Committee modifies DI Males’s and Girls’s Swimming and Diving Championships

The NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving Oversight Committee accepted reinstating the comfort finals in swimming and diving for the 2027 championships. 

In swimming, the comfort finals shall be contested earlier than the A-finals session. The B-finals will start at 6 p.m., adopted by the A-finals at 7 p.m.

In diving, the comfort finals shall be performed instantly after the preliminaries. 

The diving finals will retain the cut up format, with the primary three rounds or first two rounds of girls’s platform happening earlier than the A-finals start and the final three rounds happening earlier than the final two heats of the relay every night on Days 2, 3 and 4 of the championships.

Another change for subsequent yr is reordering the occasions to the order from 2025, besides the committee retained the 1,650-yard freestyle on the primary day of the championships. In addition to the reordering of occasions, the committee eliminated the swimming preliminary session on the primary day and returned it to a single-timed finals session within the night.

Other championship format adjustments

• The committee accepted swimming all relay heats within the night classes. The relays seeded seventeenth and better shall be performed with comfort finals and the quickest two heats through the A-finals. This applies solely to Days 2, 3 and 4 of the championships.
• Awards ceremonies will instantly comply with every A-final occasion throughout industrial breaks.
• The committee up to date the qualification requirements for particular person occasions so a focused 10% of invited student-athletes enter by the convention qualifier pathway. The males’s commonplace is ready on the sixty fourth greatest time on the efficiency listing from 2025-26, and the ladies’s commonplace on the 88th greatest time on the efficiency listing from 2025-26. Also, the choice course of shall be modified so student-athletes who entry the meet through the convention qualifier are chosen solely of their top-ranked occasion.

Committee members up to date the championship format based mostly on a suggestion from the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America and different stakeholders, together with suggestions from championship participant surveys.

The adjustments help the aim of presenting the championship for linear broadcast alternatives whereas enhancing the in-venue and student-athlete experiences.

“These changes represent an important step forward for collegiate swimming and diving,” mentioned CSCAA Executive Director Samantha Barany. “They allow us to provide student-athletes with the championship experience they deserve and create a model that is prepared for the realities and opportunities of today’s landscape. Most importantly, we can begin exploring what the future of the championship can become. By working together, we have created a foundation that addresses today’s needs while opening the door for long-term innovation and continued progress for the sport.”