Ninth-Place Finishers from NCAA Championships Weigh in on Absence of B Finals
Haakon Naughton still remembers the experience of qualifying for his first B-final at the NCAA Championships in 2025. The crowd, flashing with the bright colors of every school. The tense atmosphere. The fierce competition. It was an environment he described as “different from anywhere (I’d) swam before. I’ll never forget the feeling (of competing). It was truly electric.”
A year later, the Arizona swimmer finished ninth in the 200 fly at NCAAs, but under the meet’s new structure, that effort was based solely on his preliminaries performance. With no B Finals, he did not swim at night.
“It just felt so weird to not get to swim (again),” Naughton said. “It felt like something was taken from me.”
The swimmer’s sentiment wasn’t alone. The removal of B Finals from this year’s NCAAs was one of the most highly-debated topics at the meet. Both fans at home and in-person did not receive the change well. The CSCAA has indicated it prefers a return of B Finals for 2027. Based on discussions with swimmers most impacted by the change this season, athletes felt a great experience was taken from them.
Morning Jitters
For decades, college swimmers have known what to expect entering the NCAA Championships. The morning session was bound to have a few surprises, but generally, the night session was the chance for athletes to flash their top seed.
“Finals create that high-energy format that everybody’s looking for,” Louisville swimmer Jackson Millard said.
This year, though, without the B-finals, the focus for many swimmers came down to the morning. There was added pressure to either qualify for the A-final, or finish highly enough to score.
“It created a very competitive morning session,” Arizona State swimmer Tolu Young said. “Even athletes who felt pretty good (about making finals) knew they had to be really good in the morning (to make it).”
According to Young, this approach was somewhat beneficial, as it brought an additional element of competition to the morning. But he also was quick to point out that the morning couldn’t quite capture the magic of the night session, due to some factors out of his control.
“There were lots of swimmers leaving in order to prepare for the next session, and lots of fans/parents leaving if their kids were done swimming,” Young said. “So the environment wasn’t the same.”
According to Nevada swimmer Scarlett Ferris, the time of day swimmers competed impacted the athletes mentally as well.
“A morning swim generally doesn’t represent who you are and where you finish in an event at other meets,” Ferris said. “So it was definitely weird to have to switch mindsets.”
The change left everyone wishing they had more time to adjust to the new format.
“There was just a lot of confusion,” Ferris said. “It was hard for so many swimmers and coaches to rationalize the fact that there were no B- finals.”
A Muted Finals Session
The effects of the shift visibly spread down to the finals sessions, according to the swimmers who were present. They described a different atmosphere at night, one that was much more subdued compared to past years.
“There just wasn’t as much energy in the stands,” Naughton said. “It didn’t feel as elite, like an NCAA Championships meet should.”
Young described the relays as the biggest difference. The sophomore indicated that because fewer swimmers qualified for finals, fewer parents showed up to support their respective teams, making for a more hushed atmosphere. Only the top-eight relays raced at night.
“It was really noticeable how quiet it was,” Young said. “For a team like us, that does so well in pressured environments, it was really tough.”
The established purpose of the change was to “modernize” the meet by making it “flow more smoothly, per the CSCAA. Essentially, this was a move to cater to the television broadcast, looking to “minimize interruptions and improve the viewer experience.” The swimmers on deck, however, didn’t feel any meaningful difference in how quickly the meet ran.
“The meet still felt very long,” Millard said. “It felt like it was the same amount of time, just filled with empty space, instead of racing.”
The space, according to some swimmers, actually had the opposite effect, by making the meet feel more disjointed.
“The B-finals help set up the A, by providing fast swimming, before you see even faster swimming,” Naughton said. “It adds an element of excitement to the A final.”
Stripping the meet of more competition, and failing to fill it with anything of substance, led to frustration from all involved.
“You go to a swim meet to watch swimming, and people tune in to watch racing,” Ferris said. “Why would we not want more of that?”
Shifting Strategy
Although the changes were new, some swimmers pointed out how teams strategized for the meet. Young noted that he scratched out of the 100 fly in order to only swim the 50 free, knowing it was his best chance of scoring. He believed that many other athletes made this change, in order to focus on the individual events/relays that put their team in prime positions to maximize points.
“Everyone knew how difficult the competition was,” Young said. “A lot of teams like ours wanted to focus on our best chance at scoring.”
A Sneaky Advantage
While irritation brewed over the change, it wasn’t all bad. The swimmers interviewed, all of whom finished in ninth, indicated that the security of finishing in ninth, without having to swim the race again, was beneficial for their teams.
“If I had to swim the race again in a B-final, I wouldn’t have been guaranteed to finish ninth,” Ferris said. “Given that I could’ve only dropped in place, that was advantageous.”
For these specific athletes, this served as an advantage. But it also hurt many who finished lower in the B-final, who could have scored more points with another swim.
“If I had landed in 16th, I would be a lot more frustrated,” Millard acknowledged.
It was yet another double-edged sword of a scenario, created by the lack of two chances to compete.
“I think everybody, as a competitor, would’ve just liked one more chance,” Ferris said.
Will We See a Change in 2027?
What will next year look like? In the aftermath of the 2026 meet, the CSCAA has recommended the reinstatement of consolation finals to next year’s championships. If approved, B Finals would be contested before the championship finals, in their own separate session. It’s a format that many of the ninth-place swimmers brought up as a potential option.
“It wouldn’t totally recapture the magic of the B-final, but it would give them a swim at night, where almost everybody swims faster,” Naughton said.
The athletes pointed to the change as imperfect, still preferring the return of the B-Final to before the championship races.
“Two separate finals still create two separate atmospheres,” Young said. “The B-final right before the A is by far the best format.”
All in all, there was still a belief that any improvement from this year’s format would be beneficial.
“Their hearts were in the right place (with the change), but this meet has to continue to evolve, in order to grow our sport,” Millard said.
