By Gold Medal Mel Stewart on SwimSwam
Today on the GMM Podcast, we have Samantha Barany, Executive Director of the College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA). For the uniformed, CSCAA is a nonprofit member-based organization made up of college coaches dedicated to serving and providing leadership for the advancement of the sport of swimming and diving at the collegiate level.
Sam breaks down one of the biggest shake-ups to our sport in decades: the coming changes to the NCAA Division I Championships.
In this episode, we dig into why college swimming and diving is at risk and just how big that threat really is. Sam breaks down the CSCAA’s role in the process, how we got here, and the goals driving these sweeping NCAA DI Championships changes.
- The B-finals are gone. Swimmers placing 9th–16th will no longer return at night; they’ll be scored off their morning prelim times.
- The event order’s been reshuffled, front-loading prelims and pushing “high-profile” races later in the meet to make the broadcast flow smoother. Diving finals will now be split across sessions for the same reason.
- A new “Win-and-In” rule means any conference champion who hits the national cut earns an automatic spot at NCAAs.
- The old A and B standards are gone too — now there’s a single qualifying time per event.
- The field size stays the same, but automatic qualifiers will displace at-large swimmers.
These changes have left college coaches split. Some see innovation. Others see chaos. There’s already pushback from the Power Four conferences, who argue that slower conference winners will replace faster swimmers from stronger leagues.
Sam shared a lot data behind the behind theses changes and how much influence came from ESPN and broadcast partners. Sam will return to the podcast to discuss specific topics in detail. Moreover, Sam will debrief after the NCAA DI Championships, sharing the data to determine if the mission goals were met.
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This is a Gold Medal Media production presented by SwimOutlet.com. Host Gold Medal Mel Stewart is a 3-time Olympic medalist and the co-founder of SwimSwam.com, a Swimming News website.
Opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the interviewed guests do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints of the hosts, SwimSwam Partners, LLC and/or SwimSwam advertising partners.
Read the full story on SwimSwam: NCAA Championships Overhaul: CSCAA Executive Director Barany Details Why The Changes Were Made
