Can it really be the first weekend of February, the traditional close of sixteen weeks of fervent collegiate competition? The answer of course, is yes. One look at the schedule tells you that many teams have been saving some of their most passionate battles for the end. Cal-USC, A&M-Texas, Indiana-Purdue, and HYP in the east make this the equivalent of rivalry week for men’s teams. On the women’s side the schedule is littered with open dates or largely throwaway meets. With Division I conference championships just two weeks out, the only thing at stake are bragging rights, and perhaps the remaining spots on the conference team. But don’t underestimate the role of bragging rights. They bring out great things in competitors and will guarantee some extraordinary swims this weekend.

The weekend starts off on a bittersweet note when the Tulane travels to Baton Rouge to take on Louisiana State. LSU coach Adam Schmitt calls it, “An opportunity for us to win our last dual meet to go over .500” but it’s much more than that for the Green Wave who, a year after winning their first Conference USA title, have been slated for elimination in the difficult aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. St. Patrick’s Day is more than a month out, but don some green in honor of the Green Wave.

Heading west, Texas will visit College Station for the State Farm Lone Star Showdown. While the corporate moniker is relatively new the While the corporate moniker is relatively new the series dates to 1929. “In the state of Texas, they are the program that we are judged against,” A&M head coach Jay Holmes said. “There’s no lack of tradition. Our guys are looking forward to the challenge. We have a great deal of respect for the Longhorns and we’re looking for a way to race them.” Pride aside, the meet won’t prove as fast years past, but at least they know how to pack ‘em in. During one of the breaks, A&M will host the second-annual “Big Splash” competition. A new “Big Splash” Champion will be crowned since last year’s winner, Joey Thomas of the A&M football team, has elected to sit out the 2006 event. Among the heavyweights scheduled to “dive” are 300-pounders Kirk Elder, Chris Yoder and Vincent Williams. A day later Texas travels to Dallas for the Eddie-Bowl where Eddie Reese's Longhorns will face host Eddie Sinnott's SMU Mustangs (no word if Eddie Vedder or Duane Eddy will be doing the national anthem). SMU pounded A&M last week and they'll have home-pool advantage in one of the most intense dual-meet settings to be found. An upset of #5 Texas would be huge, but not unthinkable. It might even prove bigger news than the the 2006 Big Splash Champion.

While Eddie's Mustangs enjoy home pool advantage, the SMU women will travel to the national collegiate alumni meet, otherwise known as the World Cup. SMU will be the largest university contingent at the meet with fifteen swimmers and volunteer assistant Martina Moracova, aged thirty years young seeded second in the 100 fly. The World Cup will without question have the fastest racing on the top end with several recent graduates competing including Michigan's volunteer assistant, USC's Tamas Kerejarko and Kaitlin Sandeno, Stanford's Randal Bal, Jayme Cramer, Peter Marshall, and Tara Kirk, Auburns Fred Bosquet and Margaret Hoelzer, Nick Brunelli of Arizona State, Juan Veloz of Arizona and Rachael Komisarz of Kentucky breaststrokers Brendan Hansen (Texas), Scott Usher (Wyoming) and Mike Alexandrov (still of Northwestern). While the competition will be hot, so too will be the recruiting on the sideline with dozens of international competitors on American soil.

Out west, the pecking order of the Pac 10's California teams will be established. Third-ranked Stanford will first take on top-ranked (Division II) Cal State Bakersfield before heading to the McDonald Swim Stadium to take on the 9th-ranked Trojans of USC. Several races promise to be exciting ... They include the 500 free which features USC's Ous Mellouli who has the nation's best time while Stanford's Andy Grant checks in at number three. The Trojans will face second-ranked Cal-Berkeley on Friday. On paper it looks to be all Cal who soundly defeated Arizona two weeks ago. The Bears will be without Michael Cavic who is still nursing a sore back that caused him to miss meets with Florida and Texas. I am still able to practice, just not as intensely," Cavic said. "I have been working on my lower back and my abs, so I don't put as much strain on it. I am confident that I'll be able to swim against Stanford and in the Pac-10s and NCAAs." The sprint flyer has every bit of confidence in is mates however. "USC may have a history of doing well in the distance events, but...I thoroughly believe that it's going to be a breeze."

The SEC schools are largely off this weekend with the conference championship just around the corner, though Auburn will be hosting a small invitational and the Tennessee men will host NC State before hosting the SEC Championship in two weeks. NC State, for its part will be looking for some love from the CSCAA pollsters. The poll has shown them little consideration over the season despite compiling an unblemished record in the ACC and a stable of sprinters. There's an old saying about sprinters - can't live with 'em, can't win relays without 'em. The Tarheels are without 'em and that might enable NCSU to snap UNC's five-year win streak.

