Ivy League T&F Championships Extended to Include Oxford, Cambridge

if there needs to be better proof that we live in a carbon bubble, here it is. Flying 9 entire teams 3000 miles for a second rate track meet.

Early April's fools maybe? lol

April Fools.

rats. I, and my righteous fervor, lose big time.

Glad to see that HTC (hepstrack.com) has broken the news about Oxford and Cambridge joining Heps!--though I had thought the announcement was not to have been made until tomorrow.

Strangely enough, those of us who were involved with starting the Ivy championships for women's teams--almost 40 years ago, now--had pushed for something like this, right from the start. Sadly, our budgets back then (Cornell's was $600/yr) would have only allowed sending a single athlete to a British-soil Heps meet--and not bringing her back--so the idea had to be dropped.

The British teams will be covered by Brit eligibility rules, so their grad students, etc., will be eligible for Heps. This will be wonderful for the many Ivy athletes who head to Oxford on Rhodes scholarships, as they will no longer be restricted to a maximum of four years' Heps competition, but will be able to compete at Heps for as long as they're enrolled (theoretically, ten years or more!) at Oxford. Ditto, of course, for the many Ivy Leaguers who head to Cambridge for graduate studies.

I'm also glad to hear that scoring will follow the British model: one point for winning an event, and no other scores. Obviously this will make it easier to figure out which team has won; and there will be an added benefit in eliminating the dreary who-was-the-fastest-loser mentality that has infected some American coaches' thinking. Ivy League championships should simply be about who's the best, period--just as the League itself is the best.

I can now say that most of this agreement had been in place for a few years, but was held up by the NCAA's one-overseas-trip-in-four-years restriction. I'm very pleased that the NCAA finally came to see how important these competitions would be for Ivy students' educations, and waived that rule.

And I'm pleased that the Ivy coaches were willing to accommodate the British unies by moving the "traditional" Heps championship dates (the Oxbridge schools have a *slightly* longer tradition!), with the cross meet now in February and the outdoor Heps in late June, following the NCAA meet. Nice to see that kind of flexibility from League coaches.

Well done, all!

agip wrote:

Flying 9 entire teams 3000 miles for a second rate track meet.

Just to play devil's advocate, this isn't that unheard of - Stanford Invite, many indoor meets. I'm always surprised how many West Coast teams show up for meets here in the Midwest...

Mt Sac Relays has the most schools of any meet.

is this an april fools joke or not?

adfasdfsa wrote:

[Is] this an [April Fools'] joke or not?

This is as serious as a heart attack, sir/ma'am.

I only wish that Peter Fox Smith, Betty Constanza, and Coach Farrell (no, not Peter--his predecessor) could also be around to hail this day.

Obviously April fools.

Although this does sounds kind of awesome (minus the Canadian schools).

I know nothing about the British schools' teams....are they good? Fast people? How would they do?

crazy raisin wrote:

agip wrote:

Flying 9 entire teams 3000 miles for a second rate track meet.

Just to play devil's advocate, this isn't that unheard of - Stanford Invite, many indoor meets. I'm always surprised how many West Coast teams show up for meets here in the Midwest...

Yeah but those East Coast teams that go to the Stanford Invite and stuff only send a handful of their best and greatest, not 25 athletes per gender.

This has to be an April Fool's joke, the other day the Heps Twitter linked to an article that clearly stated "nobody is leaving/entering the Heptagonal Conference" and suddenly they're going back on their word? But looking at the Oxford and Cambridge AC's website they are having a meet with Cornell and UPenn in a week so who knows...

Having a conference meet across the ocean strikes me as very very inane.

European universities don't really have teams, athletics are generally handled through clubs like our post-collegiate system.

Should have added FGCU over Oxford. Need more dunking @ heps.

There's no collegiate system for track and field in the UK.

yagtash wrote:

European universities don't really have teams, athletics are generally handled through clubs like our post-collegiate system.

Not entirely true. The UK has a solid University Sports System (BUCS) with quite reputable T&F teams. Think of Loughborough, St. Mary's, Oxford, Cambridge...

So Oxford & campbridge should actually be quite capable of keeping up with the Ivy League Schools!

However, St. Mary's is e.g. cooperating with Aldershot, Farnham & District AC where some individuals can be found on both teams, a concept that can be found quite often among UK universities.

For the record:

For the rest of the EU, you are quite correct, though. Sports is still very much club-oriented with little to no emphasis on university-organised competition.

The University of Birmingham (UK) has an annual match with 2 Ivy League teams every year about May time.

Oxford and Cambridge have been competing with Ivy League teams most years for many decades. They go on tours, and the Ivy League teams tend to come over on return tours. When I was at at Oxford, we gave them a pretty good run for their money. Then again, we all loved the sport, and half the Penn/Cornell runners coming over were ecstatic that it was their last ever race and they couldn't wait to quit the sport :-(

While Oxford and Cambridge have next to no money and rely on volunteer coaches, they regularly have some of the best runners in the country. It's a place for self-motivated athletes. And there is nothing to stop you working with your home town coach. Being able to compete as a postgrad is an important part of it. Craig Masback said it was the making of him - he went down to the track, there were no coaches around and no system, and he realised that he'd have to do it for himself.

The second most suspicious thing about this message is that Oxford could find the money for two more lanes. The MOST suspicious is that McGill could find the physical space for four more lanes inside that tiny stadium ;-)

How about including Army and Navy first?