By Sophie Kaufman on SwimSwam
2026 NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships
Wednesday, March 18 – Saturday, March 21, 2026 McAuley Aquatic Center, Atlanta, GA Defending Champions: Virginia (5x) Championship Central Psych Sheet Live Results Live VideoThe Women’s NCAA Division I Championships gets underway this week — in less than 48 hours the fight will begin for the 2026 national crown. This year’s championships will feature plenty of changes to the schedule, with no “B” finals and a new event lineup. Through all the changes, one of the most familiar pieces will be the relays. Not only did the qualification procedures remain almost unchanged, the number of teams is just one less than last year. This year, 32 programs qualified relays for the NCAA Championships, down from the 32 programs last year.
Below is a breakdown of how teams qualify relays for NCAAs in case you need a refresher.
2026 NCAA Championship Relay Qualification Procedures:
A school that has at least one invited swimmer and has a relay qualifying standard can swim all relays where it has an ‘A’ or ‘B’ cut. These schools can bring up to four uninvited relay swimmers A school that has no invited swimmers but does have an ‘A’ cut in a relay can swim the relays where it has an ‘A’ cut and bring four uninvited relay swimmers. A school that has at least four invited swimmers but only relay ‘B’ cuts can swim the relays where it has achieved a ‘B’ cut and bring up to four uninvited relay swimmers.Relay qualification is important for a number of reasons. Relays score double the points of an individual event, so it’s critical for the teams vying for a top spot in the in the team standings to score highly in all five relays. And to score highly, they first need to qualify.
This year, there are 11 teams that have qualified all five relays with ‘A’ standard times, down from the 12 teams last year. There have been some shuffling of teams; Florida and USC have fallen out of this club, while Wisconsin has moved in after grabbing an ‘A’ standard in the 800 freestyle relay this year–an intriguing wrinkle in the messy middle of the fight to finish in the top 15 or even top 10.
Relays also matter for the teams that aren’t aspiring to a trophy at the end of the meet. Qualifying relays to NCAAs is a sign of a program’s health and that multiple swimmers are contributing to the team’s success.
This narrative looks different than it has in previous years. No mid-major programs qualified relays for Women’s NCAAs this year. In the past few seasons, it’s been more difficult for women’s mid-major programs to qualify relays for NCAAs than the men’s mid-major teams. Last year, the Princeton women were the only mid-major program that swam relays at NCAAs; they hit an ‘A’ cut in the 200 freestyle relay and also had ‘B’ cuts in the 400/800 freestyle relay. However, six of the seven teams that qualified relays for the 2025 NCAA Championships after not doing so in 2024 are back this year.
Those teams are:
Arizona Missouri Northwestern Pitt UCLA South CarolinaThis year, South Carolina did not hit an ‘A’ standard, but is eligible to swim the 800 freestyle relay (where they have a ‘B’ standard) because they’ve hit the required number of individual qualifiers. Northwestern did swim an ‘A’ standard relay (200 freestyle) but will only swim that one relay after being eligible for three in 2025. On the flip side, Arizona has earned one more ‘A’ standard than they did last year, picking up cuts in the 200/400 freestyle relay, and the 200 medley relay, along with a ‘B’ standard in the 400 medley relay. The 400 freestyle relay in the new ‘A’ standard for the Wildcats, which they did not hit a ‘B’ standard in last season.
Pitt is a good example of how relays can signal the trajectory of a program. This is just the second season in 20 years that the women’s team has been relay eligible for the NCAA Championships. Before last year, the team had not sent a relay to the championships since 2006. Qualifying in back-to-back years points towards the upward trend of the program by backing up last season’s success and showing it was not a one-off year for the team.
SCHOOLS QUALIFIED TO SEND 1+ RELAYS TO NCAAs
School # of ‘A’ Cuts # of ‘B’ Cuts Total A’ Cut Event(s) B’ Cut Event(s) California 5 0 5 200 FR, 400 FR, 800 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR – Indiana 5 0 5 200 FR, 400 FR, 800 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR – Louisville 5 0 5 200 FR, 400 FR, 800 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR – Michigan 5 0 5 200 FR, 400 FR, 800 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR – NC State 5 0 5 200 FR, 400 FR, 800 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR – Ohio State 5 0 5 200 FR, 400 FR, 800 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR – Stanford 5 0 5 200 FR, 400 FR, 800 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR – Tennessee 5 0 5 200 FR, 400 FR, 800 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR – Texas 5 0 5 200 FR, 400 FR, 800 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR – Virginia 5 0 5 200 FR, 400 FR, 800 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR – Wisconsin 5 0 5 200 FR, 400 FR, 800 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR – Alabama 4 1 5 200 FR, 400 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR 800 FR LSU 4 1 5 200 FR, 400 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR 800 FR ASU 3 2 5 200 FR, 400 FR, 400 MR 800 FR, 200 MR Duke 4 0 4 200 FR, 400 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR – UCLA 4 0 4 200 FR, 400 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR – Arizona 3 1 4 200 FR, 400 FR, 200 MR 400 MR Auburn 3 1 4 200 FR, 400 FR, 200 MR 400 MR Pitt 3 1 4 400 FR, 800 FR, 400 MR 200 FR Texas A&M 1 3 4 200 MR 200 FR, 400 FR, 400 MR Florida 3 0 3 800 FR, 200 MR, 400 MR – USC 3 0 3 400 FR, 800 FR, 400 MR – Georgia 2 1 3 400 FR, 800 FR 200 FR UNC 2 1 3 200 MR, 400 MR 200 FR Virginia Tech 1 2 3 400 FR 200 FR, 800 FR Florida State 1 1 2 200 MR 200 FR Minnesota 1 1 2 200 MR 200 FR Missouri 1 1 2 200 MR 200 FR Notre Dame 1 1 2 400 FR 800 FR Northwestern 1 0 1 200 FR – South Carolina 0 1 1 – 800 FR
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