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 if Indiana’s victory at the IU-Texas-Florida tri meet changed their NCAA men’s team predictions:
RESULTS
Question: Does Indiana’s victory over Texas change your prediction of who will win men’s NCAAs?
- No, still believe Texas will win – 60.6%
- No, still believe someone other than Texas will win – 26.6%
- Yes, now believe Texas will win – 1.4%
- Yes, now believe someone other than Texas will win – 11.4%
Despite Indiana topping Texas in a high-profile triangular, only 11% of voters said they’ve changed their men’s NCAA predictions away from Texas. In fact, 62% of voters still said they’re predicting a Texas victory, with a whopping 60.6% finding their Longhorn prediction unchanged by the dual meet outcome.
That speaks to what we’ve come to notice as a yearly trend: that the vast majority of swimming fans understand Texas’s tendency to train through dual meets, and that those ridiculing ‘Texas doubters’ exist in far higher numbers than the doubters themselves.
The Longhorns have somehow become – in the eyes of some fans – underdogs in each of the past several seasons. But a look at this poll (and previous comment sections) shows that very few have seriously doubted the Longhorns based on dual meet losses. The ‘nobody believes in us’ factor is certainly a popular sentiment for sports teams, and it’s a great motivator… even if it’s not, technically speaking, true.
38% believe Texas won’t win NCAAs – but only less than a third of that group changed their minds because of the Texas-Indiana meet. 26.6% of voters started the season picking the field (likely some combination of Cal, Indiana and NC State), and only 11.4% have since jumped off the Texas bandwagon and joined ‘the field.’
Below, vote in our new A3 Performance Poll, which asks voters which of Team USA’s top two sprinters will win more medals at Short Course Worlds in December:
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The A3 Performance Poll is courtesy of A3 Performance, a SwimSwam partner
We’ve all seen this movie before. It shouldn’t even be an 11% change
Texas is probably as weak this year as they have been during the current run. I’d put it at 40% Texas, 60% field.
Kibler and Scheinfield, there is a lot riding on their improvement. A lot of pressure on these two freshmen. Hopefully, they are up to the task.
Divers will also need to score at least what they did last year, maybe more.
Beating Texas in season is nothing special, especially in October because Eddie kills them in practice that month. We can’t really predict anything until BIG XII
Okay… how about the fact the didn’t score the most points in the pool last year? Let’s not assume other programs don’t train hard in October.
In some contexts, it’s just sports fans being sports fans. Sports fans sometimes say things like “if it weren’t for XYZ…”
In other contexts, like this one, it’s pointing out that the fact that Texas lost a bunch of dual meets last year and won NCAAs shouldn’t cover up for the fact that most of the Texas swimmers really didn’t swim that well at NCAAs last year. Townley did, the backstrokers did… Last year, Eddie has the best-built team in the country. He didn’t have the team that had the best performance relative to their own bar at NCAAs. Anybody who won’t admit that is lying to themselves. I think I even saw an interview where Eddie admitted it.
Even… Read more »
I would also say losing Conger, Licon, and Clark Smith in the same class was a hit.
Help me out, do they award separate national titles in track and also in field? Or is it one single champion in “track and field “
So many tears.
Does diving no longer happen in the pool…?
Nope. SPLAT.
Eddie is an outstanding coach. He knew the swimming was going to be weak and could compete with Cal and NC State. He went out got himself some divers and won another title.