Big 12 5K stupid

It's even crazier with the SEC 5Ks, there were 67 runners in the women's race and almost as many in the men's race. Falls happening every other lap and Ben Shearer is trying to kick with blood dripping down his face

In my D3 conference, teams are only allowed to enter 3 athletes in each event. In addition, teams are allowed to enter 2 “wild cards” (4th athletes) in two separate events.

A 60+ runner race is totally unheard of to me. I think my conference can probably afford to allow 4 or 5 athletes in each event, but a race with over 50 people, even in a track 10000m, sounds horrible.

Wow that’s crazy. Something needs to be done. That way to many!

So when did the Big 8 turn into the Big 12, and why is it called the Big 12 when there are 16 teams in this conference??😳

I've always liked this setup, it's bizarre to me that so many conference meets will have like 80 guys from a team, 10 in an event, that sort of thing.

I'm sure at some point there's been a D1 conference meet where a school took it down getting 30+ points in three events and three events only.

Only half will run it, teams enter athletes and don't run it. Watch only half actually run it

Solution is to run 2-3 heats. With 60, you can run 3 heats of the 5k. You can have heats to qualify for a final or 3 heats fastest time wins and you can mix the heats up or arrange them fast to slow. Or just select the 24 fastest athletes by time for one heat.

The Big 8 became the Big 12 sometime in the 90s (early ish, as by 1996, it was defo Big 12). At one point the Big 12 had only 10 teams, but now it’s up to 16-17.

Bit of fun, though agree that too many in the 5k - they should seed different heats.

In a conference with 16 teams, if everyone uses a wildcard athlete in the 5k, you get 64. The 5k is an easy place to throw an athlete after the 1500 or 10k to see if they can hang around in a sit and kick and survive their way to a couple points, so there are always a lot of athletes that start this event, run for a while, and dnf once they fall out of points contention. But with huge conferences now, they probably need to rethink the event mechanics to make for a better competition.

OSU had 11 of the 37 who finished the W5000. They brought the full roster on the 4 hour bus ride.

Men's 5000 m final video with 38 signed up

Women's 5000 m final video with 39 signed up - Women's 5000 meters Final (2025 Big 12 Outdoor Track and Field Championships)

"Here come Gem You Thai" in the 2025 Big 12 Conference women's 1500 m final (Kansas' Emmaculate Jemutai sets a meet record):

Whoever came up with this idea is incredibly stupid. Everyone who approved the idea is incredibly stupid. Yet another sign that Americans are becoming less intelligent every year.

This is completely absurd. The only time (and I mean ONLY) you might be able to have this many runners in a track race is during a marathon on the track.

In order for a meet to count you need 14 athletes. Some teams suck and they all just load up the 5k at the end to reach 14.

ya way too many runners

then again, chaos, and crazy stuff, why not

don't like to see an athlete get hurt

people can adapt

i played football and that race would be completely normal

i'd actually look forward to that kind of mayhem

Incredible kick for Jemutai. You can watch the last 100m, cued up, and still think there's no way she's going to get there in the end. Also, Corrigan's kick is impressive, a 55 in a 13:25 race. He looks quite fresh.

I watched the SEC and Big 12 conference meets. The 5K in both meets became unsafe events for the participating athletes. During the terrible fall in the SEC 5K, athletes were trampled by the continuing flow of athletes through the fallen. While many resumed racing, one young man needed help off the track. This will continue happening in 16 team conferences unless sane people step up and limit the entries by two rule changes. First, in order to compete in the event an athlete has to have run the event during that season. Second, the number of entries need to be limited to under 32 for a 16 team conference. This should be done through time qualifications. Yes, one team could have ten entries while another has none, and so be it. These two proposals would also curtail the number of lapped athletes becoming obstacles to navigate through by the lead runners.

If they did that, do think it would be possible for someone to be lapped, and then come back to win?