It is Midseason Invite time in the NCAA, and that means many of the world’s best athletes will be racing in the next few weeks as they try to earn qualifications for this year’s NCAA Championships in March.
We typically post a “What Will It Take?” article, where we look at the previous year’s invite times compared to the past to help you guess what an athlete would need to swim in order to earn an invite to the NCAA Championships.
This year, the qualification process looks different than it has in the past. There are no more NCAA ‘A’ cuts or ‘B’ cuts, which means no athlete will earn an automatic qualification for the Championships this year through their times this weekend.
In order to qualify, an athlete will need to swim the NCAA standard in the event. This time falls somewhere between the typical ‘A’ and ‘B’ cut times. If an athlete swims the standard en route to a conference title, they will earn an automatic bid. All other athletes will be selected in the typical process, one-at-a-time starting with the fastest in each event, until the meet reaches 281 women and 235 men.
This year’s NCAA standards:
| Men’s Standard | Event |
Women’s Standard
|
| 19.43 | 50 Freestyle | 22.28 |
| 42.55 | 100 Freestyle | 48.60 |
| 1:33.93 | 200 Freestyle | 1:45.53 |
| 4:18.07 | 500 Freestyle | 4:43.70 |
| 15:06.60 | 1,650 Freestyle | 16:25.29 |
| 46.11 | 100 Butterfly | 52.52 |
| 1:43.79 | 200 Butterfly | 1:57.11 |
| 46.29 | 100 Backstroke | 52.65 |
| 1:42.14 | 200 Backstroke | 1:54.80 |
| 52.58 | 100 Breaststroke | 1:00.30 |
| 1:54.95 | 200 Breaststroke | 2:11.27 |
| 1:44.13 | 200 Individual Medley | 1:57.88 |
| 3:46.19 | 400 Individual Medley | 4:13.20 |
We also looked at how many athletes would have earned an invite via a conference title, and 20 additional men and 14 additional women would have been invited. Because the NCAA did not increase the athlete limit for the meet, this means those spots are included in the maximum number of athletes.
Last year, the cutline fell into the 37th seed for women and the 29th seed for men. We have those times below, as well as what the qualifying times would have been if the cutline fell three spots up (to account for automatic qualifiers).
| Men’s 2025 Invite Time | Men’s Three Spots Higher | EVENT (SCY) | Women’s 2025 Invite Time |
Women’s Three Spots Higher
|
| 19.02 | 18.97 | 50 free | 22.01 | 21.99 |
| 41.95 | 41.91 | 100 free | 48.11 | 48.03 |
| 1:32.27 | 1:32.22 | 200 free | 1:44.74 | 1:44.59 |
| 4:14.13 | 4:13.47 | 500 free | 4:39.47 | 4:39.35 |
| 14:48.80 | 14:48.48 | 1650 free | 16:09.37 | 16:07.84 |
| 45.26 | 45.23 | 100 back | 51.68 | 51.6 |
| 1:40.13 | 1:40.05 | 200 back | 1:53.31 | 1:53.23 |
| 51.58 | 51.56 | 100 breast | 59.51 | 59.47 |
| 1:52.89 | 1:52.60 | 200 breast | 2:09.58 | 2:09.31 |
| 45.12 | 45.10 | 100 fly | 51.87 | 51.81 |
| 1:41.45 | 1:41.14 | 200 fly | 1:55.82 | 1:55.70 |
| 1:42.65 | 1:42.40 | 200 IM | 1:56.69 | 1:56.53 |
| 3:41.61 | 3:41.40 | 400 IM | 4:09.53 | 4:08.91 |
Relays will follow the same qualification model as usual, with the ‘A’ and ‘B’ standards and the typical invite process.
Relay Standards
| Men’s ‘A’ Qualifying Standard | Men’s ‘B’ Provisional Standard | Event | Women’s ‘A’ Qualifying Standard |
Women’s ‘B’ Provisional Standard
|
| 1:16.23 | 1:16.91 | 200 Freestyle Relay | 1:28.26 | 1:28.78 |
| 2:49.36 | 2:50.42 | 400 Freestyle Relay | 3:13.62 | 3:14.92 |
| 6:14.67 | 6:16.79 | 800 Freestyle Relay | 7:00.86 | 7:05.18 |
| 1:23.61 | 1:23.85 | 200 Medley Relay | 1:36.09 | 1:36.57 |
| 3:04.96 | 3:06.20 | 400 Medley Relay | 3:30.89 | 3:32.51 |
Thank you for this explainer!
Could you elaborate on the relay selection process though?
MIsleading to say “additional” athletes. More accurate to reference “different” athletes. The new guidelines are very specific that the new system does NOT allow for “additional” athletes.
If an athlete has an event, that ends up qualifying for the NCAA meet athlete selection process, does this automatically allow this athlete to swim any other events which fall under the time standard even if the times fall above the selection process cut-line?
GREAT QUESTION! I have asked numerous Div 1 coaches that very question and no one is certain of the answer.