NCAA REGIONALS ARE NOT RIGHT!

I think next year they should skip the regionals and the champs, ship the medals to you and have you give them out to the correct runners.

Its not the NCAA Track & Field Time Trial its the NCAA Track & Field Championships.

Your question is "Is it fair?" and I think that the answer is yes, the current situation is very fair. Finish in the top 12 in your region and you progress to the NCAA Championships.

No special byes or passes for anyone - everyone has to qualify by getting the job done on the day.

0/10

The regionals are unwarranted and stupid! Take the top 12 athelete's times in the nation from east and west coast and you have yourself an event. You avoid the rain, hail, heat, snow or whatever brings to this idiotic event, such as what is happening in Texas right now.

In Texas, they are so track and field unsavey, they don't even know how to pronounce some of the most famous runner's names correctly. Nellem is Neeeelum, Hasay is Hazeey, Roesler is Rose-ler......on and on. How embarrassing for Texas!

Hey NCAA wake up!

yes you are right, heaven forbid we ask the coaches to coach the athletes to be at their best at the most important meet at the end of the year. We should allow it to be decided by some arbitrarty time trial mid season. or better yet, why not just award it based on twitter feed, or the facebook likes, or let's run topics.

Ncaa is nuts wrote:

How ridiculous are the NCAA Regionals? This has been a debate with the NCAA for years, but the NCAA (like our government)thinks they own us.

I have over the years have seen many top athletes fail because of this "failed system". If a top athlete is sick, tripped, or injured in the regional, they cannot make it to a national meet even though they may have the best time in the country among NCAA collegiate student athletes. What? Is that fair? Is that a fair system?

You are thinking about it wrong 100%.

What if an athlete fails/trips or is sick at the Olympic Trial or Olympics? It's called earning it. The regionals are AMAZING.

You use a govt analogy. IN reality, people who don't want regionals are like people on welfare, you think you deserve something for no work.

My grade school daughter is caught up in running so I decided to take her to the NCAA pre-lims last night thinking this is the big time.

Boy, were we surprised. We were expecting some excitement, cheering crowds etc., but were greeted with just the opposite.

It was very painful sitting in the heat amongst ourselves witnessing the event. In between ten minute events there was no music or entertainment. There was no crowd to cheer anyone on. The meet scoreboard was slow or incorrect. The meet announcer sometimes missed laps. Frankly, it was the most disgusting situation and event I have ever been to.

I had to explain to my daughter this just wasn't the right running event to take her to.

yeah i am there wrote:

My grade school daughter is caught up in running so I decided to take her to the NCAA pre-lims last night thinking this is the big time.

Boy, were we surprised. We were expecting some excitement, cheering crowds etc., but were greeted with just the opposite.

It was very painful sitting in the heat amongst ourselves witnessing the event. In between ten minute events there was no music or entertainment. There was no crowd to cheer anyone on. The meet scoreboard was slow or incorrect. The meet announcer sometimes missed laps. Frankly, it was the most disgusting situation and event I have ever been to.

I had to explain to my daughter this just wasn't the right running event to take her to.

That's unfortunate. Should they start only hosting regionals at popular locations like Oregon?

No Rojo, you're saying something quite the contrary. The fact is, people who have earned it don't need food stamps nor are they on welfare. They don't need another race, simply the finish.

Ncaa is nuts wrote: They don't need another race, simply the finish.

Well glad that that is cleared up.

I think the regional breakdown is bad. I haven't really done research, but my opinion is that the west is stronger than the east. Arkansas should not be in the west.

Looking at the 800m last year. At the NCAA meet 1 heat was completely west, another heat was east, then one heat was split east/west.(Which was weird in itself)

No east athletes qualified in the split region, and only 2 east athletes qualified, cause they were in a heat of completely east athletes. And then those two east guys came in 7th and 8th in the final.

Looking at this year, it seems the east is still not as strong. They have split break downs, guys are going out in 53, and only running 1:49 and still qualifying. (heat 3)

The cutoff was faster on the east, but I'd still argue the west is more top heavy.

rojo wrote:

Ncaa is nuts wrote:

How ridiculous are the NCAA Regionals? This has been a debate with the NCAA for years, but the NCAA (like our government)thinks they own us.

