With several of the nation's top Division I teams getting a weekend off, college swimming fans will be afforded a glimpse of some small-school marquee rivalries this weekend.  The weekend will also give fans an idea of what college swimming would be like if had Michael Phelps not gone pro.

This weekend will mark the final Kenyon-Denison dual prior to the competition of Kenyon's new aquatic center.  Last year after three years of near-misses, the Big Red women took down the Ladies on the final relay.  The Lords meanwhile, have had an easier time in recent history, winning three of the past four meetings, but gamesmanship will ride high as Greg Parini challenges his mentor Jim Steen one final time at the Ernst Center.  Kenyon opens the weekend on Friday, hosting D-1 Ohio University.

Also highlighting the D-3 banner is the Carnegie Mellon Invitational featuring three of the past four NCAA coaches-of-the-year.  CMU, Emory, Johns Hopkins, and Case Western will get together for a two-day invite featuring some of the best racing in the East.  In the Midwest, Hope and Kalamazoo, winners of the past 34 MIAA men's titles will get together for a Friday night showdown, while out west several top D-3's along with women's defending NAIA champion Cal-Baptist will have their first meaningful competition at the Pomona-Pitzer Invitational. 

That's not to say that there's no racing among the big schools.  Alabama opens its season by playing host to Tennessee in an SEC contest.  "We’re diving right into the thick of things,” Alabama head coach Eric McIlquham said. “Tennessee, both the men and women, are good teams and they’ll provide a great early season test. We’re at that point in the season that we’re not going to get much better without getting up and doing some racing, putting ourselves in competitive situations.”  Last week the UT men swam 150's against South Carolina, perhaps in an effort to mask their young team, but all will be revealed when the two tangle on Friday.  Alabama will host Delta State a day later.

In the Big Ten, Wisconsin will travel to Bloomington to take on Indiana University with Southern Illinois and Louisville also joining the fray.  Northwestern and Michigan State will head south to Purdue.  The Northwestern men will try to overcome a final-relay upset at the hands of Texas A&M while the Spartans will look for their first win against a D-I opponent.   Michigan and Minnesota will each feature strong non-conference opponents.  Minnesota welcomes North Dakota and North Carolina for a two-day meet.  Michigan, meanwhile, will host Georgia in the highest-ranked meet of the weekend.  The meet is sure to have some of the fastest times in the country, though those times won't help anyone qualify for NCAA's.  Michael Phelps and Klete Keller will swim two exhibition events during the diving breaks.  Illinois will travel to Miami-OH, while Ohio State will host the Miami men. 

The pride of the Palmetto state will be on the line this weekend when South Carolina travels to Clemson.  USC's had the upperhand in recent year's but Chris Ip's Tigers are much improved.   USC leads the series 34-14-1 on the men's side, 16-13 for the women. 

A pair of invites close out the weekend.  Rice will host the Marriott-TYR Invitational bringing in Arkansas, Oregon State, and Villanova together for what should be a very competitive meet featuring teams just out of the top 25.  Finally, UC-Irvine will host the Big West Shootout.  The shootout will feature two pools of competition with UCI, Washington, Cal Poly, Cal State Northridge and San Diego (women) in one pool. The other pool will feature Hawaii, UC Davis, Brigham Young (men), Stanford (women), Pepperdine (women) and Idaho (women) Friday. The top-two men’s teams in each pool will compete in the championship pool Saturday and the top-two women’s teams plus the top remaining finisher will compete in the championship pool for the women Saturday.

Here's a sampling of this weekend's meets: