The Division I Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving Committee is discussing the possibility of holding future national championships meets in which both genders would compete at one site.

Currently, the men’s and women’s championships are held one week apart, but the committee believes the student-athlete experience could be enhanced with a concurrent meet (which Division II currently does). If the idea comes to fruition, the meet would be conducted over four days, as is currently done in Division II.

The committee said the earliest a combined championship could be held would be 2011, but even that depends on finding a suitable venue. The men’s and women’s championship meets draw on average about 3,000 fans between them.

“Division II has done it, and it has been successful,” said Division I Committee Chair Skip Foster. “Division III is going to do it this year, too. In swimming, these kids grow up going to events together. They go to all their age-group meets and national championships meets together. The Olympic Trials are also held together.”

Several logistics pose barriers, though. Besides the venue itself, issues such as a warm-up pool and hotel space also factor in to the committee’s search.

“A lot of the coaches are for this, especially the ones who coach combined programs,” said Foster, an assistant athletics director at Florida. “They have to leave one of their programs at home when they go on the road with the other. ESPN has also had some preliminary talks about trying to pull this off. They might even telecast parts of it live.”

In other action, a subcommittee of diving coaches was formed to address issues in zone diving. Currently, there are five zones, and one-year’s worth of historical data is used to determine how many allocations each zone has into the national meet. The subcommittee has been charged with determining if this format is the most equitable way to handle allocations, or if a new system should be developed.

Wrestling went through a similar problem-solving task recently as it eliminated historical data as part of postseason selection criteria.

“The committee would have the final say-so, but we want to hear input from the diving coaches,” Foster said.

Changes likely would not be implemented before 2010, Foster said.

In another discussion, the committee decided it will continue to study the new swim suit technology.

It also heard presentations from the College Swim Coaches Association, USA Diving, the American Swim Coaches Association and the College Swimming Officials Association updating the committee on ways to help manage swimming and diving.