By Kevin Donnelly, Swimming World College Intern.
College swimming fans have come to know many names of the most prolific swimmers over the past decade of the sport. Fans also learn the schools that are commonly near the top of the standings at the end of each season. But what about the conferences? Of the NCAA conferences, which has shown to be the most successful at the national level over the past ten years?
These tables serve as your guide through the past decade of NCAA swimming. Starting with the 2008 Women’s NCAA Championships and working to this past season’s NCAA Championships, these tables detail the number of champions from each conference in the NCAA, as well as the schools responsible for these champions. These statistics include both swimming and diving events.
Each table includes the breakdown of the event winners from the Power Five conferences, as well as any other conferences with champions. For those unfamiliar with the NCAA conference breakdown, the Power Five conferences are considered the five strongest conferences across all athletics.
These conferences are the Pac-12, consisting of schools from the Pacific Coast; the Southeastern Conference, or SEC, with schools from the southeastern area of the country; the Big Ten, made up of schools from the Midwest and northeastern parts of the US; the Big 12, with schools primarily from the American Heartland; and the Atlantic Coast Conference, or ACC, consisting of schools along the Atlantic Coast.
2008
| Conference | # of Champions | Schools from Conference |
|---|---|---|
| Pac-12 | 11 | Arizona (7); Southern Cal (2); Oregon State (1); Stanford (1) |
| SEC | 6 | Florida (4); Tennessee (1); Auburn (1) |
| Big Ten | 2 | Michigan (1); Ohio State (1) |
| ACC | 1 | Miami (1) |
| Mountain West | 1 | Hawaii (1) |
| Big 12 | 0 |
2009
| Conference | # of Champions | Schools from Conference |
|---|---|---|
| Pac-12 | 13 | California (5); Stanford (3); Arizona (3); Southern Cal (2) |
| SEC | 5 | Georgia (3); Florida (2) |
| Big Ten | 1 | Indiana (1) |
| ACC | 1 | North Carolina State (1) |
| Conference USA | 1 | Houston (1) |
| Big 12 | 0 |
Note: Houston was a member of Conference USA before moving to the American Athletic Conference at the start of the 2013-2014 season.
2010
| Conference | # of Champions | Schools from Conference |
|---|---|---|
| Pac-12 | 9 | Stanford (5); Arizona (3); California (1) |
| SEC | 6 | Georgia (4); Florida (2) |
| Big Ten | 2 | Indiana (1); Minnesota (1) |
| Big 12 | 2 | Texas A&M (2) |
| Summit League | 1 | IUPUI (1) |
| Conference USA | 1 | Houston (1) |
| ACC | 0 |
Note: Texas A&M was a member of the Big 12 before moving to the SEC at the start of the 2012-2013 season.
Note: IUPUI (Indianapolis University-Purdue University Indianapolis) was a member of the Summit League before moving to the Horizon League at the start of the 2017-2018 season.
Note: Houston was a member of Conference USA before moving to the American Athletic Conference at the start of the 2013-2014 season.
2011
| Conference | # of Champions | Schools from Conference |
|---|---|---|
| Pac-12 | 8 | California (5); Southern Cal (3) |
| SEC | 7 | Georgia (5); Auburn (2) |
| Big Ten | 4 | Minnesota (3); Wisconsin (1) |
| ACC | 2 | Duke (1); Miami (1) |
| Big 12 | 0 |
2012
| Conference | # of Champions | Schools from Conference |
|---|---|---|
| Pac-12 | 13 | California (7); Southern Cal (4); Stanford (2) |
| SEC | 4 | Georgia (2); Florida (1); Auburn (1) |
| Big 12 | 2 | Texas A&M (2) |
| ACC | 1 | North Carolina (1) |
| Summit League | 1 | IUPUI (1) |
| Big Ten | 0 |
Note: IUPUI was a member of the Summit League before moving to the Horizon League at the start of the 2017-2018 season.
Note: Texas A&M was a member of the Big 12 before moving to the SEC at the start of the 2012-2013 season.
