being an asshole? ACC Fan, I dont know all of the minutia but my understanding is that Qualifying time+conf champ will be an automatic in, and once those spots are filled they will take the overall next fastest swimmers, for a similar number of invited athletes as has been historically invited. “Coach”, either be an educator or get the hell out of my profession.
Slower conference champs who scrape by the cut will get in over guys in the actual top ~30 who deserved to swim at NCAAs.
Plus fewer swimmers with 2 or 3 swims
Define “deserved”. Currently it’s an arbitrary cut-line. So….what’s the harm of letting someone from the Sun Belt have a little fame as opposed to the #31 guy? How may hit the cut line (as their actual invite) exactly the last few years and ended up scoring?
It shouldn’t be like football where a small college that does well gets thrown into the CFP because swim isn’t arbitrary. Someone that could have made it to NCAA’s might have to sit at home and watch someone with a slower best time than them get that experience
if they just keep it as top 30 and dont give spots to other conference winners, swim and dive wil die on a lot of schools. Now there is no limit on scholarships, the stronger (richer) schools will keep getting stronger, at the expense of others. This is not a good thing. Allowing ‘slower’ conference winners into NCAAs give a reason for swimmers to take a spot at one of these schools, spreading the depth and maybe keeping the sport alive at more schools.
“deserved” by being top 30-32 in the country. You’ve commented this on the other post as well, it’s okay if you don’t understand the sport. Read up more.
So why isn’t “deserved” being top 16? top 24? Or maybe top 50? You know the other divisions have different “deserved” cutoffs, right? “Deserved” is an arbitrary cutoff.