NCAA Format Shakeup: Why We Need B-Finals Back & The Combined 6-Day "Dream Meet" | Episode 292
4/6/202659 min
The 2026 NCAA Swimming & Diving season is officially in the books! Bryan and John are back from Atlanta (Georgia Tech) to recap a wild week of record-breaking performances and controversial format changes. From the Virginia Women securing an epic 6th straight title to the Texas Men going back-to-back, the dynasties are alive and well—but the sport is changing.
We dive deep into the "no B-finals" experiment, the decision to open the meet with the 1650 Freestyle, and why Josh Liendo and Hubi Kos setting NCAA records in the morning was met with "crickets" in the stands. We also di...
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First 90 secondsBrian Lundquist· Host0:00
The 2026 NCAA season is done. We're back from NCAAs, and we're excited to share our experience. We watched the women's meet virtually. We saw the men's meet live in person. We talked to lots of fans, lots of parents, held some parties, had a great time, watched some fast swimming with some NCAA records, and we are excited to talk to you about it. Thanks for following Social Kick, and enjoy this recap of the NCAA season. [water splashing] Welcome to Social Kick. I'm Brian Lundquist. We got a partial crew. He's Dr. John Mullen. And Luke Paddington is not joining us this episode because he is at work.
John Mullen· Host0:41
Boo.
Brian Lundquist· Host0:42
That's all right. Sometimes work calls. And, you know, you guys, we do do this for fun. You got to remember first that we are fans, uh, first. We are not necessarily swim nerd experts, although we do like nerding out on swimming, which is the origin of this pod. And, um, sometimes we don't have the whole crew, but that's okay because we all have full-time gigs and we do, uh, Social Kick as well. So maybe at some point it'll be our full-time gig, but who knows? I don't know. I don't know that I'd want to be, like, full-time in swimming. Would you, John?
John Mullen· Host1:15
Oh, that's a tough one. I think it ebbs and flows, and it depends on what capacity a- and what all that means. But certainly, I mean, my wife has tried to get me to coach for a while, and I'm like, "Ugh, I don't think