I\u2019M ALMOST AFRAID to tackle this subject, given what an impassioned response\u2014negative response, that is\u2014we have gotten since Bret Bloomquist\u2019s piece a couple of issues back suggesting that the 4 x 200 relay is bad for the Texas State Meet.<\/p>\n
So allow me to don my flameproof suit and offer an opinion of the same radical stripe: I think the relays should be removed from the NCAA Championships. Wow! Feels warmer in here already.<\/p>\n
Now I know that a qualifier along the lines of \u201csome of my best friends are relays\u201d will ring hollow, but I assure you I have nothing against baton events per se. Just their being staged at the biggest collegiate meet of the year.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s outdoor NCAA, the 84th edition, will represent a tipping point. For the first 42 editions of the meet, through \u201963, relays weren\u2019t a part of things. The 42 since have had them, and this year will make 43. Now I may be getting old, but not so old that I\u2019m not still too young to have actually remembered the NCAA without relays, so my feelings about their removal aren\u2019t based on some \u201cgood old days\u201d train of thought. If that were the case we\u2019d also be talking about getting rid of the steeplechase, 10,000, 400H, TJ and HT. That\u2019s not good old days.<\/p>\n
No, my antipathy towards the presence of the 4×1 and 4×4 at the Nationals is generated completely by what I believe is the general good of the U.S. sport. Too big a portion of limited resources, I fear, goes into forming these modern foursomes.<\/p>\n
If you look at the early years of NCAA relays, you\u2019ll find a very good representation of athletes from \u201cother\u201d events. The 4x1s frequently had quartermilers, hurdlers and long jumpers on them. The 4x4s would recruit from the 200, 800 and long hurdles. Sure, you still see all those people, but they\u2019re the exception rather than the rule.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s so unsettling is that back in the days when college coaches were scrambling to fill their relay units with suitably fast bodies they had \u201cunlimited\u201d scholarships. But a funny thing happened on the way to today\u2019s limited squads of about a dozen men. You\u2019d think that contraction would be the perfect reason to cut and paste athletes from other events into the relays, but instead the relays have gotten more and more specialized. Too many schools now go out of their way to fill the relays with pure 100 and 400 guys.<\/p>\n
That makes for some great relay watching, but who used to get the scholarships that a third- or fourth-string relay guy now gets? In general, field eventers. Jumpers and throwers who have seen their value to the team marginalized if they\u2019re only good for a single event. And if you\u2019re not concerned about having much of a jumps\/throws program, then you needn\u2019t worry about hiring assistant coaches who know anything about technique. I can\u2019t help but think that this phenomenon is playing a significant part in the U.S.\u2019s shocking loss of field-event medal-share at the Olympics and World Championships. I think of the sport as field & track as much as I do track & field.<\/p>\n
This is why I\u2019m concerned\u2014as I mentioned earlier\u2014about the \u201cgeneral good of the sport\u201d in the U.S. No college coach thinks that part of his\/her job description is as a feeder unit for the professional side of things. And I don\u2019t blame them for not thinking that way. But unless they do, U.S. fortunes will continue to fade internationally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"