College Swimming League CEO Robert Kent Confirms Second Season
The College Swimming League will return for a second season, according to an announcement made by CSL CEO Robert Kent during Friday’s inaugural championship at the Indiana University Natatorium. The confirmation, relayed by the championship broadcast team, came as NC State captured the league’s first title, completing a season that introduced a different competitive model to collegiate swimming.
The CSL’s inaugural campaign featured 12 collegiate swimming programs competing in a format emphasizing head-to-head racing, combined men’s and women’s scoring and elimination-style Skins events.
Building on an Inaugural Season
The College Swimming League was created to offer a new approach to collegiate swimming, one in which racing, strategy and team performance take precedence over traditional time-based objectives. Unlike conventional college championship formats, the CSL combined men’s and women’s results into a single team score.
Every race contributes to the same championship outcome, creating an opportunity for athletes from both programs to compete collectively for one title. The format also introduced shorter, fast-paced events and Skins elimination rounds, designed to create suspense and dramatic finishes.
Throughout the inaugural season, participating programs adapted to the scoring system and the tactical decisions required to maximize team points.
NC State Becomes the League’s First Champion
NC State provided a fitting conclusion to the first season by winning the championship over Tennessee, Virginia and Indiana. The Wolfpack’s victory was particularly notable because the program had lost its opening CSL match to Virginia before developing into the league’s eventual champion.
Under head coach Braden Holloway, NC State demonstrated the importance of team depth and strategic relay performance. The championship’s final stages featured dramatic Super Skins racing, with Tennessee winning the women’s final and Virginia defeating NC State in the concluding men’s race.
The Wolfpack’s accumulated points, however, proved sufficient to secure the inaugural championship. NC State’s swimmers celebrated the victory with a jump into the pool.
What Comes Next for the CSL?
Kent’s confirmation establishes that the league intends to build on its inaugural campaign. Details of the second season’s participating schools, competition schedule, broadcast arrangements and any potential format changes have not yet been established in the information available from the championship broadcast.
Those developments will help determine how the CSL expands its presence in the collegiate swimming landscape. The league’s first season demonstrated an alternative approach to presenting swimming as a spectator sport, with visible team engagement, rapid-fire competition and championship implications extending into the final races.
One NC State swimmer described the significance of combined men’s and women’s scoring following the championship: “Obviously we’re close as a program, but when we can really invest into the women and they can invest into us, because their points matter just as much as our points matter for the win, it’s a really amazing thing to see.”
With its first championship complete and a second season confirmed, the College Swimming League now has an opportunity to build on that competitive foundation.
