How I would solve the problems of college track and field

Normally I would take this space to write weekly updates about our team, and I will down the way a bit, but I’ve had something else on my mind about the sport of college track and field ….. How to fix it.

Problems with our sport

Before I talk about the solutions, let’s get into what’s wrong with our sport and what’s keeping it from progressing.

Track and Field is one of the most popular sports in terms of participation at the high school and collegiate level but it struggles to gain a foothold on television and with the average sports fan nowadays.  It’s the center piece of the Olympic Games every four years but other than that most Americans prefer Football, Baseball or Basketball the rest of the time.

As college coaches we can’t do much about the elite levels of track and field organization, however, we can certainly affect it on the collegiate level.  We need to make meets that people want to either attend or watch on TV so that we are relevant to the public and to the administrators in our own athletic departments.

Major problems for coaches include scheduling and how to determine what a successful track team is for the general public.  I’ll start with the last one first.

What is the definition of a successful track meet?

If you read any college website’s recap of the track and field weekend, it will generally always be very positive on how well it went.  This is because in college track there are multiple definitions of what a successful track meet is.  You can win the meet as a team, you can win multiple events even though you lose as a team, you can set a whole bunch of personal records and get last place and still call it a great meet.  It happens all the time.

Can you imagine a football team getting beat 56-0 but the headline is “Football team excited about successful weekend” and then there is no mention of the score, just highlights of the best plays.  This happens quite often in our sport so the general public has got to be confused as to what it means to have a successful meet.

Think about a basketball player scoring a career high 30 points when his team just lost by 20 points.  In the post-game press conference would you ever hear the player sounding overly enthusiastic and happy about his own performance when his team was thoroughly defeated?  If he did he would not make his teammates or coaches very happy.

Opponents to this would say track and field is an individual sport and that is the most important part.  While I don’t disagree with that statement I would counter with the fact that our current system is set up to be individualistic and it appears to be failing.  So maybe we should try something different.

The scheduling problem

Because track teams and coaches can schedule any kind of meet at any time, what we end up with are all kinds of different meets every weekend.  Some are small scored meets, some are huge non-scored meets that take all day, some are dedicated to one event area, and some are multiple versions of these rolled into one.

Take our team this weekend, for example.  We split up and had a large portion of our team compete in a scored meet at Air Force while all of our best distance runners went to Notre Dame (the altitude at Air Force kills non-altitude distance runners).  On top of that our top multi-event athletes stayed home to recover from a demanding Heptathlon or Pentathlon last week at UNI.  We are trying to give our athletes the best opportunities to compete to their best but have split up the team to do so.  And we are as into TEAM track and field as anyone in the country.  I’m sure we’ll fall several notches in this week’s National Dual Meet Rankings but we did all we could do in the situation we were given.

We have a great distance coach – Kirk Hunter.  He understands and enjoys the team part of track and field but wants the best for his athletes.  Our current situation in NCAA T&F puts coaches like Kirk in an impossible situation to make everyone happy.

Another problem is how we qualify to the NCAA Championships.  It has always been a point of contention amongst coaches in our sport.  I will speak to this below.

Let’s get to some ideas …

The Wise Solution

Generally there are two camps of opinions on how we should structure the season.  One is to set up opportunities for the athletes to compete at the highest level possible with no effort to make the meets enjoyable to watch.  The other side is to make meets smaller with a team score and take a normal amount of time to complete (2-3 hours).  Sometimes those meets aren’t very competitive.

I think I have an idea that will make everyone happy but understand I lean to the side of smaller team meets.  Some of these ideas are mine, some are others, but it’s my blog so feel free to agree or disagree with it (me) as much as you want.

The first thing I would do is mandate the track and field schedule to look like this (using 2016 as an example):

--No competitions in December (except a pre-season Intrasquad Meet)

--Jan 9 – Meet #1 – Quad scored meet (or dual/tri)

--Jan 16 – Meet #2 – Quad scored meet (or dual/tri) – NCAA scheduled meet (see below)

--Jan 23 – Meet #3 – Non-scored open meets only

--Jan 30 – Meet #4 – Quad scored meet (or dual/tri)

--Feb 6 – Meet #5 – Quad scored meet (or dual/tri) – conference opponents only

--Feb 13 – Meet #6 – Non-scored open meets only

--Feb 20 – Mandatory off weekend

--Feb 27 – Conference Championships

--Mar 5 – Mandatory off weekend

--Mar 12 – NCAA Championships

Now let me explain the details of each meet …

Meet #1 – You can schedule anyone you want for this season opening scored meet.

