Last week, in a news dump that I missed because I was also caught up in Enhanced Games fever, the CSCAA released it’s list of proposed changes to the NCAA Championship. I want to discuss those proposed changes, but also have a little more fun than I usually do writing these blogs.
So I’m going to grade the proposed changes. My grades will be based on several factors. One is the intention of the changes- to bring increased media exposure to the NCAA Championships (and therefore sustain swimming at the Division 1 collegiate level). The second is the raw gain/loss from a swimming perspective. Each of these offer a potential benefit, but is it worth it given what we’re losing?
The final criteria is my completely unbiased, objective opinion. The following is formatted in accordance to the list of changes reported by Swimswam.
NO ADDED EVENTS: A
No need to add 50s, especially with rosters shrinking and the fact that it would make the meets LONGER, not shorter.
Nothing is gained or lost, the meet events remain the same
Generally think swimming already has too many events, I would love a proposal that actually tightened up the event set.
NO SEPARATE CONSOLATION HEAT: A-
Love the idea of adding excitement to prelims. I for one will be more likely to watch NCAA prelims if it is directly dictating the final outcome of the meet
Swimmers lose out on a second swim. This is a very minor loss given it’s a championship meet.
Love the idea of a finals session with wall to wall championship final action
New Qualification Model: C (short term) A (Long tERM)
I love the idea of adding excitement to conference meets, where swimmers of a certain level can duke it out for an invite to NCAAs! Again, this would make me more likely to watch finals of a mid-major meet.
In the short term, allowing slower swimmers from mid-major conferences to qualify will result in a less fast meet, but mostly in the places that don’t count for points.
In totality I love an idea that brings more parity to college swimming and offers a path to mid-major programs becoming more competitive. In the long term I think the competitive part will also work it’s way out for the most part.
Award Ceremonies moved- A-
Great for broadcast, who honestly enjoys watching award ceremonies? If you really want to see someone get a medal, then wait for them at the end!
This would create less breaks in the session and make it harder for swimmers to double, exacerbating what is already caused by the absence of B finals from the night program. I’m willing to take that for a session that moves at breakneck pace.
Breaking up Diving FInals- A
Honestly I never considered doing this, great idea for avoiding the absolute momentum killing that a diving final brings to meets.
Divers and diving coaches will cry about it and that will be annoying to listen to, but we are all used to it.
1650 Free with the opening relays on the first day- B
Clever way to even out the sessions and make the opening night around the same time as the other nights.
There will always be conflicts, but the probability of a swimmer being on a 200 Medley Relay and swimming the 1650 is exceedingly low. 800 free double is more likely- but sprinters have to double up a relay and a finals swim on other days, so I think everyone can deal.
Overall: A-
I think that this proposal is perfect, but I also struggle to see how much better we could get. I think if you want to, you can find fault in any change and then we can just keep doing things the way we’ve always done it. If one of these changes ends up really sucking, we can change it. But we might find that a lot of these are really positive for the long term of the sport.