What Will it Take to Qualify for the 2023 NCAA Division I Championships?
The NCAA recently announced their NCAA ‘A’ and ‘B’ Division I time standards for the upcoming 2022-2023 season. This upcoming season, 15 ‘A’ times got faster compared to just six in the year prior.
This past season, Virginia won a back-to-back national title and the Cal men took back the crown after Texas had won in 2021. This upcoming season, the women’s meet will take place in Knoxville, Tennessee while the men’s meet will occur in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The NCAA allows 235 swimming spots for men and 281 swimming spots for women for individual events at the NCAA Division 1 Swimming & Diving Championships. These numbers do not include relay-only swimmers.
Each team is also limited to bringing 18 athletes, with divers counting as half. If a team qualifies more than 18 athletes, a situation which happened this past season to both the Texas and NC State men, they must cut athletes to get down to 18 total.
Swimmers automatically qualify if they achieve one of the ‘A’ cuts seen below. The ‘B’ cuts are used for consideration and one swimmer is added to each event until the swimming athlete cap of 235 for men and 281 for women is filled.
The new A and B standards for the 2022-2023 season are:
Swimming
| MEN’S B STANDARD | MEN’S A STANDARD | SWIMMING | WOMEN’S A STANDARD | WOMEN’S B STANDARD |
| 19.82 | 18.88 | 50 free | 21.66 | 22.71 |
| 43.59 | 41.64 | 100 free | 47.18 | 49.44 |
| 1:35.88 | 1:31.98 | 200 free | 1:42.84 | 1:47.12 |
| 4:22.35 | 4:11.40 | 500 free | 4:35.76 | 4:47.20 |
| 15:26.19 | 14:37.31 | 1650 free | 15:52.41 | 16:30.59 |
| 47.23 | 44.82 | 100 flies | 50.92 | 53.69 |
| 1:46.31 | 1:40.20 | 200 flies | 1:52.86 | 1:59.23 |
| 47.59 | 44.79 | 100 back | 50.89 | 53.91 |
| 1:44.82 | 1:39.13 | 200 back | 1:50.50 | 1:57.07 |
| 53.87 | 51.4 | 100 breasts | 58.1 | 1:01.56 |
| 1:57.95 | 1:51.54 | 200 breasts | 2:06.18 | 2:13.89 |
| 1:46.52 | 1:41.22 | 200 IM | 1:53.66 | 1:59.56 |
| 3:51.31 | 3:39.16 | 400 IM | 4:03.62 | 4:17.30 |
| 1:17.58 | 1:16.80 | 200 free relay | 1:28.43 | 1:29.21 |
| 2:52.44 | 2:50.52 | 400 free relay | 3:14.10 | 3:16.32 |
| 6:20.41 | 6:16.02 | 800 free relay | 7:00.86 | 7:05.88 |
| 1:24.42 | 1:23.76 | 200 medley relay | 1:36.24 | 1:37.02 |
| 3:06.84 | 3:04.96 | 400 medley relay | 3:31.38 | 3:33.54 |
Diving
| MEN’S ZONES | DIVING | WOMEN’S ZONES |
| 300 | 1 meter | 265/220* |
| 320 | 3 meters | 280/235* |
| 300 | Platform | 225 |
*Denotes 6/5 dive qualifying standards
After going into the 41st female swimmer in 2021, this past season the cutline was about 39 swimmers. On the men’s side, the line was about 32 in 2021 and 31 in 2022. See the exact time it took to receive an invite over the last four years below.
| 2019 INVITE TIME | 2020 INVITE TIME | 2021 INVITE TIME | 2022 INVITE TIME | EVENT (SCY) | 2019 INVITE TIME | 2020 INVITE TIME | 2021 INVITE TIME | 2022 INVITE TIME |
| 19.35 | 19.32 | 19.46 | 19.28 | 50 free | 22.23 | 22.21 | 22.32 | 22.16 |
| 42.53 | 42.57 | 42.88 | 42.34 | 100 free | 48.56 | 48.51 | 48.76 | 48.44 |
| 1:34.21 | 1:34.07 | 1:34.04 | 1:33.08 | 200 free | 1:45.12 | 1:45.23 | 1:46.25 | 1:45.42 |
| 4:16.04 | 4:16.49 | 4:16.75 | 4:14.96 | 500 free | 4:40.96 | 4:41.20 | 4:44.77 | 4:43.08 |
| 14:54.05 | 14:57.07 | 15:01.33 | 14:55.21 | 1650 free | 16:14.21 | 16:17.45 | 16:25.47 | 16:16.47 |
| 45.9 | 45.97 | 46.29 | 45.57 | 100 flies | 52.34 | 52.34 | 52.7 | 52.35 |
| 1:42.35 | 1:43.18 | 1:43.47 | 1:42.42 | 200 flies | 1:56.18 | 1:56.06 | 1:57.42 | 1:56.14 |
| 46.06 | 46.22 | 46.37 | 45.87 | 100 back | 52.46 | 52.73 | 53.01 | 52.46 |
| 1:41.31 | 1:41.49 | 1:41.81 | 1:40.92 | 200 back | 1:54.01 | 1:53.99 | 1:55.05 | 1:53.97 |
| 52.52 | 52.46 | 52.4 | 52.2 | 100 breasts | 59.93 | 59.98 | 1:00.12 | 59.87 |
| 1:54.04 | 1:54.03 | 1:54.28 | 1:53.23 | 200 breasts | 2:09.77 | 2:10.12 | 2:10.37 | 2:09.15 |
| 1:43.82 | 1:43.79 | 1:44.15 | 1:43.36 | 200 IM | 1:56.76 | 1:57.31 | 1:57.62 | 1:56.85 |
| 3:43.42 | 3:44.36 | 3:45.67 | 3:43.50 | 400 IM | 4:10.00 | 4:10.39 | 4:13.19 | 4:11.60 |
As seen in the chart above, every 2022 invite time was faster than it was during the 2021 season. This was mostly expected as COVID-19 limited many athletes during the 2020-2021 season as well as the fact that Arizona State and the entire Ivy League did not compete during the 2020-2021 season. In addition, almost all of the invite times from 2022 were the fastest they have been over the last four years.
Below are the top 10 (13 for women as there was a tie for 10th) schools that qualified the most athletes for 2022 NCAAs.
Top 10 Schools to Qualify the Most Female Swimmers
| SCHOOL | NUMBER QUALIFIED |
| Tennessee | 16 |
| Louisville | 15 |
| Georgia | 14 |
| Stanford | 14 |
| Virginia | 14 |
| NC State | 14 |
| California | 13 |
| Wisconsin | 12 |
| Ohio St | 12 |
| Michigan | 10 |
| Kentucky | 10 |
| Alabama | 10 |
| Auburn | 10 |
Top 10 Schools to Qualify the Most Male Swimmers
| SCHOOL | NUMBER QUALIFIED |
| Texas | 19 |
| California | 18 |
| NC State | 18 |
| Florida | 15 |
| Arizona St | 12 |
| Stanford | 10 |
| Louisville | 9 |
| Indiana | 9 |
| Southern California | 9 |
| Virginia | 9 |