Swimming

Rescoring 2022 and 2023 Division I NCAA Women’s Champs With An Added ‘C’ Final

February 2, 2024

Every Power 5 swimming conference championship meet has an A, B, and C final, yet the NCAA Championships do not. We decided to do the math to see if the addition of a ‘C’ final would impact the final team rankings.

The addition of the C final changes the scoring dramatically, as individual scoring begins at 30 points instead of 20, and relays begin at 60 points instead of 40.

Here are our findings for the top 25 teams:

2022:

2022 Place With C Final	2022 Score with C final	2022 Actual Team and Score
Virginia	994.5	Virginia – 551.5
Texas	774	Texas – 406
Stanford	764.5	Stanford – 399.5
NC State	557	Alabama – 288
Alabama	548	NC State – 279
Louisville	458.5	Louisville – 196.5
California	407	Michigan – 184.5
Michigan	378.5	California – 180
Ohio St	368	Ohio St – 165
Tennessee	366	Tennessee – 127
Kentucky	341.5	Indiana – 116
Indiana	326	Kentucky – 115.5
Georgia	316	Florida – 115
UNC	296	UNC – 109
Florida	292	Georgia – 104.5
Southern California	262.5	Southern California – 102
Wisconsin	260	Wisconsin – 100
Northwestern	204.5	Northwestern – 73
Virginia Tech	165	Arizona – 52.5
Arizona	131	Penn – 44.5
Minnesota	125	Minnesota – 43
Missouri	120	Miami (Florida) – 41.5
Arizona St	107	Virginia Tech – 37
Texas A&M	85	Duke – 36
Duke	85	Missouri – 34

As seen in the 2022 data, the top 10 teams stay the same with the exception of the fact that NC State and Alabama switch places by 1, with the same going for Cal and Michigan. Some of the largest benefits are seen from Missouri and Virginia Tech moving up 4 spots each.

2023:

2023 Place With C Final	2023 Score with C final	2023 Actual Team	2023 Actual Score
Virginia	1013	UVA	541.5
Texas	779.5	Texas	414.5
Stanford	664.5	Stanford	333
Louisville	591	Louisville	288
NC State	543	NC State	263
Ohio St	494	Ohio State	223
Indiana	469.5	Indiana	219
Tennessee	459	Tennessee	214
Florida	403	Florida	179
UNC	365	UNC	152
California	332	California	137
Southern California	304	USC	125
Georgia	275	LSU	112
Alabama	254.5	Alabama	111
Wisconsin	236	Wisconsin	100
LSU	196	Georgia	90.5
Texas A&M	165	Minnesota	53
Kentucky	165	Arizona	52
Michigan	144	Kentucky	49
Duke	142	VT	46
Northwestern	138	Duke	42
Virginia Tech	135.5	Miami (FL)	36
Auburn	126	Michigan	33
Minnesota	107	Purdue	32
Arizona	105	Texas A&M	26

Just as seen with the 2022 data, the 2023 addition of the C final does not cause any huge changes. In fact, the 2023 change has no effect on the final team standings for any of the top 12 teams.

Texas A&M benefits greatly from the addition of the C final as they would move up from 25th to 17th place.

SwimSwam: Rescoring 2022 and 2023 Division I NCAA Women’s Champs With An Added ‘C’ Final