Arkansas to host FAKE NATIONALS

This is just Buckys continued pursuit of having a Power5 only national championship. He is on record as saying that the Power5 schools should have their own national championship, and the non-Power5 schools can have a separate one.

They are going to host a relay meet the same weekend as Penn Relays and Drake and call it the national championships?

So win there and you are national champion.

Win at Penn and you are Champion of America.

It could be worse. If they had such a meet in DIII, you could call it Fake Baby Nationals.

I'm having my team dual State University-Branch Campus just down the road. We are calling it the 2018 National Dual-Meet Championship. It's going to look great on my resume to coach so many national champions.

Dumb. This sport loves ruining things.

Did let’s run really compare a track meet to penn state’s child molestation scandal?

According to Twitter, it appears that he believes he's already won the Relays National Championship...

2017 NCAA Championship Results:

Men 4x100- 7th

Women 4x100- 6th

Men Outdoor 4x400- 2nd

Women Outdoor 4x400- 13th

Men DMR- 7th

Women DMR- 11th

Men Indoor 4x400- 3rd

Women Indoor 4x400- 11th

That's a great year, but what box is he checking off?

Could be talking about this?

https://trackandfieldnews.com/index.php/category-news/3316-2017-t-fn-relay-rankings

TrackANDFieldNewsFan wrote:

Could be talking about this?

https://trackandfieldnews.com/index.php/category-news/3316-2017-t-fn-relay-rankings

Very obscure reference to take credit for...

shizzy wrote:

Dumb. This sport loves ruining things.

Yep. Penn and Drake aren't perfect but we need to work for the betterment of the sport - not ourselves. There are so many good events that exist in our sport and then another entity tries to take that event all for themselves - whether it's this, the HS nationals in track, xc, etc. Drives me nuts.

I've written up a piece with my thoughts on it here:

There is nothing wrong with a compact track meet but I have a problem with them going up same weekend as Penn and Drake, not having the best schools, and pretending it's a national championship.

Is there a list of cumulative Penn/Drake titles by year somewhere. I couldn't find it.

If this wasn't the weekend of Drake/Penn, and it wasn't pretending to be a national championship, I could be excited about this.

Make it the "SEC Relay Championship" sort of like it was before and pick another weekend, and this could be an awesome meet.

They are going to regret this and this will not make them any friends.

This ark relay format is way better for a collegiate relay meet. 2.5hr window in a stadium big enough to hold COLLEGE track fans that actually show up for College track championships. And you don’t have to sit thru 2 days of a bazillion hs, small school, coporate relays, and all other loads of crappy races.

Penn keeps its hs coa races and USA vs the world relays, Drake gets its pro races and small college relays, and Arkansas runs a true NCAA championships level relay meet in a televised 2hr window. It’s a win for fans of top level NCAA Relay racing.

Or they could just figure out how to do this with an actual track meet. Why is the SEC trying to ruin Penn relays. The raitings are gonna be trash anyways

And not even all the power 5 schools are going to be there. First one I noticed was Oregon. Having won mens and womens NCAA titles recently shouldn't they be there? What strong DMR schools aren't going to be there?

Arkansas a redneck state anyway

shizzy wrote:

Dumb. This sport loves ruining things.

Seriously. What is their objective? We have a few meets in the spring that are high profile and they want to take that away?

Doesn't make sense.

Hopefully schools invited are smart enough to say no.

wejo wrote:

There is nothing wrong with a compact track meet but I have a problem with them going up same weekend as Penn and Drake, not having the best schools, and pretending it's a national championship.

Is there a list of cumulative Penn/Drake titles by year somewhere. I couldn't find it.

Absolutely agree with you- we need some 2 hour, fast paced, meets to attract crowds. But Penn and Drake are perfect the way they are and there is no reason to mess with it.

We should all want to better the sport.

If the sport is trying to self destruct, then its doing a very good job with this move. In my opinion and experience, Penn Relays is the, by far, most compelling live track and field experience in the country. The venue allows the spectators right up the the side of the track (as opposed to the yawning stadiums with 20 yards between spectators and the track) with acoustics that are quick to pick up a rise in the spectator interest. You can feel a hum turn to buzz then to roar if someone moves hard on the back stretch. Then the memory of Bryshon Nellum and Yohan Blake in the legendary Long Beach - St Jago showdown. You couldn't hear yourself yell for the final 3 legs.

A relay meet in Arkansas? ZZZzzz.