Meet #2 – The NCAA would schedule this meet for you and the point would be for them to make it a regional/rivalry type meet that schools would have no choice in scheduling.  For example for us it would be Wichita State, Kansas, Kansas State and possibly Missouri (KU and Missouri won’t compete against each other anymore in lots of sports for political reasons).  There would be great meets all over the country.  Ohio St/Michigan, Florida/Florida St, Kent St/Akron, the North and South Dakota Quad ….. What a great way to get the country excited about T&F!

Meet #3 – This would be the typical Washington/Notre Dame/Iowa St meets where everyone is trying to run fast.  If smaller colleges have great tracks it would be a chance for them to make a lot of money with hosting a big meet.  This would also be one of two weekends for multi-event competitions.  In fact you could have Pentathlon/Heptathlon only meets – which could be pretty cool.

Meet #4 – Same as the season opener where home teams get 2-4 teams together for a scored meet.

Meet #5 – With three weeks before the conference meet, this would give everyone a preview of things to come.  If your conference had 10 teams you’d have a Quad and two Triangulars.

Meet #6 – same as Meet #3, go run blazing fast and have 30 heats of the 200.

The conference and NCAA meets would be the same BUT …..

….qualifying to the NCAA Championships would be much different – amongst other differences below.

You could only qualify to the NCAA Championships through one of the four scored meets or the conference championship.  You could not qualify at one of the large carnival type meets.  This would ensure that teams would bring all their team members to the smaller scored meets and distance coaches could communicate as the meets approaches to try and make fast races with good competition.  Heck I’m fine with even having rabbits to help the distance guys run as fast as possible.

Also, at every scored meet each team would have to enter every event with at least one competitor.  And if the one competitor didn’t start the competition (or if they dropped out) then the team would be penalized 10 points in the team score.

In the scored meets, teams would be limited to a certain number of athletes, 30 for example, for each gender.  There could be “JV” type meets on the previous night or earlier in the day but athletes couldn’t compete in both meets.  You couldn’t qualify for nationals out of the JV meet.

Also, only college teams could compete in the scored meet.  No unattached or post collegiates – just college kids in their uniforms.  The open meet weekends would be great for the post-collegiates to plan and have great competition together.

I would also make it a limit of 4 athletes per event.  This would ensure only one flight of field events and a reasonably short time schedule.  All the meets would have the exact same events and only vary in time schedule because of the facility.  All the meets would have the same rules.  For example in D1 meets the Men’s High Jump would have an opening height of 6-2 at every meet across the country.  Maybe D2 starts at 6-0, D3 at 5-10.  There would also be minimum marks in the field events so a team couldn’t enter a non-thrower in the throwing event.  Same goes for maximum times for running events.  Don’t make the mark with at least one athlete?  Negative 10 points for your team.

And guess what?  The score is REALLY gonna matter!

From these scored meets you could easily create a RPI type ranking based off the actual team scores and strength of schedule for each team.  The RPI ranking would determine the MAXIMUM number of athletes you can qualify to NCAA’s.  For example:

Top-50 RPI – No limit, as many athletes/events as you can qualify to NCAA’s

50-100 RPI - Up to 8 events can qualify to NCAA’s per team

100-200 RPI – Up to 4 events can qualify to NCAA’s per team

200-250 RPI – Up to 2 events can qualify to NCAA’s per team

250-however many teams there are – only one event can be qualified to NCAA’s

(I’m just throwing out numbers, nothing scientific above)

If you had athletes eligible for NCAA’s but on teams that aren’t ranked high enough then you would fill out the top-16 with the next available athletes from eligible teams.

This would make sure the teams are trying to build reasonably complete track AND field teams and making an effort to do well in the scored meets.  If you don’t think this is fair to the top athletes then think of the All-American point guard who never gets to play in the NCAA Basketball Tournament because his team isn’t good enough.  Life isn’t always fair.

All of the above suggestions would make college track and field far less confusing and create tons of exciting and MEANINGFUL meets all across the country in all collegiate levels of the sport all year long.  I’m sure there are things you can pick apart from this proposal but I feel confident I can speak to most of them.  I imagine many of you already have ways to take this and make it even better.

