{"id":606184,"date":"2025-03-05T08:30:24","date_gmt":"2025-03-05T15:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=606184"},"modified":"2025-03-05T08:30:24","modified_gmt":"2025-03-05T15:30:24","slug":"which-ncaa-cuts-are-the-hardest-to-attain-the-easiest-analyzing-a-and-b-cut-trends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/which-ncaa-cuts-are-the-hardest-to-attain-the-easiest-analyzing-a-and-b-cut-trends\/","title":{"rendered":"Which NCAA Cuts are the Hardest to Attain? The Easiest? Analyzing ‘A’ and ‘B’ Cut Trends"},"content":{"rendered":"

Which NCAA Cuts are the Hardest to Attain? The Easiest? Analyzing ‘A’ and ‘B’ Cut Trends<\/strong><\/p>\n

Championship season is finally upon us, with the swimming world bubbling with excitement. Over the past two weeks, the top stars in college swimming have fought to guide their teams toward a conference championship. But for college swimming\u2019s middle class, championship season can often represent another goal: the last opportunity to acquire an NCAA ‘A’ or ‘B’ cut, ensuring the right to compete at this year\u2019s NCAA championships. <\/span><\/p>\n

Cuts (qualifying times) are determined on a yearly basis, through averages from the last three years of events.\u00a0 ‘A’ cuts (which guarantee an appearance at NCAAs) are found from the average eighth-best time in an event. ‘B’ cuts don\u2019t necessarily guarantee an invite, with the average 125th-fastest time earning an athlete the chance to be invited. With so many swimmers fighting for a spot in this year\u2019s biggest competition, I asked the question: What are the most difficult events to qualify in?\u00a0 And how have the times changed over time?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tracking Invitees<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In determining the trends of the NCAA ‘A’ and ‘B’ cuts, the easiest place to start is with those who competed a year ago. Last season, the NCAA allowed for the top 29-31 athletes to compete in each event on the men\u2019s side, 36-37 swimmers on the women\u2019s side. However, swimmers who qualify in one event are allowed to compete in two more, making for an uneven distribution of events. Last year, the 100 freestyle led with the most entries on the men\u2019s side with 71. The 200 individual medley led on the women\u2019s side with 72. On both sides, the 1650 was predictably the least entered. This gives us a picture of the events most frequently commonly entered, perhaps signaling the most qualified for. But to truly find the most and least difficult to qualify in, a broader approach was required.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Talking Percentages<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Last year\u2019s psych sheets showeds us the amount of competitors in each event. But to truly learn more about these cuts, it seems most important to consider how they\u2019ve changed over time. With the cuts shifting every year based on the year prior\u2019s results, uncovering this change helps answer our questions. For example, a more-difficult-to-qualify-for event may be one that\u2019s gotten significantly faster of late.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Change In an Instant<\/strong><\/h3>\n

To start, I sought to find the overall percentage change for the meet\u2019s ‘A’ cuts. This could tell us which events have grown the fastest at the top, determining how the standard for a guaranteed spot has changed. This past year, the event which experienced the most change on the men\u2019s side was the 200 freestyle, increasing by 0.58% from the year previous. Luke Hobson of Texas\u2019 record-breaking swim certainly helped raise the standard, not even mentioning Leon Marchand\u2019s record split. On the women\u2019s side, the ‘A’ cut experiencing the biggest increase in speed was the women\u2019s 100 back, faster by 0.43%. Katharine Berkoff won the 100 backstroke by running away from an incredibly balanced field. Just a second separated second through eighth.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Just as important as the change in the ‘A’ cuts was the change in ‘B’ cuts. Representing a larger majority of the swimming world, a change in a ‘B’ cut better shows us the overall change in speed of the event. This time, the 100 backstroke triumphed on the men\u2019s side, improving by 0.65%. For women, the 100 butterfly was the biggest improvement, growing 0.54%. Overall, it seems sprint stroke events were some of the fastest growing this year. The 100 back and fly were the two largest growing on both the men\u2019s and women\u2019s side, signaling a shift.<\/span><\/p>\n

Change Over Time<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Both events\u2019 increases in speed showcase their increases in difficulty over the past year. But competition in an event can always fluctuate at the top. In a specific year, the best athletes may all select one event coincidentally. Another year, a top swimmer could graduate. Factors are constantly shifting. To find the most accurate sample, I broadened my data to five years of tracking.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So what event has changed the most over the past five years? Breaststroke was by far the biggest mover among ‘A’ cuts. \u00a0The \u00a0men’s breaststroke got faster by a whopping 1.74% while the women’s 100 breaststroke got faster by 1.01%. As far as ‘B’ cuts, the 100 backstroke changed most for the men at 0.65%, while the 100 fly improved by 0.54%. My biggest takeaway here was the growth of the ‘A’ cuts in comparison to the ‘B’ cuts. Given the smaller sample, ‘A’ cuts will differ yearly more than a ‘B’ cut ever could. This scenario makes the \u201cguaranteed time\u201d unpredictable on a yearly basis, always getting faster and slower at different rates.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What Is Truly the Fastest?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

We\u2019ve taken a look so far at how much faster each event has gotten within the year, and \u00a0overall this half\u2013decade. But we have yet to truly quantify the hardest overall event to qualify in. Looking at how much an event has changed in a year, or even five years, can help us determine its growth. But for a swimmer, the hardest event to qualify in is likely one constantly changing, and getting faster year after year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To determine what truly was the most difficult to qualify in, I took the mean of the percentage difference between ‘A’ and ‘B’ cuts for each year since 2021. The results were anything but expected. The 100 breaststroke was the most difficult cut to accomplish as far as ‘A’ AND ‘B’ cuts, for both men AND women. The race has grown significantly across ALL of college swimming, not just the elite, or a specific gender. The development of a<\/span> variety of different stroke rates in the race<\/span><\/a> already made it one of swimming\u2019s most intriguing races, but these results show its depth on the national stage. With great swimmers like Julian Smith and Mona Mcsharry set to take on the event later this month, it\u2019s likely we\u2019ll see even more change in 2026 and beyond.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On the contrary, the \u201ceasiest\u201d event to qualify in could be found from the least mean difference (although obviously none of these can be considered \u201ceasy\u201d). On the men\u2019s side, the 1650 freestyle experienced the least percentage difference for both ‘A’ and ‘B’ cuts. For the women, the 400 IM and 500 freestyle sped up the least. Due to their overall fortitude, it makes sense for longer races to be more achievable cuts. Generally, fewer swimmers are willing to compete in them, making for less change.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Surely these times will continue to evolve next year. One thing is for certain: College swimming continues to grow faster and faster, a paradigm of excitement in the swimming world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Which NCAA Cuts are the Hardest to Attain? The Easiest? Analyzing ‘A’ and ‘B’ Cut Trends Championship season is finally upon us, with the swimming world bubbling with excitement. Over<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146625,"featured_media":583067,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[25436,251,42979],"class_list":["post-606184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-college","tag-cuts","tag-ncaa","tag-qualifying-times"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\nWhich NCAA Cuts are the Hardest to Attain? 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