One word describes the outcome from this week’s NCAA Swimming and Diving commission’s sub-committee for championships – change. The obscure group which gave the collegiate scene short-course meters championships in Olympic years concluded its meetings in Park City, UT with several decisions that will change the landscape of collegiate swimming starting in 2008. Short course meters are out, long course are in. Tired of figuring out an ‘A’ or a ‘B’ cut? Gone – in favor of a controversial automatic qualifying system. Like speed? Get ready for the sprint fly, back, and breaststroke In a related decision the sub-committee also elected to move the men’s 2008 championship, previously set for March 27-29, 2008 at Weyerhaeuser King Aquatic Center to an outdoor venue. The women’s meet is still scheduled for March 20-22, 2008 at the new Bill and Mae McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion at Ohio State.

“The committee, after seeing the smoke and evacuation from this week’s national championships (related story), decided we didn’t want to chance it, especially in an Olympic year,” said sub-committee member Bob Peterson of McAllister University. “Once the decision was made to make the change, the commission encouraged us to think boldly, and we thought – ‘well, this wouldn’t be a problem if the meet was held outside,’” and outside it was decided. The final destination has not been selected, though the committee will initiate a formal bidding and evaluation process this spring. Unbelievably, the decision is likely to be the least-contentious change of the meetings.

More controversial was the committee’s decision to switch the meet to a long course championship with the addition of the 50 meter butterfly, backstroke and breaststroke. Gary Kinkead, who also serves on the committee continued, “We examined the exposure we’d received from the previous short-course meters championships, and felt the need to work hand-in-hand with the USOC and USA Swimming.” The short-stroke events will be scheduled on the first day of the meet.

The championships will package as a part of the 2008 Olympic build-up. “NBC will pick up broadcast of the meet with an eye towards showcasing America’s top talents,” explained USA Swimming Executive Director Chuck Wiggleus. NBC will also broadcast the meet in a much better time slot. Said Kinkead, “We still won’t be live and won’t have ‘CSI’ as a lead-in, but at least we won’t be slotted between monster trucks and Australian rules football, though I like both.”

As expected, representatives of smaller programs objected to the switch to the longer format. “This only helps the biggest of the big programs,” said commission member Davis Clarke, adding “The vast majority of teams don’t have a long-course pool, nor easy access to one, so we felt it was important to move towards an automatic-qualification selection process.”

That process proved the touchiest. Under the plan, the NCAA will move towards the automatic-qualifier process used in other sports. Under the plan, qualifying spots will be allocated to conferences. The conference champion from each event will gain automatic qualification into the meet, with remaining spots allocated based on conference strength. Relatively stronger conferences will receive more bids, however, according to Peterson, “the sub-committee felt it was very important to have each conference represented.” An advance press release from the NCAA touts the meet as a, “far more diverse and inclusive meet, that does better job of maintaining competitive balance.” The move will also force several programs to place much more emphasis on their conference championships.

Under the new rules, new schools stand to gain. Take Kevin Vik of the Virginia Military Institute, for instance. Vik won both the 500 (5:05.83) and 400 IM (4:28.81) at the Northeast Conference Championships with times that would not have even achieved the women’s ‘B’ standard. Under the new rules, however, the VMI junior would earn automatic qualification just as Ryan Lochte (Florida) did. When told of the move, he stated, “Wow, that’s cool. I guess I should try to get some long course work in.”

Not surprisingly, there was fury among the larger conferences. “I think the (qualification) system is just out of hand. In an e-mail to CollegeSwimming.com one SEC coach asked rhetorically, “If we have 50 swimmers in the SEC ranked in the top five in the country in their events, should not all 50 swimmers go? The answer is yes. It could be the Pac 10, or the Big 10, I don’t care what conference, but in any other sport people at that level virtually (always) qualify for the national championship. This whole thing is asinine.”

So too is this article. If you're believing this, you've been April Fooled.