The Big 12 has announced that the 2025 Big 12 Swimming and Diving Championships will be held at Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way, Washington.
“We’re honored to host the Big 12 Swimming and Diving Championship, offering a modernized facility that provides an outstanding experience for elite athletes and their fans,” said King County Executive Dow Constantine. “We’ve made significant improvements at our Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center in recent years, making it brighter, more energy efficient, and more comfortable for swimmers of all ages and abilities, including collegiate superstars.”
The dates for the meet are set for Tuesday, February 25 – Saturday, March 1, 2025. With the meet expected to start on Tuesday, it looks as if the meet will be switching to a five-day meet format that the ACC and SEC currently have. Currently, the meet operates under the four-day format.
This will be the first time that the meet is held at a neutral site since 1997. The meet has typically been held at the University of Texas, although Texas will be leaving the Big 12 at the end of this year to join the SEC. This year’s championships are being held on campus at West Virginia.
The meet will travel out west in 2025 to Washington. With Texas’s departure, the arrival of BYU and Cincinnati this year, and Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah next year, the conference will see a dramatic geographical shift.
Notably, Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah will all arrive from the Pac-12. The three teams will be familiar with the pool as the 2024 Pac-12 Championships will take place in Federal Way with the women’s meet running from February 28th-March 2nd and the men’s meet running from March 6th-9th.
Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center has seating for approximately 2,500 spectators. The pool was planned to host the 2021 NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championships but the meet was ultimately canceled due to COVID-19.
Just a few weeks after hosting the 2025 Big 12 Championships, the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center will host both the men’s and women’s 2025 NCAA Division I Swimming and Diving Championships.
A couple of incorrect details in the article:
1) The change to a five day format begins this year, not next year. The meet is also changing scoring from 1-16 to 1-24.
2) It’s inaccurate to say “The meet has typically been held at the University of Texas” (although that has happened a lot!). Starting in 2020 the meet has alternated between WVU (2020, 2022, 2024) and Texas, so this is WVU’s third year hosting.
3) University of Houston also joined starting this year (only Cincinnati and BYU are mentioned).
It will be fun for the swimmers. Swimming at the same locations year in and year out is boring. For a Texas swimmer swimming at UT or A&M gets really old. You do that constantly for high school and age group championships.
Maybe Anchorage the next year!
Federal Way, Greensboro, Morgantown rotation
With 3 of the future conference members not even in the group yet, how can they already have established a rotation yet?
Ton of college conference worthy pools in Texas. Only justification for going to Federal Way next year is further establishing familiarity with NCAA pool. Schools in new Big-12 with swimming programs after this year:
BYU
Cincinnati
ASU
UofA
Utah
TCU
West Virginia
Houston – Women only
Iowa State – Women only
Kansas – Women only
Any pool in Texas is closer to the center of gravity of these location. Also University of Missouri and LSU and travelling the same direction (West) as to get to Seattle, any deep… Read more »
Great to see that the amount of swimming programs in the conference has increased due to the new additions.
Don’t worry, I’m pretty sure Greg was making a suggestion, not stating something that has been decided.
Ahh yes the Seattle metropolitan, famously known for being only 800 miles from the closest big 12 school next year and the closest championship caliber pool. Utah, the closest school will need a 2 hour flight while West Virginia will take a 5.5 hour flight FOR A CONFERENCE MEET
Cool geography lesson. Swimmers travel all over the country and world to swim big meets in the best pools, against the fastest competition. And it’s a preview of the ncaa pool for the year.
Federal way is easier to get to than WVU for many/most of the schools as Seattle is a big airport with lots of flight options and the facility is close to the airport. Also, it’s hard to feel bad for WVU traveling since they have had 0 hour flights 3 of the last 5 years….