NCAA has really screwed up a great system with regionals!

[Grandpa3804]

I know this has already been discussed, 1.000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times but the idiot that tought it would be better for NCAA T&F to implement a regional meet so that some team from South East Wyoming State could have a chance to go compete at NCAA's is the dumbest person since "W"!

I will admit I'm from Texas and I was pulling for Texas A&M, but of course somebody pulls up and there 4x1 ncaa hopes are over!

In 1998 when TCU set the NCAA 4x1 record they only ran the actual record breaking team 3 times all year do to injury, if this format had been in place we would have never witnesses the greatest 4x1 of all time, so to the person who implemented this platform, your an idiot!

[tafnut]

Yup, it's just as stupid as that stupid Olympic Trials format, where you actually have to BEAT someone else in a high-pressure situation. They oughta just let the people with the 3 best marks go, dagnabit!!!

[jazzcyclist]

Re: NCAA has really screwed up a great system with regionals

I know this has already been discussed, 1.000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times but the idiot that tought it would be better for NCAA T&F to implement a regional meet so that some team from South East Wyoming State could have a chance to go compete at NCAA's is the dumbest person since "W"!

I will admit I'm from Texas and I was pulling for Texas A&M, but of course somebody pulls up and there 4x1 ncaa hopes are over!

In 1998 when TCU set the NCAA 4x1 record they only ran the actual record breaking team 3 times all year do to injury, if this format had been in place we would have never witnesses the greatest 4x1 of all time, so to the person who implemented this platform, your an idiot!

AMEN!!!

[gm]

Yep, scrap the whole thing because one relay team messes up. Yeahhhhhhh....

[jazzcyclist]

Yup, it's just as stupid as that stupid Olympic Trials format, where you actually have to BEAT someone else in a high-pressure situation. They oughta just let the people with the 3 best marks go, dagnabit!!!

No it's not like the Olympic Trials. The only thing necessary to get to the trials is a qualifying time. The NCAA used to have the same system, where only a qualifyng time was necessary in order to make it to the big dance. I pray that USATF will never make our elite athletes risk injury or some other type of mishap at some meaningless regional meet in order to make it to the trials.

[Helen S]

Yup, it's just as stupid as that stupid Olympic Trials format, where you actually have to BEAT someone else in a high-pressure situation. They oughta just let the people with the 3 best marks go, dagnabit!!!

No it's not like the Olympic Trials.

No, it is like the Olympic trials- if the Olympics are equal to the NCAA championships, then each country decides on their method, with our oly trials equalling the regionals.

[jazzcyclist]

Yup, it's just as stupid as that stupid Olympic Trials format, where you actually have to BEAT someone else in a high-pressure situation. They oughta just let the people with the 3 best marks go, dagnabit!!!

No it's not like the Olympic Trials.

No, it is like the Olympic trials- if the Olympics are equal to the NCAA championships, then each country decides on their method, with our oly trials equalling the regionals.

No, No No!!! The only way that analogy would hold would be if you went from Conference straight to NCAA's with the conference having total control over who they decide to send to NCAA's. The regions in the regional format are completely arbitrary and the schools have their selection rules dictated to them by the NCAA. If the East Region coaches got together and decided that defending champion Walter Dix deserved to be exempt from the regionals in the 200, the NCAA wouldn't let them give him one of their five 200 spots. In basketball, baseball and footbal the conferences have total control over who their representitives well be in the NCAA tournament/BCS. In baseball and basketball, some conferences decide by conference tournament and some by regular season record. In football some conferences decide by championship game and some decide by regular season record. Also, you join conferences voluntarily, while regions are forced on schools in a completely arbitrary manner.

[donley2]

Prior to regionals the college season consisted of a few decent relay carnivals and excellent conference meets. The vast majority of the rest of the schedule was junk.

[tandfman]

I suppose Grandpa would be perfectly happy if they took the top seeded basketball teams and sent them straight to the Final Four. Who needs Regionals?

[jazzcyclist]

I suppose Grandpa would be perfectly happy if they took the top seeded basketball teams and sent them straight to the Final Four. Who needs Regionals?

Now you're starting to make sense. I'm not saying the tournament should be reduced to 4 teams, but 16 teams would make a lot more sense than 65 teams. In my opinion, college football has the most sensible post season. Call me an elitist.

[tafnut]

Now you're starting to make sense. I'm not saying the tournament should be reduced to 4 teams, but 16 teams would make a lot more sense than 65 teams. In my opinion, college football has the most sensible post season. Call me an elitist.

Whoa! You lost me there (and I'm an elitist also). T&F is not a team event - you don't qualify by teams; you qualify by event. So you want 16 teams? So if I'm the event leader, but I'm not on a good team, I can't go? You CAN'T be saying that. So instead of 'teams', I should have inserted 'individuals'? But obviously your definition of 'best' and mine differs. I want the guy who can put up a good mark AND perform under pressure. You just want the guy that can put up one good mark during the season?

Later today, I'm going to the East Regional for a real donnybrook meet with some outstanding marks. If we were back on the old format, I'd be staying home, cuz the meet would be some dinky thrown-together 'last-chance qualifier' meet.

[jazzcyclist]

Now you're starting to make sense. I'm not saying the tournament should be reduced to 4 teams, but 16 teams would make a lot more sense than 65 teams. In my opinion, college football has the most sensible post season. Call me an elitist.

Whoa! You lost me there (and I'm an elitist also). T&F is not a team event - you don't qualify by teams; you qualify by event. So you want 16 teams? So if I'm the event leader, but I'm not on a good team, I can't go? You CAN'T be saying that. So instead of 'teams', I should have inserted 'individuals'? But obviously your definition of 'best' and mine differs. I want the guy who can put up a good mark AND perform under pressure. You just want the guy that can put up one good mark during the season?

Later today, I'm going to the East Regional for a real donnybrook meet with some outstanding marks. If we were back on the old format, I'd be staying home, cuz the meet would be some dinky thrown-together 'last-chance qualifier' meet.

"16 teams" refers to the NCAA basketball tournament that tandfman alluded to, not the Track & Field Championships. How about adding an A standard to the current system that would be aimed at people like Dix, who is one of the stars of the sport. I'm talking 10.10 for the men's 100, 51.00 for the women's 400, 8.00 for the men's long jump, etc? Anyone who met the A standard during the season would be exempt from regionals.

[bad hammy]

T&F is not a team event . . .

Whoa, I'll have to bookmark this one for all of those future threads about the need for divisions in high school T&F and the beauty of winning team state championships . . .

[tandfman]

Later today, I'm going to the East Regional for a real donnybrook meet with some outstanding marks. If we were back on the old format, I'd be staying home, cuz the meet would be some dinky thrown-together 'last-chance qualifier' meet.

Excellent point, often overlooked in these discussions. The Regionals themselves are terrific collegiate track meets. We don't have enough of those, now that dual and triangular meets are all but extinct.

[tafnut]

T&F is not a team event . . .

Whoa, I'll have to bookmark this one for all of those future threads about the need for divisions in high school T&F and the beauty of winning team state championships . . .

We won the team title because 6 individuals (well, actually, there WAS one relay team in there) that individually qualified for the State Championships. We do NOT qualify by teams!!
But after we did win, we made up 60 SC shirts, one for every girl on the TEAM.