A record number of men’s teams (32) were ranked in this week’s CSCAA Coaches poll illustrating the evolving depth of Division I swimming and diving. The Auburn War Eagles still stayed ahead of the pack in what has been more than a year of being ranked #1 in the country. They picked up seven of the eight possible #1 votes.

For the women, a strong Georgia squad and some recent competitions the pollsters edged Georgia ahead of the Auburn Tigers for the first time in two years. Georgia will be able to test their dual meet prowess with Auburn in just one week on Nov. 12 on Auburn’s home turf. Georgia picked up five #1 votes with Auburn getting three.

There was a lot of other movement within the polls as teams jump into heavy competition schedules across the country except for the Ivy League which does not start until this coming weekend. Undoubtedly the addition of the perennial Ivy powers of Harvard and Princeton will further affect coming polls.

The next dual meet poll is scheduled for publication on Nov. 18, Thursday.

The CSCAA Dual Meet Poll is an indication of a team’s ability to win dual meets during the season and is not a predictor of any team’s end-of-the-season placement at the NCAA Championships- although for most of the ranked teams there is a high correlation between their dual meet strength and the school’s ability to score at the Championship meets in March.

There will be nine (9) dual meet polls this year produced every two to three weeks throughout the college swimming season, which is one of the NCAA’s longest continuous seasons of any of the NCAA sponsored sports. The swimming season begins in September and ends in late March for most of the NCAA schools that sponsor the sport.

This season’s NCAA Championships will take place March 17-18-19, 2005 at Purdue University in Indiana for the women. The men’s championship will take place the following week March 24-25-26, 2005 at the University of Minnesota. The College Swimming Coaches’ Association (CSCAA) has sponsored the dual meet poll for 20 plus years now. The CSCAA dual meet Champions will be crowned at the conclusion of the dual meet season in early March, 2005

College Swim Coaches Association (CSCAA) Division I Swimming and Diving Team Dual Meet Rankings for the 2004-5 Season, Nov. 4, 2004(see www.CSCAA.org for pollster information)

Rank MEN’S DIV. IRANKING( )- indicates #1 votes Nov. 4,2004

1 Auburn 199 (7) 2 Southern Cal 188 (1) 3 Florida 182 4 Stanford 178 4 California 178 6 Arizona 158 7 Minnesota 154 8 Texas 147 9 Michigan 132 10 Virginia 127 11 Tennessee 121 12 North Carolina 110 13 Indiana 101 14 Northwestern 92 15 Kentucky 91 16 Georgia 88 17 Pittsburgh 55 17 Wisconsin 55 19 Texas A&M 54 20 Purdue 52 21 Hawaii 39 22 BYU 29 23 Alabama 18 24 Florida State 17 25 Harvard 14 Others receiving votes UNLV 10 Washington 6 Arizona State 5 Notre Dame 5 Wyoming 2 Virginia Tech 1 Princeton 1

Rank WOMEN’S DIV. IRANKING( )- indicates #1 votes Nov. 4, 2004

1 Georgia 197 (5) 2 Auburn 195 (3) 3 Florida 183 4 Texas 173 5 Arizona 167 6 Stanford 165 7 SMU 148 8 California 143 9 UCLA 138 10 Wisconsin 131 11 Texas A&M 118 12 Maryland 99 12 Southern Cal 99 14 Virginia 95 15 North Carolina 79 16 Penn State 77 17 Michigan 71 18 Tennessee 66 19 ASU 62 20 Florida State 49 21 Indiana 40 22 Hawaii 36 23 Purdue 23 24 Notre Dame 13 25 Washington 12 Others receiving votes Alabama 7 South Carolina 6 Virginia Tech 6 Minnesota 1 Princeton 1