By Braden Keith on SwimSwam
Even as the so-called “Power 4” Conferences in college swimming have expanded, the roster limits for their scoring swimming & diving teams at conference championships have not – at least yet.
Coaches from each of the four conferences confirmed that the number of athletes they can take to their conference championship meets remain unchanged for the 2024-2025 season, though coaches from each of the four conferences also speculated that with new general roster limits and gigantic shifts coming to college athletics, they anticipate that these numbers might move in the future.
Comparison of Conference Size Changes, Last Season to This Season
| 2023-2024 Teams | 2024-2025 Teams | Increase | |
| ACC Women | 11 | 15 | 4 |
| ACC Men | 11 | 14 | 3 |
| Big 12 Women | 8 | 10 | 2 |
| Big 12 Men | 5 | 7 | 2 |
| Big Ten Women | 12 | 14 | 2 |
| Big Ten Men | 8 | 9 | 1 |
| SEC Women | 12 | 13 | 1 |
| SEC Men | 10 | 11 | 1 |
The Pac-12, which last season had the largest scoring rosters of 24, won’t host a championship this season, though the conference has been in the news lately for trying to assemble enough teams to continue as a conference in 2026.
More teams for the same number of scoring spots means more competition for scoring places and fewer scoring opportunities for teams lower in the ranking.
After a wave of big-name programs were cut (or almost cut) during the COVID-19 pandemic, one strategy that coaches in many conferences looked at for helping other programs provide greater value to their athletics departments was limiting the number of scorers-per-school at conference championships. The idea was that if a program like Michigan State had more athletes racing in finals, they would have a better ‘return’ to show their athletics directors for the resources invested into the program. Michigan State finished 10th out of 10 teams in the men’s meet and 12th out of 13 teams in the women’s meet at their final Big Ten Championships in 2020 before being cut.
The Michigan State women had five individual scorers at that meet, combining for four individual evening performances (divers ranking 17-24 in prelims scored points but didn’t compete in a “C Final” at Big Tens).
Aside from this, changing the number of swimmers who can score for each school at a conference championship meet have different impacts. Allowing more scorers per school rewards deeper teams at the top of the standings versus teams that are more top-heavy. It’s rare (though not unheard of) for conference titles to be decided based on the scoring of a team’s 17th or 18th place swimmer or diver.
Shrinking conference rosters could also conceivably create more friction between swimming portions of teams and diving portions of teams, as coaches have to decide which bottom-of-the-roster athletes to take. There are already pressures on these relationships as the two sports have to decide how to manage increasingly-limited resources among them.
Summary of Conference Championship Roster Limits
Compiled in 2022 by James Sutherland
The NCAA Championships allow teams to bring 18 scoring athletes to the competition, but at each conference’s respective championship meets, that number varies.
The Big Ten has notably decreased its roster limits this season, so it’s a good time to take a look at the Power Five conferences and how many swimmers and divers teams use to score at each respective championship meet.
ACC Championships
- 21 athletes – swimmers and divers each count as one.
- ‘C’ finals score.
At the ACC Championships, which will combine men and women this season, teams can use 21 athletes to score, with the maximum number of swimmers being 18. So if a team only has two divers, they’ll only bring 20 athletes rather than the max of 21.
Big Ten Championships
- 18 total – divers count as half.
- ‘C’ finals score.
The Big Ten, which previously allowed 24 scoring athletes, will now only allow a total count of 18, with each diver counting as half. So if a team wanted to bring four divers, they could have 16 swimmers score. If they wanted to use 17 swimmers, they could only have two divers.
Teams can bring up to 24 athletes, with the non-scorers competing as exhibition.
Big 12 Championships
- 18 total – divers count as half.
- ‘C’ finals don’t score.
SEC Championships
- 22 total – swimmers and divers count as one.
- ‘C’ finals score.
Read the full story on SwimSwam: Power 4 Conference Scoring Roster Limits Remain Unchanged for 2024-2025 Season