One of the most vexing problems in college swimming is the NCAA qualification process. In a sport that otherwise operates on concrete time standards, this process rests on a two tiered system of cuts, alongside an algorithm that makes it impossible for all but the most dedicated to authentically determine who will make the meet. Add in a frenzy of last chance qualifiers and you have a recipe for frustration on many levels. At the CSCAA conference last week in San Antonio, Division 1 coaches sat down to try to fix the process, and failing that at least make it slightly better.
Before we get to what was newly proposed, let's talk about what we have now and how we got here. Coaches got an instructive history lesson on the formation of the "cap", now at the center of most people's complaints. For successive years in the 1980s the NCAA asked coaches for a recommendation on a cap figure. Coaches couldn't determine one, thus the NCAA decided for them: 235 men, and 322 women.
The women's "cap" figure works fairly well. This past year 15 relays were selected and 29-30 individuals. A fair individual field for a national championship to be sure, although picking 15 relays when you score 16 has it's own issues. The men's cap was a disaster, this year resulting in 12 relays and as low as 17 individuals being selected. The reason, as has been much discussed by my colleague Shawn Klosterman, is relay only qualifiers.
This year's men's championship has 76 relay only qualifiers. These are swimmers that did not qualify individually but were part of a selected relay. They are allowed to attend the meet and swim any event they have a "B" cut in. Although less traditional "power" schools always get a few relay qualifiers, the process had become a way for the rich to get richer. If you were a Texas or California, you could qualify swimmers relay only without shaving or tapering them to get an individual cut.
In San Antonio, a proposal for radical change was developed and will be submitted to the NCAA for the coming season. In it, relay qualification as we know it will be totally scrapped. The cap of 235 (and 322) will be used to select individuals only, which this past qualification year would have resulted in 29-30 men's qualifiers in each event.
Rather than destroying the role of relays in the meet, relays will make the meet through an alternate process. A cut time will be set up based on the average of the 16th place time prior to the NCAA meet of the last three years. Teams with an individual qualifier would be enter a relay provided they had met this time, and bring relay only swimmers alongside their qualifier to make the relay. These relay only swimmers would be true relay only swimmers- they would simply be there to swim a relay (or more). They would also be paid for by the school, not the NCAA.
That last part was and will be the most controversial part of the proposal. Schools are naturally concerned about anything that may add to their budget. The idea of limiting relay only swimmers to the relays stung for many schools who have seen relay only swimmers be successful. Ultimately, it was determined that schools big and small could ultimately push budget figures around if it meant getting people to the NCAA meet, the ultimate goal of most programs.
The proposal is not perfect, not without flaws, but it will improve the NCAA meet and qualification in crucial ways. It will make the meet faster, both individually and relay, as well as resulting in more participation at the meet. That is a win for everybody.
oh, chris... I would have loved to have been in that room when the proposal was announced. I suggested that idea a couple of years ago (schools paying for relay-only swimmers to make room for individual event qualifiers) and I don't feel it will hurt much. The big schools who traditionally pull swimmers in for relays are the ones who are usually top 20 team contenders and more often than not can come up with the money. the small schools who have a chance to bring a relay will see it as such a unique opportunity that I don't imagine the request for funds will be turned down. It's not like we are talking small schools coming up with the money to fly, hotel and feed a team of 24 for the entire meet. I think it is a great idea. HONOR THE INDIVIDUAL QUALIFIERS OVER THE RELAY PULL-INS.
ReplyDeleteWe spend so much breath bragging that swimming is so individual and "you get in what you put in" but then we set up a system where the rich get richer? Ummm... that math never worked.
I only wish Jack Steck hadn't retired before this meeting. You might have had a chance to see the Rodney Dangerfield of swimming in action in person.
Viking,
ReplyDeleteNot that it will make you feel any better, but it took until now because no one could figure out how to convince the NCAA to allow schools to pay for relay only people. Then the NCAA started allowing the big schools to pay for "relay only alternates", basically to bring people to the meet in case they wanted to put them on a relay. This loophole is hopefully the road in for this proposal.
