Swimmers will be eligible to qualify for the 2024 NCAA Championships in long course meters, with the Division I swim & dive committee including conversion factors in its document releasing the ‘A’ and ‘B’ cuts for the 2023-24 campaign.
Using the ‘A’ cuts, the factors lead to some ultra-elite times in long course, in some cases World Championship medal-worthy, but what about the cutlines from the 2023 NCAA Championships? What does a swimmer actually need to swim in long course to earn an NCAA invite, rather than gain automatic selection by hitting the lofty ‘A’ standard?
Converting times from short course yards to long course meters can often result in a varying degree of times, with some events, particularly backstroke, usually inconsistent from one course to the other, due in part to the precedence underwater fly kick has taken in SCY.
However, using the NCAA’s factors, the times seem to be fairly level.
LCM CONVERSION FACTORS
| Women’s Factor | Event | Men’s Factor |
| 0.881 | 50 Freestyle | 0.870 |
| 0.884 | 100 Freestyle | 0.873 |
| 0.884 | 200 Freestyle | 0.875 |
| 1.122 | 400 Freestyle to 500 Freestyle | 1.115 |
| 1.13 | 800 Freestyle to 1000 Freestyle | 1.115 |
| 0.985 | 1500 Freestyle to 1650 Freestyle | 0.975 |
| 0.863 | 100 Backstroke | 0.845 |
| 0.867 | 200 Backstroke | 0.859 |
| 0.88 | 100 Breaststroke | 0.866 |
| 0.888 | 200 Breaststroke | 0.868 |
| 0.887 | 100 Butterfly | 0.878 |
| 0.891 | 200 Butterfly | 0.876 |
| 0.877 | 200 IM | 0.867 |
| 0.886 | 400 IM | 0.875 |
| 0.881 | 200 Freestyle Relay | 0.870 |
| 0.884 | 400 Freestyle Relay | 0.873 |
| 0.884 | 800 Freestyle Relay | 0.877 |
| 0.879 | 200 Medley Relay | 0.868 |
| 0.878 | 400 Medley Relay | 0.866 |
Below, find the 2023 NCAA cutlines converted to long course using the NCAA’s published factors for each event.
- To convert a LCM swim into SCY, translate the time into seconds and then multiply by the factor.
- To convert a SCY swim into LCM, translate the time into seconds and then divide by the factor.
LCM CONVERSIONS – NCAA FACTOR FORMULA
Women’s Conversions
| EVENT (SCY) | 2023 INVITE TIME | FACTOR TIME |
| 50 free | 22.15 | 25.14 |
| 100 free | 48.87 | 55.28 |
| 200 free | 1:45.31 | 1:59.13 |
| 500 free | 4:41.09 | 4:10.53 |
| 1650 free | 16:13.73 | 16:28.56 |
| 100 fly | 52.20 | 58.85 |
| 200 fly | 1:55.92 | 2:10.10 |
| 100 back | 52.36 | 1:00.67 |
| 200 back | 1:53.34 | 2:10.73 |
| 100 breast | 59.73 | 1:07.88 |
| 200 breast | 2:09.68 | 2:26.04 |
| 200 IM | 1:56.90 | 2:13.30 |
| 400 IM | 4:11.36 | 4:43.70 |
Men’s Conversions
| EVENT (SCY) | 2023 INVITE TIME | FACTOR TIME |
| 50 free | 19.21 | 22.08 |
| 100 free | 42.32 | 48.48 |
| 200 free | 1:32.85 | 1:46.11 |
| 500 free | 4:14.36 | 3:48.13 |
| 1650 free | 14:53.84 | 15:16.76 |
| 100 fly | 45.57 | 51.90 |
| 200 fly | 1:42.57 | 1:57.09 |
| 100 back | 45.70 | 54.08 |
| 200 back | 1:40.62 | 1:57.13 |
| 100 breast | 51.90 | 59.93 |
| 200 breast | 1:52.94 | 2:10.12 |
| 200 IM | 1:43.14 | 1:58.96 |
| 400 IM | 3:42.99 | 4:14.85 |
The women’s factored times seem to fall somewhere in between the Olympic Consideration Times (‘B’ cuts) and the U.S. Olympic Trials standards, while the men’s times are relatively more competitive and in many cases right around the Olympic ‘B’ cuts.
We can also use the factored times to calculate what it will take to earn an ‘A’ cut for NCAAs, though most of them are incredibly lofty.
