What Would The Proposed CSCAA Changes To NCAA Qualification Mean For Expanded Representation?

• NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships Proposal Overview
• CSCAA Proposal 

We reported last week on the CSCAA’s proposed changes to the NCAA format for the 2025/-26 season and beyond, which will be going before the NCAA Sport Oversight committee in August. One of the included changes was a change to the way that invites work, providing a new avenue for conference champions from mid-major conferences to qualify.

From Terin Frodyma:

“NEW QUALIFICATION MODEL: WIN-AND-IN WITH A STANDARD

The proposal’s second portion transforms the qualification procedure, instituting a single NCAA Championship standard. Under the new proposal, any swimmer who wins their conference title and achieves a national qualifying time in the event would automatically qualify for the NCAA Championships. The existing descending order list procedure would be used for all other entries, though the idea of an “A” and a “B” standard would be eliminated. Presently, the “A” standard is almost meaningless at the D1 level, and the “B” standard’s only functional purpose is to limit swimmers’ ability to enter second or third events that they weren’t invited in, requiring them to be under that standard – though it’s rare that an invited swimmer would attempt to race an NCAA event where they weren’t. Typically, both standards are used as ornamental standards to celebrate good swims during the season.

With the goal to preserve meet size and expand institutional access, the qualifying times would be determined by averaging the 80th-best time over the previous three years.

Notably, in the proposal, diving remains unchanged and continues to rely on Zone meets for qualification standards. “

This underlines a facet of the current system – the qualification line sits at around #29-30 for men and #36-37 for women, not close to either the ‘A’ cut or the ‘B’ cut.

It is currently unclear what would happen with the ‘B’ cut as this does have a function for qualification for the actual championships. Scrapping this entirely and only taking swimmers in events where they directly qualify would see around 40% of individual swims lost – a condensation of the program that would be actively detrimental both to any swimmer attempting a double or to the sports’ palatability to TV viewers.

Placing the cut-off for entering additional events also at the averaged 80th-best time from the previous three seasons would see a more modest ~10% reduction in individual event entries,

The biggest effect of this change would be in the number of mid-major schools and conferences which would be represented at the NCAA championships. A conference champion who hits the qualification standard in their title-winning swim would automatically qualify, although any swimmer not hitting the standard or finishing second would still have to go through the current qualification process.

Another area of qualification that is unclear in the current proposal is relays. The system currently uses ‘A’ and ‘B’ standards, and these do have a more material effect than in individual qualification. A school with an ‘A’ cut is automatically qualified in that relay, but can also then enter any additional relay where they have a ‘B’ cut. There are further rules on allowing schools with just a ‘B’ standard to swim if they have at least two individual swimmers as well.

We crunched some numbers back when the changes to qualification standards were first proposed, however we used the 64th rather than 80th ranked swimmer. We’ve run the numbers again down below, with any new schools and conferences for the 2025 championships highlighted.

Men’s NCAA Cuts: 2025

Men’s Additional Qualifiers

*Queens (NC) still has one more year to run on their four-year transitional period before joining Division 1 after voting to do so in 2022. We have not included them in the invited time calculations or number of new schools referenced later.

In total there would have been 34 new swimmers, representing 18 new schools from 11 new mid-major conferences.

Women’s NCAA Cuts: 2025

Women’s Additional Qualifiers

*Queens (NC) still has one more year to run on their four-year transitional period before joining Division 1 after voting to do so in 2022. We have not included them in the invited time calculations or number of new schools referenced later.

** Izzy Ackley and Malia Francis tied for the win at the ASUN championships in the 200 back

In total there would have been 45 new swimmers, representing 18 new schools from 11 new mid-major conferences.