Totally captured the sentiment above re: paying. Not an issue for the big boys, and all the small schools were pretty convinced that if they want to their AD and said "hey we can send a relay to NCAAs" that their AD would be pretty psyched about that.
Is this selection method going to reach D3? I brought up something similar to this on the D3 swimming forum.. but I would still allow the Relay only guys to swim their B cuts.
ReplyDeleteDo they keep the 18 swimmer limit, including relay only?
ReplyDeleteI think this is a good proposal. However, I don't think it's fair to blame the larger schools. Yes, Cal had relay only swimmers, but guys like Ben Hinshaw do end up scoring significant points. On the other hand take Purdue, who only qualified the one relay and no individuals, so that's 4 spots taken up that don't end up scoring individual points.
ReplyDeleteI don't think anyone is blaming anyone, except the fact that the cap is too darn small for a national meet that scores to 16 places.
ReplyDeleteQuestion -
ReplyDelete1. What happens if you have a relay or relays make cuts with no individual qualifiers? Do the relays not go?
BYoung,
ReplyDeleteI do not believe that D3 qualification was discussed. This would not be a feasible solution at the D3 level as those schools have far more limited budgets and the idea of them footing the bill for relay swimmers would have much greater repercussions.
1st anon, yes it would keep the 18 person limit
2nd anon, perhaps we are getting mixed up in our definition of "big" schools. You cite Purdue, in my mind they are a "big" school. Schools in the bigger conferences (SEC, Pac-12, Big 10, ACC, Big-12) allocate far more resources, likely in that order, to their swimming programs, than say Buffalo or Missouri State.
Final anon: They would not be able to send a relay. Now, this was studied for the last three years, and only one team (Missouri's 2011 200 Medley relay) would have made the cut and had no individual qualifiers. However, this does not present a worse situation for Mizzou, as they didn't qualify under the old system in 2011 anyway.
on the relay with no individual q's issue, I would say that they should be allowed to bring all 4 and swim the relay if they made the Q... they aren't getting to swim their B time swims so they aren't making the meet longer. if they are willing to pay for a shot, let 'em come.
DeleteWell, except if it's Mizzou. Nice choice for an example, Chris. haha.
i agree..if they make a cut, let em go, especially if they are willing to pay for it. this may have affected "only" one team..but all it takes is one more team to be affected and people will be upset
DeleteA good sentiment, but NCAA (and they were represented in this discussion) would be very uncomfortable with having teams at the meet that were not "invited". Since the "invitations" are going out to only individual qualifiers, fighting for this could sink the whole proposal.
DeleteWhy would a relay team that earned a cut time not be considered "invited" ?
DeleteBecause the "invitations" (now we're getting into NCAA speak) are for the swimmers/teams that count against the cap. Since this would only be individual qualifiers, a team with no individual qualifiers would technically not be "invited" according to the NCAA.
DeleteThings always tend to head south when "NCAA Speak" is introduced :)
DeleteHow likely is it that the proposal is accepted?
DeleteFascinating. Two other questions -
ReplyDeleteIf a cut is achieved for the 200 medley relay but not the 400 medley, could the 200 people still swim a 400 medley at the meet? if no, why not?
Does the individual qualifier have to be on the relay that qualified in order for the relay to swim? Or, for example, if you had a 400IM qualify individually and also an 800 freestyle relay, the four relay swimmers can go along with the 400IMer for 5 total, correct?
I'll take these two one at a time.
DeleteThere will be a provisional standard, I believe equal to the 24th best pre-meet time, for having additional relays entered, although you wont be able to bring additional people to swim these "extra relays". I.E. if you have the 200 medley 16th place cut and the 400 medley 24th place cut, you will need to use those 200 medley people for a 400 medley. Does that make sense?
The individual qualifier would not need to be in an event related to the relay. There was a matrix presented that I can't reproduce number for number, but that had individual qualifiers alongside how many relay only people you could bring given that number of individual qualifiers. I remember that coaches made certain that the number was 4 for those that had 1 qualified for this particular situation.
Do we have the entire official proposal in writing?
DeleteIf anyone wants any of the information feel free to contact me at Tallman.2@nd.edu.
DeleteMatt Tallman
University of Notre Dame