Get rid of regionals, please.
The NCAA held its four-regional qualifying championships last weekend in Louisville, Ky., Norman, Okla., Greensboro, N.C. and here in Eugene. I don’t know the most about why regionals were created in 2003 – the prevailing theme is that athletes from smaller schools could get a shot “on the day” of qualifying with a better performance against better competition than they are used to – but ending the system, no matter how well-intended, can save schools money and end a needless hurdle to the national championship meet.
The Big 12 Conference already began grumblings last week about trying to discontinue the system, and a proposal trimming the system to only two sites could be in place next year.
But why not get rid of it all together?
I don’t particularly buy the notion that better competition will carry athletes to better marks at regionals. After covering the Pac-10 meet two weeks ago, the atmosphere around regionals was as different as could be. The crowd, while topping 11,000 for the two-day meet, seemed affected by the large holes of time Friday when there weren’t races on the track. Saturday, when there were, it was as if they had contracted what the athletes already had in mind: Just get enough done to move on.
You can’t blame the athletes. There’s no real reason to try to go 100 percent in an event they’re seeded highly in, knowing their marks will likely get in even if they don’t automatically qualify. And when first is as good as fifth, there’s no pressure to win.
What I saw was an uninspired meet, put on by a team that didn’t really want to have to jump through the hurdles it raises (and understandably so). It did have its advantages. Discus thrower Lucy Cridland and men’s 1,500m runner Jordan McNamara are going to their first NCAA Outdoor championships after barely advancing in fifth place. Their performances and celebrations were genuine. Cridland started crying with joy – she was a former walk-on who was looking at the final throw of her career until improving by four inches on her last throw. McNamara danced over the finish line, the third Duck in the top five to make it.
Both performances made you smile, but the way they had to do it makes you have to think: How can we do this better?
The Oregon women’s 4x100m relay will not go to nationals because of a bad handoff that cost them a shot after being disqualified. Associate head coach Dan Steele called it “extremely disappointing” that they won’t be going. I’m not sure they would have scored, but they should have been given the chance.
How can it be done better?
Some kind of easy method like taking the top 20 athletes by their best marks of the season would likely be too easy, or miss some step that needs to be taken. But why couldn’t it work? The top five from each region go anyway, plus a handful of athletes as “wild cards” who made it by being in the top-12 nationally already. Why couldn’t this work?
It frees the stress on the top athletes who still must make the top five on that particular day. Instead, it opens the game for everyone even more, including the smaller schools, because “the day” becomes every day there is a meet in the outdoor season. The best marks go, period. Every meet becomes a possible ticket to nationals, and every meet would have an added intensity about it.
What we have now is one meet, whose intentions are noble and format is flawed. The athletes, and everyone else, deserves a better product than that.
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