B10 was way better this year. ACC/Big 12 was slightly more interesting. Just because a few distance guys sat out doesn't mean that conference championships are dead ...
There used to be epic battles at dual meets once too. Personally I think it's a loss for the sport to have almost eliminated them and fill a schedule with multi team meets with "no team score" as the web pages all say. But I also think it's just the real high power programs, the ones that hope to do well, maybe win, at Nationals that don't care about their conference meets. For schools in conferences like the Sun Belt, Ohio Valley, Northeast, etc., Conferences where you might occasionally have an individual qualifier for Nationals I'd bet the season's goal is usually to do well at your conference meet.
You're just ignoring meets that exist... Texas A&M and Texas had a very competitive dual meet in 2022...
I ran college track three decades ago. We were a mediocre team with no chance at qualifying for nationals. The conference meet was our Super Bowl.
The whole team was glued to every event, tallying points and keeping track of where we stood in the standings as the meet progressed. It was the only meet of the season where track actually felt like a team sport. Now I guess it's not even a team sport then.
And let's be honest, even when track is a team sport, it really isn't. The 1500 runner doesn't need the shot putter to block for him, and the javelin thrower doesn't need the sprinter to run a route. It's a collection of individuals competing independently of each other.
I don't know everything that goes on in the sport and pay very little attention to the SEC. I'm not ignoring that meet. I didn't know it happened. And I didn't day there aren't any more dual meets but they're very rare. I know that Navy had two of them this indoor season but it's not at all like it was when I was running and the majority of your meets had two or three teams and your team was likely wanting a good won loss record. And now I'll wonder if you're not being satirical when your example of me ignoring meets that do exist is one from three years ago.
The way NC scratched out of the 3k was a mockery of the competition. Why go to the meet if you’re not going to compete to win? And to scratch late enough that spots in the fast heat of the 3k couldn’t be filled
It's not just at the college level, but also at the high school level. In my area a lot of the league championships won are simply the teams that double a few kids while it's clear the 2nd or 3rd place teams could have one if they had just one or two kids compete in a second event.
It college I imagine a lot of it comes down to the performance goals of the coaching staffs, and what incentives there are for them to maximize their place. I think from the athlete perspective, being conference champion or all-conference matters a whole lot less than say 15 years ago, when athletes actually knew what conference they were in and who they would be competing against on a year to year basis.
Absolutely great coverage, have been replaying the races on Youtube. If you told people a decade ago conference meets would be entertaining to watch on video they'd call you dumb. Watching the Texas A&M fans go crazy over their team is great to watch, looking forward to outdoors, but man is there really something about indoor or what.
A few years ago, I had a similar conversation with an ACC coach. His reasoning was based on conference expansion of the P4 leagues. His point was that conference meets were for those who were good - but not good enough to make Nationals. They could have a solid performance at conference, score points for their team, and have a high point for their career. Now many of those won't qualify for their conference meet due to numbers. As others have said, conference meets are still big for lower profile leagues. Similar to basketball. The smaller conferences fighting for that 1 NCAA tournament bid play with passion. When you have too many teams the tournament becomes too long, especially for the fans.
Used to be epic battles at conference meets, with guys doubling back just to score a few points even if not in contention at the win. Now the best people either sit out waiting for nationals or do off events like it’s some kind of circus. Some teams barely show up at all. Football ruined conference meets.
I 100% agree.
Not football directly. But the conference realignment, pay for play and these mega conferences with 18 teams.
I've been told there are Power 5 schools sending less than 10 athletes to conference meet as they correctly realize hardly anyone is going to score in an 18 team conference. If they save 25k in travel money. Sent 5 intead of 25 and you might save $10k per sex easily. That's 20k that can go to pay the back up WR in football.
I just wish one AD would say - you know what. This is all insane. Let's go back to regional conferences.
Used to be epic battles at conference meets, with guys doubling back just to score a few points even if not in contention at the win. Now the best people either sit out waiting for nationals or do off events like it’s some kind of circus. Some teams barely show up at all. Football ruined conference meets.
Most conferences, by far, are not P4 conferences. They are still essentially regional and have a sane number of member schools.
Track isnt a team sport, no one cares about team totals outside of 1 meet all year.
That seems to be true now. It wasn't always that way.
It’s not visual at all. A matchup between a school that’s good at distance and weights against one good at sprints, jumps and hurdles won’t have athletes competing in the same event.