US Collegiate Rowing 2024 – Conference Championships Preview

While a couple of champions were crowned last weekend, this week will have thirteen conference champions crowned in the final year before major realignment over the summer. These championships will come with automatic berths in their respective national championships, while those who are unable to win outright will attempt to show their speed to the selection committees for the at-large bids.

Women’s Conference Championships Previews

For the women, there are ten championships this weekend, the winners of these will join SMU who won the American Athletic Conference last weekend at the NCAA Championships in Bethel, Ohio. The field will be rounded out by eleven teams awarded bids by the selection committee.

 Atlantic Coast Conference

It looks possible that for just the second time in history, #16 Virginia won’t be winning the ACC. As head coach Kevin Sauer announces his retirement at the end of the season, the cavaliers look more vulnerable as they have been in decades. None of the NCAA boats have won all Spring. This leaves the door open for #10 Syracuse, winners in the first eight last year, this season they have demonstrated they have the depth to win on the points ranking with high-level performances at many events. Elsewhere, #15 Duke and Virginia may be worried about their selection to the national championships at all, as they currently sit just above the expected line so will have to show their best, up and down the programme. If one or both slip up and there are impressive performances elsewhere, they could end up going home a few weeks earlier than they had planned.

Big Ten Conference

The Big Ten Championships is possibly the most open of all this weekend. Four programmes all will be expecting to attend the NCAA championships, and each have a chance of winning the conference title. #9 Michigan and #12 Ohio State have held a duopoly of this title since 2011 but both #13 Rutgers and #14 Indiana will fancy themselves in with a chance. Seven different boats score points for the conference championship, potentially favouring the depth of the larger programs, but it’s all to play for on Devil’s Lake. Just as easily as they could win the Championship, a poor performance from any of these four could lead to a premature end to their seasons. 

Big 12 Conference

For the first time in Dave O’Neill’s tenure, the Big 12 Championship could be competitive. His #1 Texas Longhorns have put together an impressive resume but the story of the season has been the rise of #5 Tennessee under their new Head Coach Kim Cupini. Their dramatic rise up the polls mean that the ten-plus second margins the Longhorns have experienced for almost the last decade are a thing of the past, though both teams will be leaving the conference after the regatta. Another programme who will be departing are the #19 Alabama Crimson Tide. If they are able to hang in the fight with the two favourites, they may be able to earn a spot in the national championship regatta, a trip they had only previously made in the COVID-altered 2021 season. 

Ivy League

The conference likely to have the most teams represented in Bethel is the Ivy League as #3 Princeton, #6 Yale, #7 Brown and #11 Penn are all but confirmed in their status and will be fighting out for the conference title. In the Ivy League the title is decided based only on the first eights, so Penn’s lack of depth will be less damaging. On Sunday morning there may be four crews across the Cooper River course all with a chance of the Ivy League championships, though Princeton will be the favourites as the six-time defending champions.

Further back, both #18 Columbia and #20 Harvard have an outside chance of a trip to Ohio in two weeks’ time, but realistically only one would be able to do it. They would need to separate themselves from the other crew and be right on the tails of the front four. This is possible but may be a step too far for these two programmes this season. 

Pac-12 Conference

Through the dual season the Pac-12 has been decisive. #4 California had an open water victory over #8 Washington but were seven seconds behind #2 Stanford. This weekend will see how the weeks of training are trending as all three would back themselves to be in with a shout of a top four finish at the national championships at the end of the month, and given their cross-conference results, the Pac-12 will go out as one of the best leagues in the nation as the conference enters its final weeks of existing. Further down the ranking, #17 Washington State is quietly having one of their best seasons in years and have a real chance of sneaking into the national championship field. A strong performance here, and if a team or two ahead of them fail to deliver, they can slip into the field in Bethel.

Atlantic-10 Conference

This conference may not be the fastest in the nation but there is a very tight battle at the top for the sole qualification that will come from the league. George Washington won the conference for the first-time last year, and they are neck and neck with Rhode Island again this time round. At Women’s Eastern Sprints the margin was half a second in the Varsity Eight to George Washington’s favour though Rhode Island took the battle in both the other championship events. This Saturday, either could come out on top in this budding rivalry. 

