SwimSwam Pulse is a recurring feature tracking and analyzing the results of our periodic A3 Performance Polls. You can cast your vote in our newest poll on the SwimSwam homepage, about halfway down the page on the right side, or you can find the poll embedded at the bottom of this post.
Our most recent poll asked SwimSwam readers to pick the strongest women’s swimming conference this season:
RESULTS
Question: Which is the strongest swimming conference for women this season?
- Pac-12 – 57.0%
- SEC – 18.7%
- ACC – 14.1%
- Big Ten – 10.2%
More than half of voters picked the Pac-12 as the strongest women’s swimming conference this season, with no other conference getting more than 19% of the votes.
That’s not too bold a take: after all, the Pac-12 features Cal and Stanford, who have taken the top two spots at NCAAs for the past three seasons. The Pac-12 has had the NCAA champ or runner-up in every season since 2006, when Auburn and Georgia combined for an SEC sweep.
The SEC outperformed the ACC, which is a bit surprising given the rabid ACC fandom in the SwimSwam comment section. This year in particular, the rise of Virginia as a top-3 NCAA team has the ACC rising up the ranks. The Big Ten only got 10% of the vote.
For what it’s worth, we tallied up some numbers based on three different ranking methods: our Power Ranks, the CSCAA dual meet poll, and last year’s NCAA finish order. Here’s what they look like:
| SwimSwam Power Ranks | CSCAA Poll | 2019 NCAAs | |||||||
| Top 5 | Top 10 | Top 20 | Top 5 | Top 10 | Top 20 | Top 5 | Top 10 | Top 20 | |
| Pac-12 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 6 |
| SEC | 1 | 3 | 9 | 1 | 3 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 6 |
| ACC | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| Big Ten | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
Those numbers show the top-end talent of the Pac-12, but also highlight the depth of the SEC, which is probably why it bested the ACC in our poll.
Below, vote in our new A3 Performance Poll, which asks voters the same question, only on the men’s side:
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The A3 Performance Poll is courtesy of A3 Performance, a SwimSwam partner
Hahahaha they didn’t even put big 12
Has SwimSwam ever scored out NCAAs by conference? If not, that could be a good perspective.
They did a couple of years ago for the men, I think Texas was ranked second or third by itself.
I follow the women’s swimming much closer than the men’s. There is no doubt in my mind that the women of the SEC swim in the best conference in the country. The overall depth is the difference. Although the Pac 12 may have the best two teams in Stanford and Cal, and the ACC’s UVA is probably third and on the rise the SEC is the best conference. If there was a conference challenge meet like there was two years ago when the BIG 10 crushed the ACC ; the result between the SEC and any other conference would be a victory for the SEC.
The SEC Women had the worst performance of any of these conferences at NCAA last year
This is very interesting because while Pac-12 is very top heavy with some big stars and schools, which shows at NCAAs, it seems the Pac-12 Conference Meet tends to not be as deep.
In terms of depth the pac 12 is actually incredibly thin at least on the men’s side
There is also only 6 male teams in the conference compared to others who have up to 12.