The U of Washington's 300m+ indoor track is an afterthought that surrounds the Huskies indoor football practice field. They can't even run a six lane 60m hurdle race, because lane six is right up against the outside wall.
The Huskies outdoor track was located in Husky (football) Stadium, until the football gods removed the track to get football fans closer to the "action". The track was moved north adjacent to some parking lots with a pathetic lack of seating or bathrooms. Many high school stadiums in Washington are vastly superior. An embarrassment for a D1 school.
Their outdoor track looks super nice, with all of the field events contained within the infield... do you really need anything more than aluminum bleachers and port-a-potties for a college track meet? Plus you don't have the football team plopping their benches in lane one, or soccer balls bouncing across the track.
The downside of all these tracks getting booted out of football stadiums is there are fewer and fewer venues for major meets like Diamond League, Nationals and Worlds. But few of those tracks met the standards for dimensions and field event areas anyway.
When UW " hosted" the PAC 12 Conference T&F meet back in 2016, it quickly became apparent that more than a couple of aluminum bleachers and a few port-a-potties were needed. Seemed more like an all-comers meet than a major D1 Conference meet.
if we are only considering indoor, we can’t have this conversation without Notre Dame. Long live the gug
SMH...it was the old football practice facility. They just put a track around it. It was not built to host track meets. Zero permanent seating, one little restroom or go outside to a port-a-potty, zero consessions.
When UW " hosted" the PAC 12 Conference T&F meet back in 2016, it quickly became apparent that more than a couple of aluminum bleachers and a few port-a-potties were needed. Seemed more like an all-comers meet than a major D1 Conference meet.
Unfortunately a lot of track meets look like nothing more than an All Comer's Meet. The general public has no idea of the quality of some of the competitors times & marks happening near them.
BYU’s indoor facilities are garbage, it’s not even the best in the state of Utah. Weber State’s is much nicer. BYU’s outdoor facilities are solid though.
Outdoor: any Southern California / bay school, especially Stanford
Indoor: Depends if you prefer oversized or banked, but notre Dame or Harvard
LMAO the stanford track is notoriously awful. Obviously they don't have an indoor facility either.
WTF are you talking about? Stanford has a great outdoor facility. Great weather and a pretty part of campus doesn't hurt either. I guess all the fans and athletes at the Prefontaine Classic a few years back (when Hayward was being redone) not to mention years and years of world class Payton Jordan Invites missed the memo from "newaccountsinceyourwebsitesucks" that the track is notoriously awful. SMH
University of Nebraska overall athletic facilities are tough to beat. Outdoor stadium is under construction but will be amazing when finished. Indoor is still one of the best.
Drake has a great outdoor facility but they desperately need to invest in an indoor facility. If that ever happens, despite their pedigree, I think they would be right up there with the more high level programs.
I promise Im not trolling, I am convinced that there track is short. Think about it, how do you ever know that a track is the right distance? Some one puts some rubber out their and draws some white lines and tells you its 40...
much like the track used in the Chinese National Championships, the Stanford track has been found to be minimally short of 400m. Guess that explains all the fast times. What, don't think humans can make mistakes?
Have you actually been to BYU? Their indoor facility isn’t even the best in Utah, Weber St’s is much better than theirs. Their outdoor facility is mid at best. You’d think a program with all that money would have something waaaaaaay better.
The OP asked best facilities overall. To me, that would mean that the university would have to have all 3 to be up for consideration.
I think it has to be Texas A&M or Arkansas. Both have nice indoor and outdoor tracks and dedicated cross country courses. Both host conference, regional and national level meets.
Virginia Tech has a banked indoor track facility, an outdoor track, and XC course all right next to each other on campus. Its hard to get more optimal for training than that. Likely part of why Hocker and Teare choose to train there.
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