2024 MEN’S NCAA SWIMMING AND DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- March 27-30, 2024
- IUPUI Natatorium, Indianapolis, Indiana
- Short Course Yards (25 yards)
- Meet Central
- Official Psych Sheets
- Live Results
- Invited Swimmers By Team (not including relay swimmers)
- Alternates List
- Eligible Relays
We’re less than two weeks away from the start of the 2024 Men’s Division I Swimming and Diving Championships. The invites are out, cut lines placed, and psych sheets dropped. We’ve scored out the psych sheets, but now it’s time to take a closer look at the relays teams are sending to Indianapolis.
How To Qualify Relays for NCAAs:
- The simplest way to qualify relays for NCAAs is to hit the ‘A’ cut, formally known as the “Qualifying Standard” in a relay.
- Once a team has an ‘A’ standard relay, they can also enter all relays where they’ve earned the ‘B’ standard, formally known as a “Provisional Standard.”
- Teams with four individual swimmers qualified can swim relay events in which they have at least a ‘B’ standard and bring up to four uninvited relay swimmers.
- Relays are qualified “to the team”, not the individual swimmers so teams can take whichever swimmers they want to use on the relay.
- Teams with an ‘A’ standard relay but no individual invites can swim that relay–but not any where they’ve swum a ‘B’ cut–and bring four uninvited relay swimmers to compete in that relay.
Qualifying relays for NCAAs matters for a couple different reasons. First, relays score double the points of an individual event. That means if you’re a team that’s hoping to finish highly in the standings, you need to not only qualify relays, but have them score highly. We’ve seen teams with only four relays qualified finish in the top 10, but without five relays qualified there’s a ceiling. Ask any team that’s had a relay disqualified, it’s a challenge to make up the gap from missing out on a points in a relay.
Even if a team’s relays are projected to score, or the team isn’t coming to NCAAs with top 10 aspirations, relays still matter. Qualifying a relay for NCAAs is a milestone for any NCAA program. It speaks to the depth of the program; there are at least four swimmers actively contributing.
In 2023, the number of schools with NCAA-eligible relays dipped from 32 in 2022 to 27. Even though the ‘A’ cuts for the 400 free and 200 medley relays both got slightly faster, the numbers are back up. This year, 31 schools are eligible to swim at least one relay at NCAAs.
Schools Qualified To Send 1+ Relay to 2023 NCAAs
Note: The table is organized by number of ‘A’ cuts in descending order, then alphabetically.
| School | # of ‘A’ Cuts | # of ‘B’ Cuts | Total | A’ Cut Event(s) | B’ Cut Event(s) |
| Arizona State | 5 | 0 | 5 | 200 FR, 400 FR, 800 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR | — |
| Auburn | 5 | 0 | 5 | 200 FR, 400 FR, 800 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR | — |
| California | 5 | 0 | 5 | 200 FR, 400 FR, 800 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR | — |
| Florida | 5 | 0 | 5 | 200 FR, 400 FR, 800 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR | — |
| Georgia | 5 | 0 | 5 | 200 FR, 400 FR, 800 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR | — |
| Indiana | 5 | 0 | 5 | 200 FR, 400 FR, 800 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR | — |
| Michigan | 5 | 0 | 5 | 200 FR, 400 FR, 800 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR | — |
| NC State | 5 | 0 | 5 | 200 FR, 400 FR, 800 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR | — |
| Notre Dame | 5 | 0 | 5 | 200 FR, 400 FR, 800 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR | — |
| Stanford | 5 | 0 | 5 | 200 FR, 400 FR, 800 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR | — |
| Virginia Tech | 5 | 0 | 5 | 200 FR, 400 FR, 800 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR | — |
| Louisville | 4 | 1 | 5 | 400 FR, 800 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR | 200 FR |
| Texas | 4 | 1 | 5 | 400 FR, 800 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR | 200 FR |
| Tennessee | 4 | 0 | 4 | 200 FR, 400 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR | — |
| Virginia | 4 | 0 | 4 | 200 FR, 400 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR | — |
| Arizona | 3 | 2 | 5 | 200 FR, 800 FR, 200 MR | 400 FR, 400 MR |
| Florida State | 3 | 2 | 5 | 200 FR, 400 FR, 200 MR | 800 FR, 400 MR |
| Texas A&M | 2 | 2 | 4 | 200 FR, 400 MR | 400 FR, 200 MR |
| Alabama | 2 | 1 | 3 | 400 FR, 800 FR | 200 MR |
| LSU | 1 | 3 | 4 | 200 MR | 200 FR, 800 FR, 400 MR |
| Missouri | 1 | 3 | 4 | 200 MR | 200 FR, 400 FR, 400 MR |
| Wisconsin | 1 | 3 | 4 | 200 FR | 400 FR, 800 FR, 200 MR |
| BYU | 1 | 2 | 3 | 200 MR | 400 FR, 400 MR |
| Ohio State | 1 | 2 | 3 | 800 FR | 200 FR, 400 FR |
| Penn State | 1 | 2 | 3 | 200 MR | 200 FR, 400 MR |
| UNC | 1 | 2 | 3 | 200 FR | 800 FR, 400 MR |
| Georgia Tech | 1 | 1 | 2 | 400 FR | 800 FR |
| SMU | 1 | 1 | 2 | 800 FR | 400 FR |
| Hawaii | 1 | 0 | 1 | 200 FR | 400 FR* |
| Minnesota | 0 | 2 | 2 | — | 400 FR, 400 MR |
| USC | 0 | 1 | 1 | — | 400 MR |
*ineligible due to relay qualification procedures.
