At the 2026 SCIAC Swim and Dive Championships from Feb. 18 to 22, four out of the 10 relay meet records were broken, and three individual event records were broken.
So, was this just a uniquely good year for SCIAC swimming, or could this be the beginning of a Division III-wide shift?
“My swim coach calls this swim-flation,” swimmer Revere Schmidt CM ’27 said.
Swim-flation refers to the ongoing toppling of records and milestones previously considered untouchable as Division I-level talent chooses to attend DIII programs due to legislative changes that required the former to reduce roster sizes.
In June 2025, the House v. NCAA settlement established that DI colleges could share revenue with athletes as backpay for name, image and likeness. Part of the settlement entailed that, instead of limiting scholarship money per sport, each team would have finite roster caps. For swimming and diving programs, this reduced rosters with 40 or more athletes — including a considerable number of walk-ons — to a maximum of 30 spots.
In Southern California alone, some programs are being outright eliminated. Over the last two years, the slashing of both men’s and women’s swim and dive programs at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and California Baptist, and the women’s program at Loyola Marymount, displaced around 180 athletes.
“The fact that DI teams are getting cut frequently is encouraging a lot of kids from my high school that I know who would go to a program like Cal Poly SLO to turn to DIII conferences like NESCAC or SCIAC instead,” swimmer Nate Levy PO ’27 said. “Overall, the pool of recruits is going to grow, and our [DIII] coaches are going to have a wider variety of recruits to choose from.”
This trend not only displaces current DI athletes but also creates uncertainty for prospective college swimmers who would previously have been DI recruits and must now consider Division II or DIII alternatives.
“Because DI teams keep getting cut, people are scared to get cut, so they go DIII since they know they won’t get cut,” swimmer Abby Raclaw PO ’27 said.
That was evident last week at the SCIAC championships, especially in the relays that showcased a team’s depth, rather than just the isolated talent of an individual swimmer.
“There has definitely been an increase in speed, not only in our team but also in DIII as a whole,” Schmidt, who finished fifth at the women’s 1650-yard freestyle in the SCIAC championships behind two freshmen, said.
Three freshmen won individual titles at the 2023 SCIAC championships, a number about average over the previous decade. This year, seven did.
“Our team as a whole is a lot stronger,” Raclaw said. “We’ve had really fast people in the past, but now the depth of the team is what’s most impressive. It’s not like there are just a few fast DIII swimmers. Now there are tons of fast teams with lots of depth, top to bottom.”
Individually, this means athletes who have historically been at the top of their event are missing the mark. They are not only struggling to win titles but are facing cutthroat competition within their teams, resulting in tough competition for A relays in certain events. It is now more difficult to win a conference title, even harder to qualify for nationals and even more so to become an All-American.
“Coming [into P-P], it took 55.8 seconds to win the 100 breaststroke, but in the past two years it’s taken well under 55,” Levy said. “Because breaststroke has a lot to do with strength, stronger [swimmers] who would usually go DI are coming in and making the conference a lot faster.”
This increased depth also changes the composition of the event. Specifically, the 500-yard freestyle has been significantly affected by changes over recent seasons.
Three years ago, no freshmen made the eight-person A final in the men’s 500 freestyle at the SCIAC championships; this year, six did, and Pierce McShane CM ’29 won it by less than a second ahead of Quinn Delaney PO ’29.
“Since there is more depth in certain events, now sometimes you have to switch to a different event with less competition,” Schmidt said. “I’ve been swimming the 200 breaststroke instead of [the] 500 free, since that event has gotten more competitive.”
Switching to a less-impacted event gives swimmers a better chance to win and has the potential to maximize their team’s overall score, which is calculated by accumulating points from all final placements of their team’s swimmers.
As the quality of DIII recruiting classes rises, the top DIII times are becoming more comparable to mid-level DI, especially in relays.
“The faster your team gets, the more people want to come,” Raclaw said. “So, every year our recruiting class gets faster.”
This is just the start of ‘swim-flation.’ If there are already drastic changes in the first academic year after the settlement that restructured collegiate swim and dive, the future of DIII swimming in even five years’ time may be difficult to predict.
“These changes are going to continue and accelerate,” Levy said.
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