2024 NCAA ‘A’ CUTS CONVERTED TO LCM
Women’s Conversions
| Event | Women’s ‘A’ Standard | Factor Times |
| 50 free | 21.63 | 24.55 |
| 100 free | 47.18 | 53.37 |
| 200 free | 1:42.84 | 1:56.33 |
| 500 free | 4:37.89 | 4:07.67 |
| 1650 free | 15:52.41 | 16:06.91 |
| 100 fly | 50.69 | 57.15 |
| 200 fly | 1:52.86 | 2:06.67 |
| 100 back | 50.88 | 58.96 |
| 200 back | 1:50.50 | 2:07.45 |
| 100 breast | 58.02 | 1:05.93 |
| 200 breast | 2:05.73 | 2:21.59 |
| 200 IM | 1:53.66 | 2:09.60 |
| 400 IM | 4:03.62 | 4:38.42 |
Men’s Conversions
| Event | Men’s ‘A’ Standard | Factor Times |
| 50 free | 18.82 | 21.63 |
| 100 free | 41.50 | 47.54 |
| 200 free | 1:31.74 | 1:44.85 |
| 500 free | 4:10.74 | 3:44.88 |
| 1650 free | 14:37.31 | 14:59.81 |
| 100 fly | 44.64 | 50.84 |
| 200 fly | 1:40.16 | 1:54.34 |
| 100 back | 44.71 | 52.91 |
| 200 back | 1:39.13 | 1:55.40 |
| 100 breast | 51.10 | 59.01 |
| 200 breast | 1:51.09 | 2:07.98 |
| 200 IM | 1:41.03 | 1:56.53 |
| 400 IM | 3:38.90 | 4:10.17 |
The converted ‘A’ cuts in the women’s 100 breast, 200 breast and 200 fly all would’ve been fast enough to earn bronze at the 2023 World Championships, and while none of the men’s times quite make the podium, the 200 back, both breaststrokes and the 50 and 100 free are incredibly close.
The majority of swimmers who compete at the 2024 NCAA Division I Championships will have qualified in a SCY competition, but there will likely be a handful of them who earned their berth in the long course pool, whether its the 2023 U.S. Open, the 2024 World Championships, or perhaps one of the rare LCM college duals.
Note that the invite times are likely to get slightly quicker in most events, like they did last year, so the LCM conversions are more of a rough baseline rather than a hard standard.
Do bona fide competition rules still apply? If meets like American Short course champs and sectionals can no longer be used to qualify for NCAAs because there are club swimmers, how would that work for a meet like US Open or the Pro Swim Series?
I wish they’d bring back the scm edition of NCAAs in Olympic year. I’m sure we’d see some world records go down.
Which ones?
200/400 IM, 200 Br, whatever else Marchand wants to swim
J Crooks 50 free
Possibly Walsh 200 IM
Just about as important as the standards established is when the athletes must perform the times. I’ve not seen dates in the articles related to this matter.
Will times from Nationals, Worlds or the Pro Championships qualify or do they have to be done after 9/1/23?
How is it even right? To make NCAA you have to go an Olympic A cut in the 200 freestyle, I’m sure that there are maybe 5-6 swimmer in the NCAA that can go this fast.
200 backstroke and freestyle NCAA ‘A’ cuts converted are times that medal in world championships.
Just make the NCAA in long course for the Olympic year and I want to see 30 swimmers that go 1:46.1 or 3:48 in the 400.
If NCAAs were held in long course, would there ever have been a time where a school relay broke a world record? There would need to be a mixture of nationalities that would otherwise be unable to race together internationally.
On the men’s side, Texas’ medley relay with Shebat, Licon, Schooling, and Conger comes to mind as being highly competitive, but they wouldn’t have been close to breaking the record. I cannot think of another instance.
Auburn prob would’ve been closer to the 400 free relay record back when they had Cielo, Bosquet, etc but would still miss out
I don’t think Cielo and Bousquet overlapped at Auburn.
Peirsal, Hansen, Crocker & Walker would have been close
I think the math is a bit off
It would be cool to see an article using recent LCM data of current NCAA swimmers to show just how many swimmers might actually qualify for NCAAs from LCM meets.
Obviously Marchand & Kos are on that list, as I am sure a few others.
Done by somebody else in another thread. I didn’t check it:
Leon Marchand – 200/400 IM, 200 Breast, 200 fly
Carson Foster – 200/400 IM, 200 fly
Jack Alexy – 50/100 free
Ahmed Hafnoui – 400/1500 free
Charlie Clark – 1500 free (unsure if he still has a year of eligibility)
Hubert Kos – 200 back
Josh Liendo – 100 fly
Dare Rose – 100 fly
Nyls Korstanje – 100 fly (think he has one more year, unknown if he’s taking it or not)
Matt Fallon – 200 breast
Gretchen Walsh – 50/100 free, 100 fly
Bella Sims – 200/400 free
Erin Gemmell – 200/400 free
Jillian Cox… Read more »
Carson Foster has turned Pro
What I got from this is that Marchand should be in 1:51-1:52 range in the 200 IM next year in Paris