Why are Texas A&M, LSU, & the SEC skipping Penn Relays?

Philadelphia is a cesspool of democrat pieces of trash.

Some SEC teams can't travel around finals week for a non-conference competition.

This article has some more information:

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/colleges/20160426_Penn_Relays_losing_SEC_teams.html

It is very close to conference.

It is often cold, and you don't run fast

It used to be about recruiting and being visible......that is far less important in social media age.

same thing happening to armory collegiate invite

the biggest and best schools don't NEED anybody anymore. they have enough resources to just create a meet that will allow them to accomplish their goals of running fast in preparation for conference and nationals.

A lot of college teams don't race at penn relays because it's often one week away from their conference championship

Why are they skipping Penn Relays?

If you're asking this question you have never been a competitor at the Penn Relays. The meet officials treated us like crap, they have no clue how much their ridiculous ways of running a meet RUIN a warm up for a race. They let a team full of Jamaican non-amateurs race against college kids and call it fair.

I'm glad I don't have to go back there again. The SEC is the most dominating track conference and it's not even close, we know what we're doing.

Dazed & Confused wrote:

They let a team full of Jamaican non-amateurs race against college kids and call it fair.

What races have Jamaican pros running against college teams? Or any Jamaicans for that matter? Not any of the CoA college relays.

They are scared

U Tech. You must not get out much...

huh?? wrote:

Dazed & Confused wrote:

They let a team full of Jamaican non-amateurs race against college kids and call it fair.

What races have Jamaican pros running against college teams? Or any Jamaicans for that matter? Not any of the CoA college relays.

Dazed & Confused wrote:

Why are they skipping Penn Relays?

If you're asking this question you have never been a competitor at the Penn Relays. The meet officials treated us like crap, they have no clue how much their ridiculous ways of running a meet RUIN a warm up for a race. They let a team full of Jamaican non-amateurs race against college kids and call it fair.

I'm glad I don't have to go back there again. The SEC is the most dominating track conference and it's not even close, we know what we're doing.

I have been a competitor at Penn Relays in the past, although I will say it was only for the distance carnival events on Thursday night. It was always one of my favorite meets to attend and one of the only times I genuinely enjoyed watching sprint events outside of conference and national meets. The SEC schools always dominated and added tons of depth in those events.

I understand what you are saying regarding the warm up and poor officiating. They just cram WAY too many high school events around the collegiate and professional events. I'm sure it makes it extremely diificult for the athletes to get a proper warm up in and stay warm in those awful paddock areas.

But regardless, it is the most presitgious meet to compete in outside of major D1 conference meets and nationals. Hopefully they will be back in the future!

Dazed & Confused has it right. To me, I don't see any reason why the big, SEC schools would want to come to this meet. If you can have a high quality meet like the LSU Invitational appears to have, why would you travel hundreds of miles north to a poorly run meet?

I ran at an east coast D1 school, and we went to Penn Relays every year. Never once did I leave that meet saying to myself "man, I'm so glad we came to this."

The history and uniqueness of the meet are great, but that only gets you so far once you been there for the second time. It's no secret about the paddock areas anymore: they're terrible and make feeling prepared for a race extremely difficult. The 8 million heats of everything and the HS races and open races are all great, and they are part of the history of the meet, but it makes it very difficult on the athletes. You're shuffled through the paddocks outside the stadium, and the officials make it seem as though something terrible will happen if you're not inside the stadium in the next 30 seconds, only to then stand in the paddock inside the stadium for like 20 minutes. The meet has a time schedule, but good luck using that schedule to determine when you should warm up. Franklin Field is also very old, and poorly set up to handle the massive crowds. If you run a race at 3pm and want to see any of the races that day, good luck. Better start your exit from the stadium at noon.

And yes the officials treat everyone like crap. But you're in Philadelphia so what did you expect.