NCAA Releases the 2025 D1 Swimming & Diving Qualification Standards

The NCAA has released time standards for the 2025 NCAA Division I Swimming & Diving Championships.

The ‘A’ standards are calculated by using the three-year average of the eighth-best time from previous seasons, while the ‘B’ or “Provisional” standards are computed using the three-year average of the 125th-fastest times (unless either average is slower than the current cut). See the full explainer below.

There are no long course conversion standards, as the NCAA has confirmed that those standards will only exist in pre-Olympic years. To be considered for NCAA selection, swims must be done in bona fide competition between only NCAA athletes or at one of four approved extra-collegiate qualifying meets:

• 2024 USA Swimming U.S. Open Championships – December 4-7, 2024 – Greensboro, North Carolina
• 2024 USA Diving Winter National Championships – December 7-15, 2024 – Bloomington, Indiana
• World Aquatics World Swimming Championships (aka Short Course Worlds) – December 10-15, 2024 – Budapest, Hungary
• 2024 USA Swimming Winter Juniors East/West – December 11-14 – Greensboro, North Carolina & Austin, Texas

Ultimately, these time standards in individual events serve more of a motivational purpose than acting as actual time standards. In short, for individual events, swimmers are added one at a time from each event until the total cap on invited athletes is reached. While A cut swimmers are assured a trip to NCAAs, that cutline always falls somewhere squarely between the “A” standard and the “B” standard.

Once a swimmer is invited in an individual event, they can enter any other event in which they have at least a “B” standard up to the maximum three individual events.

The 2025 NCAA Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships will be hosted at the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatics Center in Federal Way, Washington from March 19-22, while the men’s meet will be at the same pool from March 26-29.

The Virginia women enter the new season as the four-time defending champions and favorites to win a 5th straight title. The Arizona State men won the program’s first-ever national team title last season, though they lost most of the top scorers from that team to graduation, transfer, or turning pro after head coach Bob Bowman took over at the University of Texas.

Individual Events Standards 2025

Relay Events Standards 2025

Diving

*Qualifying point total in any 6 dive list
**Qualifying point in any 5 dive list

SCM CONVERSION FACTORS

ALTITUDE CONVERSIONS

Individual Events

• Qualifying Standards:
  • Number of standards that got faster: 12 (men) + 8 (women) = 20
  • Percentage of total standards: 76.92%
• Provisional Standards:
  • Number of standards that got faster: 13 (men) + 11 (women) = 24
  • Percentage of total standards: 92.31%

Relay Events

• Qualifying Standards:
  • Number of standards that got faster: 4 (men) + 3 (women) = 7
  • Percentage of total standards: 70.00%
• Provisional Standards:
  • Number of standards that got faster: 5 (men) + 5 (women) = 10
  • Percentage of total standards: 100.00%

How the meet is selected:

Here’s a brief refresher on how NCAA qualifying works (read the full explanation here):

• Individual Events: In individual races, all swimmers with “A” standards automatically qualify for the NCAA Championships. Thereafter, swimmers are chosen event-by-event, lined up to an equal number across all events, until the maximum number of individual swimmers have been selected (235 for men, 281 for women).
• Relay Events: All relays with the Qualifying Standard can swim at the NCAA Championships, provided they have 1 individual (swimmer or diver) invited to the meet as well. Once a team has a relay invited, they can swim any relay in which they have a provisional standard as well. Relays are qualified “to the team,” not to the individual swimmers, so teams can take whichever swimmers they want to participate in relays.

How the Standards are Created

• The “A Standard” for individual events is calculated by using the three-year average of the eighth-best time on the performance list unless the current “A Standard” is faster than the three-year average.
• The “B Standard” for individual events is calculated by using the three-year average of the 125th best time on the performance list unless the current “B Standard” is faster than the three-year average.
• The “Qualifying Standard” for relay events is calculated using the three-year average of the 16th best time on the championship finals performance list unless the current “Qualifying Standard” is faster than the three-year average.
• The “Provisional Standard” for relay events is calculated using the three-year average of the 24th-best time on the championship finals performance list unless the current “Provisional Standard” is faster than the three-year average.