Virgina Women and Texas Men Top Final CSCAA Power Rankings

The Texas men and Virginia women top the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America’s (CSCAA) polls for the final time this collegiate season. Virginia has topped every single women’s poll since the beginning of the season, and this month is no different. The Cal men started the season at the top with Texas in second, but the Longhorns jumped to the lead in November, which is where they found themselves for the rest of the season.

The CSCAA polls are primarily about dual meet strength, rather than a prediction of finish order at the NCAA Championships. The CSCAA describes the process as “the committee, consisting of Division I coaches, evaluates, and ranks the nation’s top 25 dual meet teams. Their assessment considers head-to-head dual meet outcomes, recent performances since the last rankings, season-long results, dual meet records, roster changes (such as injuries), and data from the SwimCloud Simulator. It’s important to note that the poll’s objective is not to predict the top finishers in a championship meet format.”

Women’s Poll

There were only a few dual meets after the rankings came out last month, leaving the top five completely unchanged. Virginia topped the women’s board again, followed by Texas, Stanford, Tennessee, and Florida.

After the top-five there was quite a bit of shifting on the leaderboards. Cal dropped two places from 6th to tied for 8th with Michigan, who jumped two spots from 10th last month. NC State also dropped two places, ending up at 10th in the rankings.

There were some other shuffles further down on the leaderboard, and there was one new team. Princeton found themselves on the rankings for the first time this season, coming in at 25th. They had received a few votes on other occasions but never made the top 25. The Tigers didn’t have any dual meets after the last rankings, but they had an exceptionally strong Ivy League championships, and ultimately qualified three individual swimmers and three relays to the NCAA Championships.

Princeton making the rankings, kicked Florida State off, making it the first time since December they didn’t make the top 25. There is a lot of consensus among the voters on the women’s rankings. Florida State was the only school on the women’s side to receive votes without making the rankings, and they only got one.

Looking back at the preseason rankings, there have been quite a few shifts in the order of schools, but only two schools made the final rankings that were not ranked in the preseason. Princeton and South Carolina.

The biggest shift in placement came from Alabama who moved up seven spots. They originally ranked 23rd, just ahead of Minnesota and Akron and today they came in at 16th.

Virginia Tech and Akron both made the preseason list. Akron fell off the next month in October and never earned their spot back. Virginia Tech also fell off the rankings in October, but they continued to receive votes until last month.

There were a few schools that ended up in the exact same spot, despite moving around throughout the season: #13 Georgia and #14 Wisconsin jumped around but ended up back in these positions, and the same thing happened with Louisiana State, who started and ended at 19th.

Virginia and Texas also held onto their rankings, but unlike the other three schools, they did not move around and stayed very securely in those spots through all seven lists.

Preseason Rankings

Men’s Recap

The men’s rankings were far less consistent, with a number of schools in the top 10 shifting positions. The top three have stayed consistent at Texas, Indiana, and California, but after that every school is in a different order until 10th place, Michigan.

Florida moved up two spots from 6th place to jump NC State and Arizona State to sit in 4th. Tennessee also jumped two schools, Georgia and NC State, to move from 8th to 6th overall.

Only two schools outside of the top 10 maintained their spots from the last rankings, Louisville who stands at 11th and Ohio State, who is 13th. Texas A&M (14th), Alabama (16th), and Minnesota (21st) all jumped three places while Virginia Tech, Auburn, and Georgia Tech all moved down three.

Arizona jumped to 23rd overall to make the rankings list for the first time this season. They were frequently the first school left off, receiving the most votes. Their only dual meet in the last month was a loss to ASU on February 10th of 73-227. They finished 2nd at the Big 12 Championships last week, and they had a number of male athletes perform well which likely contributes to their move up the rankings.

Kentucky, who was 25th last month, has fallen off the rankings, but they still received a few votes along with Wisconsin, Yale, SMU, and Northwestern

If we compare these rankings to the preseason men’s rankings, there is even more change. Not a single team ended up in the same position at the end of the season as they started in, with some making significant jumps or drops.

California and Florida both started the season ranking above Texas, but they shifted around as Texas began to show their depth and speed. Indiana also jumped up a few spots into 2nd after starting the season in 4th.

North Carolina was unranked in September, but they ended the season in 12th, the biggest jump of any team on the men’s and the women’s side. The Virginia men had the biggest drop of any team, moving from 14th to 22nd as the season went on.

There were three other men’s teams who were unranked at the beginning who made the top five on the final rankings, Arizona (23), Georgia Tech (24), Princeton (25). As the laws of physics state tell you, however, each action has an equal and opposite reaction, meaning four teams fell off the list entirely. SMU and Wisconsin started in 19th and 20th respectively, and they both received votes this month but did not make the ranking. Wisconsin was 20th in the Harvard and Kentucky were originally 24th and 25th, and they also did not make the final rankings.

Preseason Rankings

Division I Women’s Poll Committee

Brooks Fail (Southern Cal), Bex Freebairn (Missouri), Jerry Champer (Georgia), Ashley Dell (Illinois-Chicago), Ryan Evans (Kansas), Naya Higashijima (New Mexico), Zach Hinsley (Miami (FL)), Michael Licon (Akron), Maddy Olson (Minnesota), Pat Rowan (Nebraska), Coleman Stewart (Duke), Leah Stancil (Louisiana State), Milana Socha (Dartmouth), Athena Spellman (Florida State), Graydon Tedder (Texas Christian), Nathan Lavery (Drexel) Brody Lewis (Utah).

Division I Men’s Poll Committee

Cauli Bedran (Wisconsin), Jim Bolster (Columbia), Patrick Callan (Auburn), Graham Carpenter (Ohio State), Alicia Franklin (Denver), Reed Fujan (Louisville), Josh Huger (California-Berkley), Michael Joyce (Minnesota), Caitlin Kolbus (Kentucky), Brody Lewis (Utah), Jessica Miller Livsey (Old Dominion), Corey Manley (Arizona State), Tamber McCallister (Brigham Young), Eric Posegay (Texas), Bill Roberts (U.S. Naval Academy), Neal Studd (Florida State).