2026-2027 NCAA Division I School Preview Compendium

September begins this Tuesday and the NCAA season will start later within the month. With the season simply across the nook, SwimSwam has been busy rating the recruiting lessons and previewing the highest groups for the upcoming season.

As we submit articles, we are going to replace our compendium so you’ll be able to rapidly and simply entry every part.

Top 12 Programs Preview

Grading Criteria

Over the years, we’ve gone backwards and forwards on the right way to challenge factors, starting from largely subjective rankings to extra data-based grading standards primarily based on ‘projected returning points.’ We like being as goal as attainable, however we’re going to stay with the strategy we’ve adopted post-COVID. The “stars” will rely closely on what swimmers really did final 12 months, however we’ll additionally give credit score to returning swimmers or freshmen who’ve posted instances that might have scored final 12 months.

Since we solely profile the highest 12 groups on this format, our grades are designed with that vary in thoughts. In the grand scheme of faculty swimming and in comparison with all different faculty applications, high 12 NCAA applications would just about all grade properly throughout the board. But within the curiosity of constructing these previews informative, our grading scale is hard – designed to point out the tiers between the great stroke teams, the good ones, and the 2015 Texas fly group sorts.

• 5 star (★★★★★) – a uncommon, elite NCAA group projected to attain 25+ factors per occasion
• 4 star (★★★★) – a really, excellent NCAA group projected to attain 15-24 factors per occasion
• 3 star (★★★) – a superb NCAA group projected to attain 5-14 factors per occasion
• 2 star (★★) – a strong NCAA group projected to attain 1-4 factors per occasion
• 1 star (★) –  an NCAA group that’s projected to attain no factors per occasion, although that doesn’t imply it’s with out potential scorers – they’ll simply have to leapfrog some swimmers forward of them to do it

We’ll grade every occasion self-discipline: dash free (which we outline to incorporate all of the relay-distance freestyle occasions, so 50, 100 and 200), distance free, IM, breaststroke, backstroke, butterfly and diving. Use these grades as a jumping-off level for dialogue, moderately than a purpose to be indignant.

Also, remember that we’re publishing many of those previews earlier than groups have posted finalized rosters. We’re making our assessments primarily based on the very best data now we have obtainable on the time of publication, however we reserve the proper to make modifications after publication primarily based on any new data that will emerge relating to rosters. If that does occur, we’ll make sure to notice the change.

The last be aware is that we’re not together with athletes who graduated final spring after exhausting their faculty eligibility regardless of ongoing lawsuits towards the NCAA relating to the brand new “Five-for-Five” rule.

Top Recruiting Classes

Just a few vital notes on our rankings:

• The rankings listed are primarily based on our Class of 2026 Re-Rank. “HM” refers to our honorable mentions and “BOTR” refers to our Best of the Rest part for top-tier recruits.
• Like most of our rankings, these placements are subjective. We base our crew ranks on quite a lot of components: prospects’ incoming instances are by far the principle issue, however we additionally take into account potential upside within the class, class dimension, relay influence, and crew wants. Greater weight is positioned on identified success in brief course yards, so overseas swimmers are barely devalued primarily based on the problem in changing lengthy course instances to brief course manufacturing.
• Transfers are included, although they’re weighed lower than recruits who arrive with 4 seasons of eligibility.
• For the complete listing of all verbally dedicated athletes, click on right here. A giant thanks to SwimSwam’s personal Anne Lepesant for compiling that index – with out it, rankings like these could be far much less complete.
• Some groups had not launched a finalized 2026-27 crew roster on the time these articles had been printed, which means it’s attainable we missed some names. Let us know within the feedback beneath.

Individual Recruit Ranks

Girls

Boys