Conference championship season is officially upon us, with the first Division I meet (the MAAC Championships) getting underway on Wednesday night.
The Power Five conferences will get going next week, with SECs, ACCs and the Women’s Big Ten Championships on the docket (plus Women’s Ivy League).
There will be several changes to the major conference championship meets this season—some subtle, some major—so let’s take a look at each so we’re all caught up when the first swimmers step up onto the blocks.
ACC Championships To Combine Genders
The ACC has historically held separate women’s and men’s championship meets, but in 2022, the conference will combine genders for the first time in at least 40 years.
The move has several pros and cons for schools, swimmers and fans alike, which you can read more about here.
SEC Recombines After Separate Men’s & Women’s Meets In 2021
While the ACC will bring the men and women together, the SEC will recombine its conference championships meets after going off course and separating them in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The SEC has always held a combined-gender championship, but separated men’s swimming, women’s swimming and diving last year in an effort to mitigate the risks of the pandemic.
The SEC also condensed its schedule to the more traditional four-day event lineup last season, but will go back to its usual five-day slate this year. The divers will also be back with the swimmers this season.
Big Ten Decreases Roster Limits
The most noteworthy change for the Big Ten Championships this season is a decrease in roster limits.
While previously a team could have up to 24 athletes count towards scoring, that number drops down to 18 this season, with divers counting as half. So, for example, if a team wants to bring four divers, they can only use 16 swimmers to score. All others will swim as exhibition.
Like the SEC, the Big Ten will also have its diving competition back with the swimmers this season. Last year, the diving portion of the meet took place at the same time as the women’s swimming championships, with the divers competing at Purdue and the swimmers at Minnesota.
This season they’ll be back together, though the men’s and women’s meets will remain separate.
This will also be the first time in 99 years there won’t be a Michigan State men’s team competing at the championships, while it will be the first time in 51 years without the Spartan women. Both programs were cut in October 2020.
It will also be the first time in 103 years that the Iowa men won’t be competing after the program was cut in August 2020 (the women’s team was also cut but ultimately got reinstated).
Arizona State Returns To Pac-12 After Redshirt Season
Arizona State surprised everyone in the summer of 2020 when the program announced it would redshirt its entire men’s and women’s swimming & diving teams for the 2020-21 season.
The move, made in an effort to get out ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic which caused a delay in the start of the NCAA campaign until January, ended up having several pros and cons. While it forced the Sun Devil swimmers to sit on the sidelines and watch the Pac-12 and NCAA Championships run as scheduled in February and March, it did give the team a stacked lineup of swimmers this season that has been paying off thus far.
The Cal men have been dominant at Pac-12s of late, winning four straight titles, but ASU should make things a little more interesting this season. The women’s team might not be a viable challenger to Stanford or Cal, but the Sun Devils do have some star power to vie for individual victories.
As it has traditionally done, the men’s championship meet will fall in early March (March 2-5), one week after all of the other Power Five meets have wrapped up. The women’s meet will be the week prior.
Big 12 Brings Swimming & Diving Back Together
Just like some of the other conferences, the Big 12 will bring the swimmers and divers back together this season after holding separate competitions due to COVID-19 in 2021.
Last season, the Big 12 Swimming Championship ran Wednesday through Saturday at the University of Texas, and then the diving competition took place the following Monday-Wednesday in the same pool. In 2022, the divers will be back in their regular spot alongside the swimmers.
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Bonus: Ivy League Is Back
While it’s not a Power Five Conference, the Ivy League does feature some top-tier athletes, including redshirt senior Dean Farris of Harvard.
Farris won three individual NCAA titles in 2019, and then after the 2020 national championship was canceled and the Ivy League canceled its entire 2020-21 season, he hasn’t had the opportunity to defend those titles in three years.
It was also confirmed Wednesday that trans woman Lia Thomas will be eligible to compete at the Women’s Ivy League Championships, which will run Feb. 16-19 in Boston. The men’s meet will take place the following week at Princeton in New Jersey.
POWER FIVE CHANGES – SUMMARY
- ACC – Combined gender championships.
- SEC – Men and women recombine after separate meets in 2021.
- Big Ten – Roster limits decrease to 18, divers count as half.
- Pac-12 – Arizona State returns after 2020-21 redshirt.
- Big 12 – Diving back with swimming, similar to some other conferences.
Another effect of the combined ACC meet this year: Male Divers will get to compete with their swimming teammates rather than the week before with the Women. I know that’s a big plus for them, for their swimming teammates and for the spectator/fans!
ACC held combined championships at FSU in 1994. There were a few before that as well in the 1980s. 1982 was combined in C’ville – I worked the timing machine (yes, there were even touch pads back then), but we borrowed “fancy” stop watches from a watch company downtown for the meet.
That Big10 change is really significant. That’s something that changes the dynamics of the meet and even recruiting by quite a bit. The bottom tier of teams now has a way better shot of getting some kids into finals. Also going to be harder for the top end to keep the non-scoring kids happy. Might result in more deciding to transfer places they will be able to play a bigger role.
Does anyone know whether the Big Ten will still have an A, B, and C final and score 24 places or will they have only two finals and score only 16 places?
As far as we know, still planning to score C finals.
Where can I watch conferences?
Actually ACCs were combined in 1981 at UVA I believe.
“It will also be the first time in 103 years that the Iowa men won’t be competing” is such a sad thing to hear 🙁
Very sad- such a long time. Random question, does anyone know who is the oldest active collegiate swim program in the country?
I was curious and guessed Ivy League. The oldest I discovered in 5 minutes of research is Yale (1898) followed by Harvard in 1902.
way cool! Good call on the Ivy League… I wonder what is the oldest active club team in the country….
According to ISHOF, Penn was the first to give its students pool access in 1897, forming a team later that year. They raced against swimmers from NYAC who attended Columbia (remembering that the two hour drive from Philly to NYC was a lot longer when traveled by horse). Harvard and Yale formed in 1900, per ISHOF. Cornell, University of Chicago, the Armour Institute (now Illinois Tech), and the University of Wisconsin in 1901. Then Princeton, Brown, and WashU.
We have to remember, as with anything in sports history, ‘forming a team’ didn’t really look as it does today. There wasn’t a press release, a schedule announcement, a coach hiring, etc. It was just a group of (usually men) getting together… Read more »