The men’s and women’s Big Ten Championships will expand their scoring systems for the 2016 championship meets, scoring down to 24th place as opposed to the traditional 16th.
The move follows similar shifts by the other three major Division I swimming & diving conferences: the SEC men and women, ACC men and women and Pac-12 women all score down to 24th place, leaving the Pac-12 men as the only major conference meet still scoring to 16th. (The Big 12 only features 3 men’s programs and 5 women’s teams, which makes scoring down to 24th not really a viable option).
The advantage of the old system was a similarity to the NCAA Championships in terms of scoring format. An individual event winner earned 20 points, second place 17, third 16 and so on, with relay points counting double. The new format boosts an event win to 32 points to account for the extra scoring spots.
The official wording from the Big Ten’s rulebook regarding event scoring:
- Twenty-four (24) swimmers shall swim. Eight (8) in the finals, eight (8) in the consolation finals and eight (8) in the bonus final.
- B. The scoring of place value for individual events (including diving) shall be by the following points: 32, 28, 27, 26, 25, 24, 23, 22, 20, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 9, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. (Revised 12/92; 12/95, 10/8/02; 2/15 Effective 5/15)
- C. The scoring of place value for relay events shall be by the following points: 64, 56, 54, 52, 50, 48, 46, 44, 40, 34, 32, 30, 28, 26, 24, 22, 18, 14, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2.
- D. Points for first through eighth place shall be awarded solely on the basis of a championship final. Points for ninth through sixteenth place shall be awarded solely on the basis of a consolation final. Points from seventeen through twenty-fourth place shall be awarded solely on the basis of a bonus final.
The advantage of the new system is that it better rewards depth and makes it easier for teams to earn points as expanded conferences continue to boast new teams with more swimmers. The Big Ten recently added Rutgers and Nebraska to its roster on the women’s side.
The Big Ten previously swam C finals, but only as exhibition swims that didn’t score points toward the conference championship.
This will make the meet much more interesting for the lower ranked teams in the conference. Last year, the team with one or two stars who could score was the team that placed the highest instead of the better overall team. With adding the C-final scoring, depth will be more important across the board. While I don’t think a conference should necessarily cater to the basement dwellers, it will keep things more exciting overall.
Smart move. You can’t fault the Big 10 for consistently supporting men’s swimming almost across the board. Sorry Illinois AD, but you guys are pathetic for dropping the sport.
Now, instead of being critical of the Big 10 opening up the scoring, why not focus on the shockingly low number of PAC 12 men’s teams. I’m looking at the Univ of Washington, WSU, Oregon, Oregon State, Colorado, and the absolute worst offender of all: UCLA!
So, I know it changes the numbers, but it still won’t change who sits at the top. Good for Michigan State, Northwestern, Iowa, and the other bottom tier teams for finally having a shot at breaking 250 points tho? Maybe some ribbons for best times and heat winners will be offered at next years BigTens/SEC/etc.
This is probably the worse thing that is happening to conference championships IMO. Everyone is always talking about how it’s great that we are scoring the C heat. That in itself is not bad however the problem with this is that 1st place is now completely devalued. For example in 16 place scoring. 1 st place is worth 20 points and 3 16th places is worth 3 points. With 24 place scoring first is worth 32 points and 3 16th place finishes are worth 33 points. Is that really the direction we want to go as a swimming community? It’s not just about scoring a C final it is about the complete shift in the point distribution. Just doesn’t seem… Read more »
Finally – This is a great change since the Big 10 has so much depth with its swimmers. Always hated that many swimmers didn’t get a 2nd swim b/c they made the C final but their coach would not let them swim b/c no pts were given.