Preseason CSCAA Polls Favor Texas, Virginia, But Don’t Account For Redshirts

Editor’s note: the College Swimming Coaches Association of America (CSCAA)’s rankings track dual meet strength, specifically. That is, a higher-ranked team is expected to win in a head-to-head dual meet with a lower-ranked team, according to the voters. These rankings aren’t an NCAA finish prediction – for a ranking closer to that model, check out SwimSwam’s Power Rankings.

The season-opening dual meet polls are out from the College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) – but they don’t account for top swimmers or teams sitting out the season.

Texas leads Cal on the men’s side, while Virginia tops Stanford for the women. But the polls do omit some key absences that have already been confirmed for the college swimming season. Most notably, Arizona State received votes for both men and women, and hold the #12 rank on the men’s side. ASU confirmed in July that it would be redshirting its entire roster for the 2020-2021 season and not competing at the NCAA level for the year.

Voters were to fill out their ballots as if Arizona State was competing this year. The same goes for several very notable would-be freshmen who have already announced deferred enrollments that will keep them out of college swimming until after the 2021 Olympics. That includes #1-ranked overall recruit Regan Smith (Stanford) and two other top-flight Stanford prospects: Lillie Nordmann and Samantha Pearson.

Division I Women

Rank Prev Team Points
1 NR Virginia 324
2 NR Stanford 307
3 NR Michigan 285
4 NR Georgia 280
5 NR California 266
6 NR NC State 257
7 NR Tennessee 255
8 NR Texas 232
9 NR Ohio State 210
10 NR Florida 205
11 NR Louisville 198
12 NR Kentucky 168
13 NR Alabama 160
14 NR Northwestern 147
15 NR Southern California 140
16 NR Indiana 131
17 NR Texas A&M 119
18 NR North Carolina 107
19 NR Auburn 106
20 NR Missouri 73
21 NR Duke 70
22 NR Wisconsin 40
23 NR Notre Dame 40
24 NR Virginia Tech 33
25 NR UCLA 23

Also receiving votes: Harvard (18), Minnesota (12), Arizona State (7), Florida State (4), Akron (3), Princeton (2), Arkansas (2)

Women’s Poll Committee

Dan Colella, Duke; Niko Fantakis, Brown;  Chris Hansen, CSU Bakersfield; Naya Higashijima (Chair), Southern Methodist;  Lars Jorgensen, Kentucky; Nathan Lavery, Drexel; Matthew Leach, Washington State; Sergio Lopez, Virginia Tech; Jonathan Maccoll, Rutgers; Jesse Moore, Minnesota;  Jeff Poppell, Florida; Jos Smith, Utah; Braden Keith, SwimSwam; Andy Ross, Swimming World.

Division I Men

Rank Prev Team Points
1 NR Texas 374
2 NR California 359
3 NR Florida 326
4 NR NC State 325
5 NR Michigan 313
6 NR Indiana 297
7 NR Texas A&M 278
8 NR Georgia 256
9 NR Louisville 246
10 NR Ohio State 235
11 NR Stanford 202
12 NR Arizona State 199
13 NR Virginia 181
14 NR Tennessee 170
15 NR Alabama 167
16 NR Arizona 140
17 NR Missouri 137
18 NR Florida State 125
19 NR Virginia Tech 112
20 NR Wisconsin 109
21 NR Notre Dame 68
22 NR Auburn 52
23 NR Southern California 51
24 NR North Carolina 33
25 NR Iowa 28

Also receiving votes: Harvard (18), Kentucky (16), Denver (11), Pittsburgh (10), Minnesota (10), Louisiana State (8), Purdue (7), Penn State (5), Navy (3), South Carolina (2), Utah (1), Georgia Tech (1)

Men’s Poll Committee

Steve Barnes, Penn State; Chase Bloch, Southern California; Jason Calanog, Texas A&M; Chad Cradock, UMBC; Matt Crispino, Princeton; Daniel Dozier, West Virginia; Matt Gianiodis, Michigan State; John Hargis, Pittsburgh; Craig Nisgor, Seattle; Bill Roberts (Chair), Navy; Rachel Stratton Mills, Arizona State; Neal Studd, Florida State; Braden Keith, SwimSwam; Andy Ross, Swimming World.

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SwimFan49
3 years ago

Looking at the Men’s side anyway and how many Power 5 schools (excluding the BigXII) did NOT receive votes in this poll? Michigan State jumps out, but otherwise the remaining Big10 schools received points, as did each of the 6 Pac12 schools. Boston College, Duke and North Carolina from the ACC not on the list. Any SEC schools missing?

Congrats to Harvard, Navy and Denver, I guess, for being the lone mid-majors.

Last edited 3 years ago by SwimFan49
ACC fan
3 years ago

NC STATE best combined men’s and women’s rankings

swimmer
3 years ago

Could someone please explain where the specific “point” values come from? Is it based on coaches votes, times, results, etc.?

Rutgers
Reply to  swimmer
3 years ago

Ballots are submitted by each voter. 1st place gets 25 points 2nd gets 24 3rd 23 points down to 25th getting 1 point. They add them all up and rank them.

Last edited 3 years ago by Rutgers
swimmer
Reply to  Rutgers
3 years ago

Thank you!

tnp101
3 years ago

Stanford is also missing Ruck. 4 key contributors are not with the team this year. What if they are with the team, how sill it affect the ranking? Stanford or Virginia as no. 1?

Ragnar
Reply to  tnp101
3 years ago

whoosh

Murphy is my dad
3 years ago

Will d2 and d3 polls be released at some point in the near future?

SwimFani
3 years ago

Why are the VOLS only ranked 14th? Great diving, great recruiting and great coaching by Lance Asti!!!

Horninco
Reply to  SwimFani
3 years ago

6th in their own conference, at least 5 teams in other conferences that are unquestionably better. 14 seems reasonable

But let me help you out. “Don’t sleep on Tennessee!”

SwimFani
Reply to  Horninco
3 years ago

I see the VOLS second or third at SECs this year and DEFINITELY 9th or 10th at NCAAs – behind UF and UGA only…What happened to AU swimming? Didn’t they used to be pretty good??

Jonathan Edwards
3 years ago

They sleep

50free
Reply to  Jonathan Edwards
3 years ago

It will hurt me rooting for u when u are on Ohio state.

Daddy
3 years ago

As great as it is to see Iowa on there, I can’t help but imagine it hurts a little bit for those athletes.

Guerra
Reply to  Daddy
3 years ago

RrR

Last edited 3 years ago by Guerra
Austinpoolboy
Reply to  Daddy
3 years ago

On the other hand…nobody missing Michigan State on this list.

Austinpoolboy
Reply to  Austinpoolboy
3 years ago

And they even have a vote on the committee

About Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson swam for nearly twenty years. Then, Jared Anderson stopped swimming and started writing about swimming. He's not sick of swimming yet. Swimming might be sick of him, though. Jared was a YMCA and high school swimmer in northern Minnesota, and spent his college years swimming breaststroke and occasionally pretending …

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