2013
| Conference | # of Champions | Schools from Conference |
|---|---|---|
| SEC | 10 | Georgia (3); Tennessee (3); Texas A&M (2); Florida (1); Auburn (1) |
| Pac-12 | 9 | California (3); Arizona (3); Southern Cal (3) |
| Big Ten | 1 | Purdue (1) |
| Big 12 | 1 | Texas (1) |
| ACC | 0 |
2014
| Conference | # of Champions | Schools from Conference |
|---|---|---|
| Pac-12 | 11 | Stanford (7); California (2); Arizona (1); Southern Cal (1) |
| SEC | 8 | Georgia (5); Texas A&M (3) |
| Big Ten | 1 | Indiana (1) |
| ACC | 1 | Notre Dame (1) |
| Big 12 | 0 |
2015
| Conference | # of Champions | Schools from Conference |
|---|---|---|
| Pac-12 | 13 | California (7); Stanford (5); Arizona (1) |
| ACC | 4 | Virginia (2); Louisville (2) |
| Big Ten | 3 | Minnesota (2); Indiana (1) |
| SEC | 1 | Texas A&M (1) |
| Big 12 | 0 |
2016
| Conference | # of Champions | Schools from Conference |
|---|---|---|
| Pac-12 | 8 | Stanford (5); California (2); Southern Cal (1) |
| SEC | 5 | Georgia (4); Kentucky (1) |
| ACC | 4 | Virginia (2); Louisville (2) |
| Big Ten | 2 | Indiana (2) |
| Mountain West | 2 | Nevada (2) |
| Big 12 | 0 |
2017
| Conference | # of Champions | Schools from Conference |
|---|---|---|
| Pac-12 | 16* | Stanford (10*); California (6) |
| Big Ten | 4 | Indiana (2); Minnesota (1); Northwestern (1) |
| Big 12 | 1 | Texas (1) |
| ACC | 1* | Louisville (1*) |
| SEC | 0 |
Note: Stanford’s Katie Ledecky and Louisville’s Mallory Comerford tied for first place in the 200 freestyle.
Analysis:
The Pac-12 is far and away the most dominant conference in NCAA Division I women’s swimming and diving competition. Over the past decade, the Pac-12 has led the NCAA in women’s swimming and diving champions nine out of 10 years, amassing 111 out of 211 total event winners, with the other 100 being split between the other conferences. The Pac-12 is also the only conference to have at least one event winner in each of the past ten years. The other Power Five conferences each had at least one year in which they did not have a single event champion.
The SEC is shown to be the second-strongest conference, as being the only conference to lead the NCAA in event winners in a year over the past decade, and having accounted for 52 of the 211 champions in the time period. The SEC had at least one champion in nine of the 10 years data was collected for, with the only year the conference didn’t have a champion being 2017.
Members of non-Power Five conferences won just seven out of the 211 events over the past decade at the NCAA Championships. Interestingly, all seven of these winners were in diving. None of those wins occurred in the swimming side of the competition. Hawaii, IUPUI, Houston, and Nevada were the four schools who produced these seven champions. All the other event winners came from Power Five schools.
Texas A&M is the only school to win events in two different conferences. They won four events as members of the Big 12, before moving to the SEC at the start of the 2012-2013 season and winning six more events.
This table shows the combined data from all ten tables above.
| Conference | # of Champions | Schools from Conference |
|---|---|---|
| Pac-12 | 111* | California (38); Stanford (38*); Arizona (18); Southern Cal (16); Oregon State (1) |
| SEC | 52 | Georgia (26); Florida (10); Texas A&M (6); Auburn (5); Tennessee (4); Kentucky (1) |
| Big Ten | 20 | Indiana (8); Minnesota (7); Michigan (1); Ohio State (1); Wisconsin (1); Purdue (1); Northwestern (1) |
| ACC | 15* | Louisville (5*); Virginia (4); Miami (2); North Carolina State (1); Duke (1); North Carolina (1); Notre Dame (1) |
| Big 12 | 6 | Texas A&M (4); Texas (2) |
| Mountain West | 3 | Nevada (2); Hawaii (1) |
| Summit League | 2 | IUPUI (2) |
| Conference USA | 2 | Houston (2) |
Note: Texas A&M was a member of the Big 12 before moving to the SEC at the start of the 2012-2013 season.
Note: IUPUI (Indianapolis University-Purdue University Indianapolis) was a member of the Summit League before moving to the Horizon League at the start of the 2017-2018 season.
Note: Houston was a member of Conference USA before moving to the American Athletic Conference at the start of the 2013-2014 season.
Note: Stanford’s Katie Ledecky and Louisville’s Mallory Comerford tied for first place in the 200 freestyle in 2017.
Conclusions:
It’s safe to expect going into any given season that the Pac-12 will have at least one swimmer, diver, or relay win an event at NCAA’s. With 52.6 percent of event winners over the past decade coming from the Pac-12, as well as at least one event winner coming from the conference over the past decade, the chances are incredibly high that the Pac-12 will be responsible for at least one winner per year, if not more.
With just 3.3 percent of event winners coming from non-Power Five conferences, it’s also safe to assume that there is a low likelihood of any non-Power Five conference swimmer, diver, or relay winning an event at NCAA’s in any given year.
Finally, with the Pac-12 attaining more wins than the other NCAA conferences combined over the past 10 years, it is clear that the Pac-12 is the most dominant conference in women’s swimming and diving at the moment.
Go Bears!!