Providing qualification opportunities for Olympic hopefuls without compromising the integrity of the Division I championships was among items the NCAA Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving Committee addressed during its annual meeting September 21-24 in Indianapolis.

The group conducted a joint meeting in which members discussed rules changes (see accompanying story) and heard presentations from constituents in the swimming community, then held separate meetings to address division-specific issues.

In the breakout sessions, the Division I committee endorsed a concept it believes will allow college swimmers to balance their desires to excel at the NCAA championships and qualify for Olympic competition, but committee members want to survey coaches later this fall before moving ahead. The idea would be to conduct the NCAA Division I Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving Championships in long-course meters during Olympic years beginning in 2008. The men's and women's meets would be held in their current format -- short-course yards -- during non-Olympic years.

Currently, the Division I meets in Olympic years are held in short-course meters. The format was implemented in 2000 as an effort to provide a format comparable to selected international competitions without dramatically modifying the length of the course (25 meters as opposed to 25 yards). Olympic qualifying times, however, must now be achieved in long-course meters, the same format used for Olympic competition. For that reason, committee members noted that most college swimmers are accustomed to training and even competing in the long-course format during the year.

"When it comes to meters, college swimmers are used to swimming long-course," said David Roach, athletics director at Brown University and chair of the Division I committee.

Roach said the majority of college swimmers at the Division I level, and many at the Divisions II and III levels as well, train and compete in the summer through USA Swimming, the sport's national governing body, in long-course formats.

"Currently in Olympic years when the meet is in short-course meters, the athletes are saying that they can't really relate those times to Olympic competition. A long-course time would allow them to relate," he said.

NCAA championships competition historically has been held in short-course yards. But committee members noted the growth of 50-meter pools at Division I schools. The majority of the top programs in Division I in fact now have long-course facilities.

"The number of 50-meter pools has grown over the last 10-20 years," Roach said, adding that most of the top programs either have 50-meter pool or are planning one. "This would be something that would be good for the student-athletes. In a day and age when we're losing some men's programs, this may actually help (address that problem)."

In addition to pursuing the idea of staging long-course championships in Olympic years, committee members emphasized the importance of continuing to negotiate with USA Swimming about the possibility of accepting short-course times for Olympic Trials qualifying. Roach noted there was no movement toward permanently changing the short-course nature of the NCAA meets, even if the once-in-four-years long-course rotation takes hold.

"No, short-course yards is still our thing," he said, "but to go long-course meters once every four years would be good for the student-athletes."

The committee will survey Division I coaches about the concept in the next few months.

Roach complimented USA Swimming and its executive director, Chuck Wielgus, who presented at the meeting. Roach said the discussions represent a unified effort between the NCAA and USA Swimming to accommodate the best interests of both groups. "Our relationship with USA Swimming has never been better," Roach said.

Other Division I items

In other Division I actions, the committee approved a recommendation to give more authority to the turn judges at both ends of the pool in judging turn and stroke violations. That role currently is performed primarily by the side judge, but committee members believe the turn judges are better positioned and have clearer sight lines to evaluate the final stroke before the turn and the first stroke after the turn.

The group also discussed site specifications and approved an increase in seating capacity for future sites to 1,800, effective in 2008. Members also agreed to take a more active role in monitoring the location of the seating allocations for participating schools. In addition, the group agreed to increase deck seating for teams from 10 reserved sections to 16.

The Division I committee also:

Discussed the issue of conduct and administrative rules and the effect of alternative conference meet formats on qualification to the NCAA championships. At issue is whether the alternative formats, which are allowable because the format is an administrative rule that can be changed with consent from all coaches involved in the meet, create a level qualifying experience compared to conferences that do not use the alternative formats. The committee agreed to continue studying the number of qualifiers coming from these alternative formats and from last-chance meets.

Agreed to retain the diving qualification method implemented for last year's championships. The method applies to the selection order for divers advancing from the five zone meets to the national championships. A recent survey of diving coaches regarding the new process did not reveal a consensus for change.

Moved the start times for the 2004 Division I men's championships back to noon (preliminaries) and 7 p.m. (finals). The Division I women's championships will remain at 11 a.m. (preliminaries) and 7 p.m. (finals).

