The lack of track and field facilities at the University of Wisconsin is intentional

D3's model is the future of track & field for most athletes. Wisco walk ons might be better off at LaCrosse or Whitewater if they don't want to go out of state.

There aren’t going to be walk ons anymore. You will either be on scholarship or not on the team. Track and cross country are also very hard to eliminate as they count for 6 sports for Title IX considerations. Track is an expensive sport but it’s one of the least likely sports to get cut due to NIL.

I agree with this, but it is sad. I recently finished Frank Murphy's book about Wisconsin and Stephanie Herbst and it makes me really upset that our big, storied programs are just going to die a slow death of being ignored... What a fracking waste.

As Mrs. Shirley would say, "Of all the cheap lousy ways to save a buck!"

When sport is treated like a business and not an enriching part of college life combined with a need to balance numbers per interpretations of title IX, all that matters is football and keeping men's roster numbers as low as possible so as not to need to beg female students to walk on crew teams. We live in an age where an all state male hs runner might struggle to find a roster spot, but a coach might have to walk the campus rec center gym to scrape up female athletes.

The problem is that outside of olympic sports athletes and the few fans who don't participate themselves - people see college football and think - "ya that should be a mega business". They will argue coaches should get fired for a losing season. If it takes paying a college student millions for state u to beat state, they want it done.

All thats left is to completely divorce college football (and to a lesser extent basketball) from coursework altogether and make it a true minor league. Colleges can already send their athletes through jock classes, so what would the difference really be. Many are only there because a minor league divorced from coursework doesn't exist. The fans don't care that if Florida's first string qb was a little less good at football, he could go work in a white collar office job. Athletes being students is as trivial to college football and basketball fans as whether a flight will serve peanuts or pretzels.

I call them zombie programs. Dead but still manage to exist. Wisconsin is far from zombie status but this inches them closer.

Go look at the bottom third of the power conferences or the bottom 2/3rds of the mid majors. Those programs exist on paper but have limited rosters, almost no scholarship, no facilities, and a bare bones budget. The coaches barely get paid/ part timers.

Give it a few years, more and more programs will become like this.

I Wisconsin is the only power 4 school in the state with an incredible tradition, world class XC course, on and on.

they will be fine for a while. Michigan state doesn’t have an indoor right?

Completely untrue. I don't expect scholarships to really change. Some P4 schools may even lower track scholarships in order to make upmfpr the additional 20 football scholarships.

You are boldly, assuming that each roster spot will get a scholarship.

ADs are looking to save money, so 12.6 scholarships are not going up to the new limit of 17 plus 45, in fact scholarships might even decline.

Why the downvotes on this? Would honestly like to know if there is another more promising/optimistic perspective out there.

Under the new rules starting next fall, if you are on the roster, you are on scholarship. The school can have up to 17 people on the roster and most schools probably won’t carry a max of 17 but they must be on scholarship. The traditional walk ons will need to run on the universities club team if they have one.

IDK, I agree with everything you said. I see Wisco without track in a few years or else being much lower in the conference rankings at best.

No. None have to be on scholarship..

I’m optimistic! With the existing dedicated CC course and a large indoor oval planned, UW is primed to be a distance focused track program and CC powerhouse. Fielding a large but mediocre track and field team is a losing strategy (competitively, financially and prestige wise) in the new climate of D1 sports. Southern programs will be sprint and jump focused (even moreso). Things aren’t going back to the way they were, must adapt.

Iowa and Nebraska have been two of the top track programs in the B10 over the past 10 years. They aren't distance focused. Some northern schools will be sprint focused.

agree

the AD's story about an 11th hour fail out is pure fiction.

you get bids from companies, they sign contract...this is all done well before the 11th hour.

he simply did not do his job and should step aside.

Nah schools do not have to give scholarship to those on roster many schools are not fully funded and this will continue to be the case.

They can offer a full to everyone now but they won’t.

Scholarships also do not appear out of thin air, many schools require them to be fully endowed before being released by the athletic department. Usually $1 million per scholarship

Wisconsin hosts meets in Chicago.