I think something similar could be done outdoors with being able to keep the Penn Relays, Drake Relays, Mt SAC, etc. on the non-team scored weekends.  We would eliminate the NCAA Preliminary rounds and qualify straight to Oregon.

Now, who did I make angry?  And if it’s you then give us a better solution.

The Lonergan Solution

This is a more radical idea that’s not mine.  I must give credit to Stephen F. Austin’s Sean Lonergan.  Hopefully he doesn’t mind me sharing and tweaking it a bit.

Sean’s idea ….. Get rid of indoor track.  Add a fall track season.

I know, I know, this sounds crazy but just listen.  Replace indoor track with a fall track season that generally falls in line with the cross country schedule.  Distance runners still compete in cross country while the rest of the team competes in events no longer than 800 meters.  This would save distance runners from racing all year round and help them have more successful races later in the summer.

And we would have many different events in Fall Track & Field.  How about the 300m hurdles?  Maybe the 4x200m relay as a regular event?  How cool would an outdoor 600m be?  Maybe we don’t have the Javelin which would keep their season the same anyways?  How about a sprint medley relay of 100-200-300-400?  How about scoring the meet in relay style where you add the top 2 performances of a team together in each event?  Get rid of the 200, Triple Jump and Hammer for the fall.

The meets would be shorter and a lot of fun.  Heck, lots of places have better weather in the fall than they do in the spring anyways.

But that’s not it.  By eliminating indoor you wouldn’t have the crazy scheduling issues of training all fall then taking a month off official practice then starting the season right away.  You could actually take a break after Fall Track and gradually work your way back into shape for the spring season.  You would save your budget a significant amount of money because your fall travel roster would be smaller than indoor.  And since most teams have an outdoor track facility and not everyone has an indoor track you would be able to utilize your facility more often and host more competitions.

For northern schools, when the weather gets bad in October/November you could head a bit south for a meet.  As hot as it is early in the fall in the south I’m sure the favor would be returned early in the season.

I haven’t touched on the idea of a fall national meet because the entire idea is radical to begin with.  Who knows, maybe it could be a real TEAM national championship in a beautiful southern city?

I like it.  I like it a lot.  Great idea Sean!

The do nothing and keep it the same solution

Keeping everything the same.  Doesn’t sound as exciting as the Wise or Lonergan Solutions does it?  What do you think?

Share your thoughts and I’ll respond on the next blog.

Now onto WSU T&F …

Air Force/Notre Dame recap

I mentioned above how we lost our team scored meet this weekend at the Air Force Academy although we had a great time in beautiful Colorado Springs.

Nestled in the mountains, going to a meet at Air Force is a special experience for our kids.  Most of them aren’t used to the scenic mountain view from the hotel as well as the national pride you get from competing on the campus of one of our armed forces.  Taking a walk around the facilities puts things into perspective about how these brave, young cadets are living a life totally different from us.

As for the meet, here were the team scores:

MEN:  Air Force 149, Wichita St 133, North Dakota St 109, South Dakota 68

WOMEN:  South Dakota 131, North Dakota St 130, Wichita St 126, Air Force 67

You can see how close the women’s meet ended up – and it came down to the 4x400m relay for the top three teams.  Unfortunately we came up a little short.  The Air Force men had a real good meet and was just a little too much for us on their home track.

Colorado Springs is at around 6,000 feet of altitude.  If you don’t normally train at that high of altitude it can affect you greatly, especially for distance runners.  So we decided years ago to not put our kids through that and to send them to Notre Dame and their oversized track.

All together there were lots of great performances at both Air Force and Notre Dame.  We would’ve loved to have won the meet at Air Force but we have bigger fish to fry at the MVC Championships in three weeks.  Many teams around the conference appeared to have a great weekend as well and our battle for a couple of titles will be a difficult one.

Next time

Next weekend is super busy for me so I’ll probably take a week off the blog.  I’ll be interested to see the reaction to this blog so maybe I’ll respond to that in a couple weeks and preview the MVC Championships.

We host the Herm Wilson Invitational Friday and Saturday in the Heskett Center against UT-Arlington, North Texas, Oral Roberts and UMKC.  Hopefully our women can keep our unbeaten streak at home alive and our men can win as well.

Until then, thank you for reading and Go Shocks!