While FINA potentially looks at easing its previously announced suit restrictions, the NCAA swimming and diving committee has drawn a line by endorsed swimsuit rules  that restrict suit construction to textiles or a woven material.

In essence, the committee endorsed the strictest interpretations of the FINA regulations - calling on suit coverage be limited to between the waist and kneecap for men and between the shoulder and kneecap for women.

The rules are expected to be approved by the the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel and will further restrict suits to 0.8 mm of thickness and mandate that suits be completely permeable. 

Michigan women's coach Jim Richardson told the NCAA News: “Our decisions reflect the vast majority of college coaches deciding what they are willing to accept in performance augmentation.  “The general feeling among coaches was that the new technology suits had too profound of an effect on performance,” Richardson said.

Tracy Huth, who chairs the committee told the NCAA News,“Our NCAA subcommittee has been working tirelessly since the end of the 2009 collegiate championships and even well before that to get our arms around this issue,” Huth said. “We wanted to develop rules regardless of what FINA might do.”

The biggest change between the two standards is that the NCAA rules will go into effect at the beginning of this season thus avoiding a slippery slope of changing rules and lack of availability that plaggued last season.

It also means that the NCAA will not allow championship qualification from FINA meets where the fast suits are still permitted. 

Committee members also voted to retain records set in the 2009 NCAA championships.