In the Midwest, Michigan travels to Northwestern in a match-up between the Big Ten's biggest star-studded teams. Highlighting the Wildcats lineup is junior Matt Grevers, who has twice been named Big Ten Swimmer of the Week this season and also shared the Big Ten Swimmer of the Year award with Wolverine Peter Vanderkaay. The Wolverines have a 34-meet conference win streak going and have taken 31 of 34 from the Wildcats who lose breaststroker Mike Alexandrov to the World Cup meet this weekend. Down the road, Indiana will host in-state rival Purdue for the AT&T Crimson and Gold Cup. World University Games teammates Giordan Pogoli (Purdue) and Kevin Swander (Indiana) will square off in the breaststrokes for the umteenth time. Ohio State and Penn State will get together this weekend with Penn State also visiting Kenyon.

Finally, for rivalry we turn East when Harvard hosts H-Y-P. Princeton enters 4-0 in EISL meets with Yale and Harvard each at 4-1. To say these three teams have historically dominated the EISL would be an understatement. Of the 44 Eastern Championships meets ever held, Harvard, Yale and Princeton have won 43. Harvard leads the all-time series with Princeton by a 34-32 margin. Yale leads the Crimson 41-32 all-time but Harvard's taken 13 straight. This week's understatement of the week goes to Harvard's Geoff Rathgerber who claims, “It’s just a normal week of practice and we are just going to have to swim under normal conditions.”

Division III teams are largely inactive this weekend with conferences starting next weekend, but as usual, count Kenyon as the exception to the rule. They'll host Johns Hopkins in a showdown of D-3 heavyweights. Next week the NCAC, CCIW, UAA, SCIAC, MIAA, and MIAC, WIAC all host their conference meets. Division II also offers a light schedule highlighted by Drury and Missouri.

Date	M/W	Visitor	at Home
Thursday	Coed	Utah	Brigham Young
Friday	Coed	Orange & Blue Invitational	Auburn
Friday	M	Stanford	Cal State Bakersfield
Friday	W	UNLV	Colorado State
Friday	Coed	Missouri	Drury
Friday	M	HYP - (Harvard, Yale, Princeton)	Harvard
Friday	W	Northern Iowa	Iowa
Friday	W	Kansas	Iowa State
Friday	M	Penn State	Kenyon
Friday	Coed	Minnesota Challenge
Saturday	Coed	Minnesota Challenge	Minnesota
Friday	W	Tulane	Louisiana State
Friday	M	NC State	North Carolina
Friday	M	Cal-Berkeley	Southern Cal
Friday	M	Texas	Texas A&M
Friday	Coed	Cal State Northridge	UC-Irvine
Saturday	Coed	Howard, Radford	American
Saturday	Coed	Connecticut	Army
Saturday	M	Virginia Military Institute	at Virginia Tech
Saturday	Coed	Orange & Blue Invitational	Auburn
Saturday	W	Miami-OH	Bowling Green
Saturday	W	Northeastern	Columbia
Saturday	Coed	Clemson	Duke
Saturday	Coed	Buffalo	Eastern Michigan
Saturday	Coed	Indian River CC	Florida
Saturday	Coed	Lafayette	Georgetown
Saturday	Coed	HYP - (Harvard, Yale, Princeton)	Harvard
Saturday	Coed	Washington	Hawaii
Saturday	W	Kansas	Iowa State
Saturday	M	Penn State	Ohio State
Friday	M	Eastern Michigan	Ohio State
Saturday	M	Purdue	Indiana
Saturday	Coed	Davidson, William & Mary	James Madison
Saturday	Coed	Cincinnati	Kentucky
Saturday	Coed	Johns Hopkins	Kenyon
Saturday	Coed	Bucknell	Lehigh
Saturday	Coed	Western Kentucky	Louisville
Saturday	Coed	Seton Hall	Marist
Saturday	Coed	Virginia	Maryland
Saturday	W	Nebraska	Missouri
Saturday	Coed	Webster	Missouri State
Saturday	W	UNLV	New Mexico
Saturday	M	Michigan	Northwestern
Saturday	Coed	Ball State	Ohio
Saturday	Coed	Clarion, Duquesne	Pittsburgh
Saturday	Coed	Boston College	Rhode Island
Saturday	W	Navy	Richmond
Saturday	M	Stanford	Southern Cal
Saturday	Coed	Evansville	Southern Illinois
Saturday	M	Texas	Southern Methodist
Saturday	Coed	Holy Cross	St. Peters
Saturday	Coed	Villanova	Syracuse
Saturday	W	Akron	Toledo
Saturday	W	Arkansas-Little Rock	Tulane
Saturday	M	Cal-Berkeley	UCSB
Saturday	Coed	Air Force	Wyoming
Sunday	Coed	Orange & Blue Invitational	Auburn
Sunday	W	HYP - (Harvard, Yale, Princeton)	Harvard
Sunday	M	North Carolina State	Tennessee
Friday	Coed	World Cup	Long Island