MoragaBear said:

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Cal has a great chance at the NC with so many elite swimmers on a national level but how did ASU get so good?

https://calbears.com/news/2023/3/4/mens-swimming-diving-bears-win-four-titles-on-final-night-of-pac-12-championshps.aspx

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I have to credit Bob Bowman, Michael Phelps' coach back in the day, for resurrecting the ASU program. He has recruited extremely well, especially international studs recently and made a tactical decision to redshirt the entire program the Covid impacted swimming season (2020-2021).

Frenchman Leon Marchand is without debate the best collegiate swimmer in the country.

I expect the Sun Devils to be a major threat to Cal's chances to repeat as national champions. They have extremely competitive relay teams with Marchand's ability to plug and play as a top breaststroker, and sprint/mid freestyler.
Like Cal, they have the roster to score in every individual event, which the exception of the 100 breast despite Marchand having a top five 100 breast time, as he will likely compete and win three other individual events at NCAAs (200 and 400 IM and 200 Breast). The Devils have impressive depth in the IMs, 200 Free, 100 and 200 Back. But also like Cal, ASU does not expect many diving points at NCAAs.

So do we project ASU-Cal-Texas near the top of the NCAA's...?

The general consensus seems to be Cal - ASU - Florida, Bears being the favorite. ASU doesn't have a scoring breaststroker outside of Marchand, and most of their scorers aren't multi-event A finalists. Florida looks sneaky good with Chaney, Mitchell, Liendo plus numerous other stars - they could play spoiler and break into the top 2.

Texas has too many missing pieces in the sprint depth, plus doesn't have a backstroker. NC State looks good, but their sprint depth could cause their own team to knock each other out of scoring positions.

Thanks for the analysis guys...