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NCAA partners with national swim body on times database
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The NCAA and USA Swimming have collaborated to develop a national times database that will benefit Division I men’s and women’s swimmers throughout the competitive season and ease registration procedures for the championships meets.
In what is believed to be the first partnership of its kind between the NCAA and a national governing body, the Web-based initiative allows Division I teams to upload results to an existing USA Swimming database within 48 hours after the end of each meet. The database will produce weekly reports of the top 100 times in each event. It also will be the information source from which all championships entries will be obtained.
The system, effective for the 2007-08 season, is welcomed by a college swimming community that to date had no reliable repository for times and a championships entry procedures some coaches considered cumbersome. Now, swimmers will find it much easier to see where they stand regarding championships qualification as the season progresses, and the online system makes the championship-entry process considerably less burdensome.
The collaboration developed when NCAA officials who wanted a valid and easily accessible list of times approached USA Swimming, the sport’s national governing body, about an existing database for its membership. That repository, called SWIMS, tracks times for thousands of swimmers who are members of USA Swimming. About 85 percent of Division I swimmers also are USA Swimming members.
“Collegiate swimming for years has desired a credible and national database for times,” said Joni Comstock, NCAA senior vice president of championships. “Once we gained knowledge of the USA Swimming database, it was a matter of us asking ‘Can we blend our goal with your system?’ ”
NCAA President Myles Brand said the resulting partnership is a good example of the NCAA working with a national governing body to achieve a desired outcome.
“Developing a mutually beneficial database certainly addresses a practical need,” Brand said, “but the effort represents much more than that. The outreach from USA Swimming is a welcome contribution at a time when the NCAA is seeking to strengthen its relationships with Olympic sport governing bodies. Through such collaboration, the sport of swimming not only receives an important benefit, but also a better relationship between its two most important entities.”
The SWIMS database not only allows swimmers to track their own performance, but it also allows USA Swimming officials to note exceptional gains in elite swimmers. USA Swimming also enhances its ability to track swimmers who would not have otherwise been in the database, including international swimmers who may appear in subsequent competitions representing other countries.
Host institutions for all Division I men’s and women’s events will be asked to enter times into the database within 48 hours after each meet. Times not entered will not be considered for NCAA championships selection purposes (a waiver system will be available for extenuating circumstances that cause reporting delays).
“As two organizations that are organically linked, this partnership made sense both for its historical value and for the benefit it provides to our shared member groups,” said USA Swimming Executive Director Chuck Wielgus. “We see this sort of collaboration serving as a model for other Olympic sports.”
The national times database will be launched in October. Wielgus said plans are underway to expand the initiative to Divisions II and III in the future.
In what is believed to be the first partnership of its kind between the NCAA and a national governing body, the Web-based initiative allows Division I teams to upload results to an existing USA Swimming database within 48 hours after the end of each meet. The database will produce weekly reports of the top 100 times in each event. It also will be the information source from which all championships entries will be obtained.
The system, effective for the 2007-08 season, is welcomed by a college swimming community that to date had no reliable repository for times and a championships entry procedures some coaches considered cumbersome. Now, swimmers will find it much easier to see where they stand regarding championships qualification as the season progresses, and the online system makes the championship-entry process considerably less burdensome.
The collaboration developed when NCAA officials who wanted a valid and easily accessible list of times approached USA Swimming, the sport’s national governing body, about an existing database for its membership. That repository, called SWIMS, tracks times for thousands of swimmers who are members of USA Swimming. About 85 percent of Division I swimmers also are USA Swimming members.
“Collegiate swimming for years has desired a credible and national database for times,” said Joni Comstock, NCAA senior vice president of championships. “Once we gained knowledge of the USA Swimming database, it was a matter of us asking ‘Can we blend our goal with your system?’ ”
NCAA President Myles Brand said the resulting partnership is a good example of the NCAA working with a national governing body to achieve a desired outcome.
“Developing a mutually beneficial database certainly addresses a practical need,” Brand said, “but the effort represents much more than that. The outreach from USA Swimming is a welcome contribution at a time when the NCAA is seeking to strengthen its relationships with Olympic sport governing bodies. Through such collaboration, the sport of swimming not only receives an important benefit, but also a better relationship between its two most important entities.”
The SWIMS database not only allows swimmers to track their own performance, but it also allows USA Swimming officials to note exceptional gains in elite swimmers. USA Swimming also enhances its ability to track swimmers who would not have otherwise been in the database, including international swimmers who may appear in subsequent competitions representing other countries.
Host institutions for all Division I men’s and women’s events will be asked to enter times into the database within 48 hours after each meet. Times not entered will not be considered for NCAA championships selection purposes (a waiver system will be available for extenuating circumstances that cause reporting delays).
“As two organizations that are organically linked, this partnership made sense both for its historical value and for the benefit it provides to our shared member groups,” said USA Swimming Executive Director Chuck Wielgus. “We see this sort of collaboration serving as a model for other Olympic sports.”
The national times database will be launched in October. Wielgus said plans are underway to expand the initiative to Divisions II and III in the future.
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