ncaa to go to east and west regional beginning in 2010

[doug091463]

track shark is reporting the ncaa will go to a 2 regional system that will be the ncaa qualifier.

[nmzoo]

I certainly hope the regions are more balanced than they are now!

[gh]

NCAA release now on front page

[richxx87]

here's some of my crude computer art to get a better picture of which schools will be where.

[richxx87]

The first thing I notice here is that Wisconsin, Colorado, Oregon OK-st distance runners will be going head to head at the West regionals in order to qualify. If the sprint power schools stay relatively unchanged when this goes into effect in 2010, the Texas schools and Ark should have a cakewalk to qualify all their sprinters out of the West region.

[tandfman]

The first thing I notice here is that Wisconsin, Colorado, Oregon OK-st distance runners will be going head to head at the West regionals in order to qualify.

A few comments. First, I assume they'll continue to have no regional or E-W competition in the 10,000. Also, you're right about the probable impact, at least in the 5,000. If that were the only event that seemed to be unbalanced, they could tweak the dividing line but moving it over to the Mississippi River. But that might raise other issues.

I wish I had the time to take the last few years of NCAA Championships and see how the scorers in each event divide E-W. Alas, I don't.

[trackjudge]

The first thing I notice here is that Wisconsin, Colorado, Oregon OK-st distance runners will be going head to head at the West regionals in order to qualify. If the sprint power schools stay relatively unchanged when this goes into effect in 2010, the Texas schools and Ark should have a cakewalk to qualify all their sprinters out of the West region.

Why didn't they just draw the line straight down to put Louisiana out west. As usual in US t&f, they go out of their way (literally) to get a bad result.

[Barto]

The main improvement is that no body is going to be left at home who has a legitimate chance at scoring in the national meet. This was not the case with the old system.

[gh]

Do we know that? Obviously you still need to place well at the Regional too get to the Nationals. And with only half the Regionals are they only going to take half as many to Nationals? I'll be curious as to the details on this aspect of it all.

[Barto]

They are taking the same number to nationals and the same total number of regional competitors as before.

[gh]

That'll make for some great meaninless competition, and strange tiebreakers.

in the 100, for example, 8 finalists from each Regional makes 16, and they need another 10 or 11 to fill the field to current levels, but to make it fair they're going to have to have a number that's divisable by four, so that would mean (with no dropouts) 12, so top 3 in each of the semis move on.

What happens in a jump or throw? 12 finalists from each Regional (again, assuming no dropouts), then first 2 non-Qs from each?

Hardly encourages meaningful competition, which is what I had always hoped for once they got into this Regionals thing.

[tandfman]

Again, I don't have time to crunch the numbers, but I don't know that the problem of weak vs. strong regions will necessarily be solved by cutting the number of regions from 4 to 2. My guess is that somebody figured out that somehow there will be some cost savings this way. Maybe there will be fewer total qualifiers for the regionals.

The devil is often in the details. Like gh, I'll be very curious to see exactly what they're planning to do.

[polevaultpower]

They are taking the same number to nationals and the same total number of regional competitors as before.

Are they going to do a qualifying round in the pole vault? The fields were already so big before, I can't imagine that they would try to double them and still have one competition.

[gh]

They're talking about a 3-day meet (sted of 2), so I'm assuming there will be full Q rounds on the field and 3 rounds in things like the sprints.

One would assume the fields for the Q's in the field will be rigidly controlled. Since they're now talking about using the yearly list rather than a fixed Q standard, there's no longer the problem of too manyh people making the mark.

It's going to be a rat-race chase to get into the top X right through the last weekend marks are accepted. Hopeuflly it will end w/ the Conference weekend, so no BS meets invented to get last-minute marks.

[ed gee]

From the press release:

The only exception for individual-event competitors will be heptathlon and decathlon student-athletes, who will participate only at the finals site.

The first thing I notice here is that Wisconsin, Colorado, Oregon OK-st distance runners will be going head to head at the West regionals in order to qualify.

A few comments. First, I assume they'll continue to have no regional or E-W competition in the 10,000. Also, you're right about the probable impact, at least in the 5,000. If that were the only event that seemed to be unbalanced, they could tweak the dividing line but moving it over to the Mississippi River. But that might raise other issues.

I wish I had the time to take the last few years of NCAA Championships and see how the scorers in each event divide E-W. Alas, I don't.