I have over the years have seen many top athletes fail because of this "failed system". If a top athlete is sick, tripped, or injured in the regional, they cannot make it to a national meet even though they may have the best time in the country among NCAA collegiate student athletes. What? Is that fair? Is that a fair system?

You are thinking about it wrong 100%.

What if an athlete fails/trips or is sick at the Olympic Trial or Olympics? It's called earning it. The regionals are AMAZING.

You use a govt analogy. IN reality, people who don't want regionals are like people on welfare, you think you deserve something for no work.

The regionals are so fcking amazing there are zero fans in the stands in Texas.

The regionals have no where near the excitement of the OT's or the Olympics.

All you can "win" there is to advance. No team titles, no individual titles.

The only good thing about the regionals is a bunch of kids get to compete, get one more meet on the year, than they would have otherwise.

NCAA coaches freaking hate this system and it will be changed eventually.

A Duck wrote:

The regionals have no where near the excitement of the OT's or the Olympics.

Are you out of your mind? Do you think every competition warrants the excitement of the Olympics?

fun. wrote:

Its not the NCAA Track & Field Time Trial its the NCAA Track & Field Championships.

Above is the correct answer.

Hold on there.... How do you get in the OTs?

Really the NCAA should have a mixed system where a few spots are for auto qualifiers. The point of the regional for the most part is to sort out the minor placings. Hasay notwithstanding, the elite NCAA runners usually get through.

I think you said it right, that was the wrong meet to take her to. There are pro meets that should be designed for spectator enjoyment, but I think an NCAA Regional had to be set up all about the athletes. Music between events would be nice, but they need a longer schedule and breaks since athletes are doubling. Always sad there isn't crowd support, but not surprising where, as someone else said, the only thing you can win at this meet is advancing. Nothing on the line at the front to create good drama.

yeah i am there wrote:

My grade school daughter is caught up in running so I decided to take her to the NCAA pre-lims last night thinking this is the big time.

Boy, were we surprised. We were expecting some excitement, cheering crowds etc., but were greeted with just the opposite.

It was very painful sitting in the heat amongst ourselves witnessing the event. In between ten minute events there was no music or entertainment. There was no crowd to cheer anyone on. The meet scoreboard was slow or incorrect. The meet announcer sometimes missed laps. Frankly, it was the most disgusting situation and event I have ever been to.

I had to explain to my daughter this just wasn't the right running event to take her to.

There are only a couple of meets with excitement, cheering crowds, etc. Penn Relays is the best, Olympic Trials can be exciting because of the nature of the event... there are a couple of others but 99% of college meets are not exciting. Even the NCAA championship meet tends to only be exciting to a few people invested in a handful of teams or the families of a few lucky individuals. Let me know the meet experiences that you've had that are better than the one you had at the regional meet. I agree having a meet with no winners is odd, but it is the right thing to do in order to increase participation and grow the sport among all the schools that participate.

rojo wrote:

Ncaa is nuts wrote:

How ridiculous are the NCAA Regionals? This has been a debate with the NCAA for years, but the NCAA (like our government)thinks they own us.

I have over the years have seen many top athletes fail because of this "failed system". If a top athlete is sick, tripped, or injured in the regional, they cannot make it to a national meet even though they may have the best time in the country among NCAA collegiate student athletes. What? Is that fair? Is that a fair system?

You are thinking about it wrong 100%.

What if an athlete fails/trips or is sick at the Olympic Trial or Olympics? It's called earning it. The regionals are AMAZING.

You use a govt analogy. IN reality, people who don't want regionals are like people on welfare, you think you deserve something for no work.

I like the Regional System as well. If you can't finish in the top 12 of your event at Regionals you really don't deserve to go to nationals.

The big money programs hate the concept because they can spend significant resources going to the biggest and best meets (with the best conditions.....see Stanford, Mt. SAC)

Complaints about the heat in the 10k at Texas (or a few years ago in Greensboro) really fall on deaf ears because every competitor has to deal with the same conditions. The heat and humidity is just another factor than the competitor needs to be aware of.