Only 14 schools had achieved an NCAA ‘A’ cut at the end of midseason invites, which was less than at that point last season. But the numbers rebounded during conferences, as another 15 schools hit ‘A’ cuts and qualified relays for NCAAs.
Of those teams, one of the biggest winners is Virginia. It was concerning that they did not have an ‘A’ cut after midseason, as last year they had four (the max they can achieve as they don’t swim the 800 free relay in season). Now, they’ve got four ‘A’ cuts which will help them massively as they fight to maintain their place in the standings. They have a small NCAA team with just three individual swimmers, but these relays should help them from free-falling.
Six schools that didn’t qualify relays in 2023 will field at least one relay this year in Indianapolis. Those teams are: Florida State, BYU, Penn State, Georgia Tech, Hawaii, SMU, and USC.
Hawaii hit their ‘A’ cut in the 200 free relay on Day 1 of the MPSF Championships, then added a ‘B’ cut in the 400 freestyle relay to close out the meet, though they aren’t eligible to race that at NCAAs since they don’t have an individual invite. They and SMU represent the only two mid-major teams with NCAA eligible relays. Last year, both Harvard and UNLV qualified relays. Both those teams had a ‘B’ cut (Harvard had three) but weren’t able to meet the ‘A’ standard.
It’s also notable how much improvement Notre Dame’s relays have made. They qualified five relays last year with only one ‘A’ cut in the 400 freestyle relay. This year, they have all five ‘A’ cuts and are projected to score 76 points from their relays–a 66 point upswing from the 10 they scored in 2023.
Georgia, Virginia Tech, and Stanford are the three other teams also improved to five ‘A’ cuts this year after missing at least one in 2023.
For Georgia and Virginia Tech that’s translated to them being projected to outscore their 2023 relay points by a significant margin. After earning just 26 relay points in 2023, Georgia is slated to earn 58 this year which is one of the big factors in their projected 8th place finish after being 12th last year. Virginia Tech is projected to earn 98 relay points, up from 68 last season, which is also contributing to the Hokies being projected to finish two places up from 2023 (9th to 7th).
Minnesota and USC are the two teams taking advantage of the rule that if you have four swimmers qualified for the NCAA Championships, the team is eligible to swim relays where they’ve made the ‘B’ standard. Minnesota used this rule last year as well. Neither Pitt nor Kentucky, the other teams that used the rule in 2023, eligible this year.
Go bows
imagine if Texas and Tennessee beat NC State lmao
NC State fr on the chopping block this year seeing as their absolute ceiling is 5th
Did you get rejected by NCState or something? What’s with your utter distaste? Atleast prove to be a rival fan or anything more interesting
I didn’t get rejected from NC State. That’s a more impossible task than NC State finishing better than 4th place at an NCAA championship
This facts tho
Just wait until you see the Cal comments
Andrew hates *almost everyone*.
Everyone except his alma mater Texas right😉
It’s ok Andrew keep living in the past glory days
I’m not a Texas fan or an alum. I’ve made it clear they can only coach mid D free and IM and that my true loyalties are to a school down the road located in Dallas with a Pony mascot
Hawaii cannot swim relays because they don’t have anyone individually invited. Also Louisville is eligible to swim all 5 relays (800 FR missing in the chart).
This rule has been changed. If you have no individual invited, you can still swim the “A” cut, just not the “B” cuts to go with it. As confirmed by the official relay eligibility lists: https://staging.swimswam.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/m-div-i-selection-eligible-relays.pdf
Was it changed this year? Was it announced anywhere beforehand?
I like to see 1 more change, if you have an A-cut for relays, you can swim your relays with B-cuts – even if you do not have any individually qualified swimmers. Think the 4 relay only swimmers should still apply (that number be the same for all schools regardless of number of relays qualified, meaning if that is increased that should apply to all schools). But the total roster limits should still apply.
So you’re saying you can swim “B” cuts – but only with the four guys? So as to not increase the number of invitees?
I think I can get behind that.