Coastal Athletic Association

While this conference has changed its name this season it remains the same conference Northeastern have dominated since 2014. At the start of the season, the Huskies flirted with being ranked but have since stopped receiving votes. They remain comfortably ahead of all other competition. Since 2015 the runners up have always been the Drexel dragons, but there could be a changing of the guard. Ineligible for NCAA participation the newly-division one UC San Diego may make claim to the position of best of the rest this weekend on the Cooper River but are far from challenging for the title.

Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference

The MAAC is far from the fastest conference in the nation, in fact by many computer rankings they have no team who could come second in any other conference, but by the NCAA rules they are entitled to a spot in the national championship. For as long as they have received a bid to the Championship, it has been a MAAC team at the bottom of the standings. Though with a record point haul last time out there may be progress on the horizon. 

The favourite for this honour, once again, is Jacksonville who will be extending their season with a trip to Henley Royal Regatta in July, who will have their toughest competition from Sacred Heart who were down by just a boat length to the Dolphins in mid-April. A month on, who has progressed most will be key in earning a trip to NCAAs.

Patriot League

This conference has been dominated by Navy in recent history, with the Mids having won the championship on all but one occasion since 2015. However, since the pandemic, they have faced a new challenger in the form of the Boston University Terriers. They took the crown in 2022 and missed out in 2023 on the tiebreaker, they are a force to be reckoned with on the Charles. This year, results against common opponents say to expect more of the same and as such BU will enter this weekend as favourites to punch their ticket to Ohio.

West Coast Conference

Gonzaga have won this conference eight times in a row and show no signs of stopping. They have been the best unranked team for most of the second half of the season while the rest of the conference have been nowhere near their level. San Diego are the next best team involved but based on comparing results against common opponents, we would expect them to be several lengths back. While talent entering the conference from the collapsing Pac-12 may make ten-in-a-row a much stiffer challenge, there is nothing stopping Gonzaga to cruising to their nineth successive NCAA appearance – and maybe upsetting the apple cart once they are there.

Men’s Conference Championships Previews

For the heavyweight men’s national championships at the IRAs, there will be 24 crews competing for the crown. #16 Drexel, #24 Jacksonville and MIT have already booked their spots by winning various qualifying events over the last few weeks. Fourteen more spots will be automatically allocated to first eights across this weekend’s racing with seven more places to be distributed by the IRA selection committee before they can race on Lake Mercer. 

Eastern Sprints

Eight of the top ten and twelve of the top fifteen programmes in the country will collide at the Eastern Sprints, one of the oldest multi-lane regattas in the country which has hosted the some of the premier talent in the world of rowing since the second world war. This year, #1 Princeton enter as the favourite entering off an undefeated season that ended with a run against each of the next three seeds in turn. #3 Harvard, #5 Yaleand #6 Brown will be the most likely faces to see on the medal pontoon but don’t count out #7 Syracuse who won their first medal in decades at this event twelve months ago and will be desperate to show they still deserve a place at the top table. Further down the table #11 Navy will be given a shot to break into the top ten which has contained the same schools all season long. A matchup against #10 Dartmouth and one of #8 Northeastern and #9 Penn likely awaits them in the petite final. At the bottom of the order, #22 Holy Crosswill be wanting to give a good showing as they project to ffall just outside the IRAs in the most recent polling while #19 Georgetown will do well to avoid falling back into that fight. 

Pac-12 Conference Championships

In the last ever Pac-12 Championships, the main event will be a rematch between #2 Washington and #4 California. The Golden Bears were well beaten at the dual in April, but a recent domination of #13 Stanford suggests that Scott Frandsen’s men may have rediscovered their speed just in time. For Stanford, this seems another year where they will be well off the front but comfortably inside the three automatic qualifying places. #21 Oregon State have the benefit of recent victory over Holy Cross – albeit through the benefits of an in-race injury. The beavers will still be at risk of falling out of the IRA Regatta if there is a chaotic result in Worcester. They need a strong performance not too far off the remainder of the field if they want to guarantee themselves a place on the start line on Lake Mercer at the end of the month.

Western Sprints

The other race on the West Coast is a day earlier on Lake Natoma, as two spots in the Championship are up for grabs. The first is likely to head the way of #20 UC San Diego as they would project to receive an at-large bid anyway and have demonstrated far greater speed than their neighbours this season. Gonzaga have been the closest to them, although not terribly close by many standards so there may be a more open fight for the final spot with the University of San Diego and Santa Clara potentially getting a bite at the apple. One crew that is unlikely to receive that bid is Loyola Marymount who will race their final race with Varsity status as the sport loses its sponsorship by the athletic department next year. 

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