At the ACC meet I was shocked at how little attention there was to the team score. They never put it on the board until late the second day, and from there only occasionally. The public address announcer wasn't mentioning it at all, even though the men's race was very close and still undecided at the final event.
I kept thinking that if the public address announcer had made a big deal out of the points race and there was a separate digital board with the constant tally, there would have been greater pressure on the teams to play to the result. Instead I was the only person in my area who was referring to the team score. Everybody else was staring at their phones and totally oblivious.
It would have really helped if Cal and Stanford had announced major intention to win the thing. That would have inspired pride from the holdover ACC schools.
Devaluing the conference meet is ridiculous given the reality that the vast majority of these schools will prioritize NCAAs where they'll score next to nothing.