Message being sent to D3 Track athletes

It is nothing like that. The NCAA is America's training ground for the Olympics. More than 90% of the 100 track and field athletes that we will send next summer were trained by NCAA Division colleges. Division 1 track and field is not going away. Division 3 track and field is on its last legs. Schools are realizing that it is an unnecessary cost. Imagine some small D3 college with 1200 students being able to save $2M annually.

D3 Coach wrote:

2 years in a row indoor NCAA nationals has been canceled, and that makes 4 straight championships for D3 runners. The message being sent to our kids is very clear. Especially as we see D1,2 xc/tf happening all over the country. It's also sad to me that the coverage of this from Letsrun and USTFCCCA has bascially been non existent. As part of the running community Id love to see people rise to the occosaion and help these athletes.

Athletic Directors of Division III schools are cowards and can't seem to stand up for anything other than their jobs. Elementary age kids have been playing sports since May last year. When are people going to tell official they are wrong, they should be fired and we need sensible solutions to the problems we are facing. Again, Fauci should be fired, many of the non-scientific public health official in states across the country should be fired, ADs not standing up for their school's athletes should be fired, and teacher's who refuse to get back to teaching our children should retire and allow willing teachers to come in and get the job done. This ineffective garbage "health response" has failed and has let media and social pressure let the failing response continue because leaders are cowards, because people are cowards, because we are all cowards afraid to say "the science" does not make sense and demand a better set of reasonable solutions. The pandemic is truly a pandemic of weak people afraid to be wrong, afraid to sound stupid, so they just shut up and go along with the mob led by stupid overzealous and non-scientific public health official, education officials, and government "leaders" who are mostly not acting in the interests of anyone bu themselves.

Message, don't be a coward and demand reasonable changes to and a departure from the failed 2020 pandemic response.

That's right. D3 is failing. It is time to cancel it altogether.

Marty Smitty wrote:

That's right. D3 is failing. It is time to cancel it altogether.

All it needs to do is let students compete to not fail. Why it is failing is in part because it tries to operate like DI when it is not. DIII school spend too much money on excesses. Someone above claims a school would save 2 Million? A DIII track program can operate on a budget of about $100k or less if they mostly complete locally and keep to hiring part time staff. DIII schools should have very few full time positions in the athletic departments.

Why not go a step further and just have club teams like P5 colleges do for the kids who are not at D1 level? Problem solved. Save the entire $2M and kids compete when and if they want.

Marty Smitty wrote:

Why not go a step further and just have club teams like P5 colleges do for the kids who are not at D1 level? Problem solved. Save the entire $2M and kids compete when and if they want.

What is the harm of letting the schools have teams and leagues. They can still exist at much lower costs without cancelling them. Lastly, why have DIII sports been cancelled for over a year now while all other sports are active and competing? THere is no reason other than DIII officials and admin are cowards.

That's right. You are agreeing that the athletic administration is a mess. The leadership will decide that D3 is no longer viable. It will be gone.

Marty Smitty wrote:

That's right. You are agreeing that the athletic administration is a mess. The leadership will decide that D3 is no longer viable. It will be gone.

What leadership? DIII athletics will need to restructure, cut the fat, but it will never go away. Athletics is a major recruiting tool for most small schools and the teams are a major reason schools hold on to their students.

No it isn't. If nearly all D3 schools have sports an they all eliminate them, where are all of these kids going that came there for a sport? Most D3 schools have less than a 50% acceptance rate so this would be a huge cost saver for all of them.

Go run fast wrote:

It is nothing like that. The NCAA is America's training ground for the Olympics. More than 90% of the 100 track and field athletes that we will send next summer were trained by NCAA Division colleges. Division 1 track and field is not going away. Division 3 track and field is on its last legs. Schools are realizing that it is an unnecessary cost. Imagine some small D3 college with 1200 students being able to save $2M annually.

I have a hard time buying this. The NCAA is a de facto training ground for our Olympics, it provides a high level of competition, facilities, and financial support. But I'll bet anything you want there's not a single NCAA athletics coach whose job description says anything about developing Olympians for the US.

And unless the small D3 school with 1200 is one of the few elite, exclusive schools that get many more applicants than it accepts that $2 million savings (which seems way too high to me, my D2 spent less than $20,000 in 1970s money on cross country and track) is a false savings because because the school's athletics teams have likely brought 50-100 students, both genders, to the school most of whom would not be there if there was no cross country or track team for them.

Where would they go if D3 athletics were eliminated? And many of those football players and basketball players and softball players had worse credentials than kids who were turned away that applied. The seats would be full an the schools would save $2M. I can see that some of you are getting nervous about the prospect. D1 is cancelling non revenue sports and D3 will be cancelling all sports.

The coaches are not paid specifically to do it but it won't go away because D1 athletic programs like the notoriety when they have a current or former athlete in the Olympics. It has a ripple impact to all sports which is where the money is made.

Marty Smitty wrote:

No it isn't. If nearly all D3 schools have sports an they all eliminate them, where are all of these kids going that came there for a sport? Most D3 schools have less than a 50% acceptance rate so this would be a huge cost saver for all of them.

Where are you making up your numbers from. Most D III school accept almost every applicant these days and very much so they rely on athletics programs to attract students interested in continuing to play competitively.

Go run fast wrote:

It is nothing like that. The NCAA is America's training ground for the Olympics. More than 90% of the 100 track and field athletes that we will send next summer were trained by NCAA Division colleges. Division 1 track and field is not going away. Division 3 track and field is on its last legs. Schools are realizing that it is an unnecessary cost. Imagine some small D3 college with 1200 students being able to save $2M annually.

Show me one DIII school that spends $2M on track and field - even combined genders lol. Guys. The reason these schools aren’t competing is because they can’t afford the Covid protocols that come with it from testing to the extra staff hours contact tracing etc. It has nothing to do with being cowards lol. The DI’s are digging themselves into even more massive debt to do so...but many of them still aren’t spending $2M a year to do so lol.

This is a good point and actually closest to the truth.

Bro, there is a reason almost every college in the nation has sport there are countless schools with student body numbers of 800 kids and many of those naia schools have sports, why? Again because sports attract students that would not attend the college. How is this hard for people to understand. Yes their are many aspects of college athletics that could be re-imagined but schools will always have sports... almost every junior/community college in the US also has athletics, why? Because it attracts students!!!! Everyone getting into JCs so the sole purpose of sports at a JC are to attract kids to attend who would not attend, either wouldn’t go to college or would go to a closer school.

The upshot is sports bring kids and that makes money.

NCC has a 50% acceptance rate. Wash U has a 14% acceptance rate.

Athletics dummy. Cancel athletics and D3 schools save $2M.