CSCAA Proposes Using 72nd-Place Time Average as Single NCAA Qualifying Standard
In late May, the College Swimming Coaches Association (CSCAA) unveiled a proposal for massive changes to the NCAA Championships, aiming to protect swimming’s place in the quickly-changing world of college athletics. The proposal, if implemented, would make the meet “better align with broadcast needs” and “expanding institutional access through an updated qualification process.”
The qualifying process would involve the elimination of “A” and “B” cuts while introducing a single new standard for each event. Any Division I conference champion who matched or exceeded this standard would receive an automatic berth at the NCAA Championships. Any swimmer without a conference title would then be selected for the meet by the same process currently in place, where the top 38-40 women and 28-30 men are invited in each event. Swimmers selected for the meet would then be eligible to race additional events in which they own a time under the qualifying standard.
The CSCAA announced in a recent email blast that it had “received largely positive feedback on the proposal,” suggesting the changes could be rolled out as soon as the 2025-26 championship season. However, the organization now hopes to institute qualifying standards based on an average of the 72nd-place time in each event over the previous three years.
The original proposal had involved using the three-year average of the 80th-place times, but coach feedback suggested a slightly quicker cutoff to ensure no potential point-scorers would be left out of the meet. Using the 72nd-place average, the group argues, “achieves the same goals, expanding access without compromising the meet’s integrity.”
An analysis chart distributed by the CSCAA shows this current proposal would have brought 12 additional teams to the 2025 NCAA Women’s Championships and 14 new squads to the men’s meet. Newly invited swimmers would account for just under 10% of the meet’s athlete cap, compared with 11-14% if the 80th-place average was instituted as the qualifying time.
The full proposal seeks to build “a high-stakes, heavyweight experience — where every session matters and every race or dive has the power to shift the standings, elevating both the intensity and visibility of the championship and the sport.”
Under the new model suggested by coaches, consolation finals would be eliminated from the NCAA Championships, with points awarded for places nine through 16 based on results from prelims. All relays would be returned to a prelims-finals format rather than the timed finals used since 2021 (and before that for the 800 free relay). The 1650 freestyle would be the only race kept as a timed finals event, and it would take place on the first day of the meet.
Additionally, the proposal suggested putting “the fastest and most exciting events on the final days of the championship and allow for stronger storytelling, narrative buildup and viewer engagement, as recommended by ESPN producers.” Award ceremonies would be moved to the end of the session to make the finals session move more smoothly while diving would be divided into two segments, with each diver performing three dives in one segment between swimming events and then three further dives during a later break from racing.