Divisions II and III actions

Topping the Division II committee's agenda was reconsideration of a new diving qualification process that actually had been approved by the Division II Championships Committee last month. The Division II swimming committee, however, felt that there was insufficient support and justification to revise the process that would reduce the field of divers for the championships. The committee will continue to take this recommendation under advisement in order to maintain the minimum number of divers in relation to the number of participants while still ensuring the highest quality of competition at the championships.

Committee members noted that the current ratio of divers to swimmers in the Division II championships compares favorably with ratios in Divisions I and III, and that reducing the field size may in fact affect the ability to stage championship-level competition.

The group agreed that as long as the ratio of divers to swimmers is where it needs to be, there is no need to cap the number of divers, particularly when the participants are determined through a pre-qualification event the day before the meet begins. Thus, the committee agreed to pull the recommendation and retain the current diving qualification standard for 2004.

In other actions, the Division II committee modified its qualifying standards for the 2004 championships and discussed potential future sites.

In Division III, the committee approved an important change regarding championship entry procedures. The group voted to eliminate the practice of entering a student-athlete into four events and set the maximum number of entries at three, which is the same procedure used in Divisions I and II.

Previously, a student-athlete who qualified in more than three events could enter up to four events as long as he or she swam in at least one event for which he or she qualified. The committee noted that such flexibility led to too many mistakes on entry forms and too much confusion among coaches and competitors regarding the entry procedures. Committee members believe that moving to the maximum of three entries streamlines the process without compromising the student-athlete's ability to participate fully in the championships and ensures the integrity of the selection process.

The Division III group also made a change in diving entry procedures, requiring five optional dives (one from each group) instead of a choice between six optionals or one voluntary dive and five optionals.

Also, the committee approved a new chair, Peggy Carl of Occidental College, who replaces College of Wooster's Keith Beckett, whose term on the committee expired last month.

Changes in diving procedures among rules revisions

In its discussion of playing rules, the Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving Committee focused primarily on diving, including a change that will make the three-meter event contested during regular-season meets consist of six optional dives beginning in 2004-05.

"In every championships meet, we start with an optional, so it makes sense to do dual meets the same," said Sue Petersen Lubow, committee secretary-rules editor and athletics director at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. "It also allows the divers to compete their sixth optional at a more regular frequency."

The committee voted in the change at its annual meeting September 21-24 in Indianapolis. The group also agreed that in the event a submitted and checked diving sheet does not have the proper number of dives listed, a failed dive will be assessed for each dive not listed on the diving sheet. Committee members believe this stresses the importance of an accurate diving sheet, which is reviewed by the student-athlete, the coach and the judge before submission.

"It is an unlikely case, but we wanted to spell out the consequences because it has happened," said committee member Kevin Lawrence, diving coach at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

In another change dealing with diving paperwork, if it is discovered after the completion of the voluntaries that the diver's degree of difficulty exceeds the limit, the dive or dives that puts the diver over the limit shall be failed.

Committee members also are reminding those institutions that do not have one- or three-meter facilities or both that current rules require all opponents to be notified by contract or by letter before October 15 to avoid confusion about the diving competition. The committee will add the situation to the rules book and clarify that failure to notify will result in the maximum number of points any team could score in both events had they been held being awarded to the opponent. The rules book currently outlines the penalty for missing one of the two facilities, but not both.

In other rules-related actions, the committee approved a two-day championships meet format that can be used only for last-chance meets, effective this year. The two-day format will not be listed in the rules book, but it will be listed on last-chance meet forms.

The group also clarified that for races that begin on the starting platform, the referee should not stand down the student-athletes who step up at the whistle. The language will specify that the command "Step up" may still be used in conjunction with the whistle.

"The committee didn't want the concentration and flow of the student-athlete who responds to the whistle to be disrupted with a referee stepping him or her back down," Petersen Lubow said.

Finally, the committee clarified a rule regarding relays, stating that if any of the first three swimmers in a relay crosses into another team's lane, the relay of the offending swimmer will be disqualified.