NCAA outdoor regionals are here

Ohio State will host the Mid-East Regional this outdoor season

There will be a major change in the air this season which will include adding regional qualifying meets, placing greater emphasis on the conference championships, dramatically increasing the field sizes for the 2003 Division I NCAA Outdoor Championships and pushing the national meet back one week.

The four, two-day regional qualifying meets will not include the decathlon, heptathlon and the 10,000 meter runs. Those events will continue to qualify for the Division I Outdoor Championships by meeting a predetermined standard, just as before.

In order to qualify for the national championship from each of the four regional meets, the top five finishers in each individual event and the top three teams in each relay event will advance. The fields, which could be about 26 for each individual event and 17 teams in each relay, will then be completed by selecting at-large entrants.

An athlete must still compete in all events at a regional meet if they wish to remain eligible for an at-large spot to the national championships. Just as before, the selections will also be based on the performance lists from all regular-season competition.

The four regionals will include the East region, hosted by George Mason University, the Mid-East region, hosted by Ohio State University, the Midwest region, hosted by the University of Nebraska and the West region, hosted by Stanford University. A compelte map and breakdown on the regions is available.

The 2003 NCAA Outdoor Championships is set to take place at Hornet Stadium, hosted by California State University, Sacramento.

Scheduling had to be adjusted as well as placing regional meets into every schedule will push back the national championships back one week, to conclude the second Saturday in June rather than the first. The regional meets will take place two weeks before the national championships as well in which athletes will be able to have an extra week of practice, preparations and recovery.

There is still some uneasy thoughts based on the new regional format from some of the coaches around the country. "The demands on the student-athletes will be considerably greater," said Kansas State head coach Cliff Rovelto.

"We are lengthening the season, asking many athletes to have to compete in three major championships in the space of five weeks. This will interfere with summer jobs, summer school and shorten summer break. For our national caliber athletes we have made it unbelievably difficult for them to line up at the USA National Championships and the Olympic Trials."

With the great number of men's prorams being dropped every year, the regional championships could further put pressure on costs and administrators to handle those costs. "I fear that the increased costs and the realization by administrators that were led to believe their programs would have greater representation at the national championships could further jeopardize men's program throughout the country," said Rovelto.

Monte Stratton, the head coach at TCU, agrees. "I think that it adds an unnecessary expense to the track programs around the country," said Stratton. "However, the regional qualification is a certainty, as least for this year, and we will prepare accordingly."

Perhaps a major advantage to the new regional format is to bring back true team competition and qualifying which is used and a great success at the high school level. As many NCAA Championship calibar athletes are accustomed to, chasing marks to get an early guaranteed spot for the events will be a thing of the past in many cases. Except for the decathlon, heptathlon and 10,000 meters, all athletes will have to step up to the line on the same day and earn the top spots to make it to the next round.

Many people argue as well that the new regional format will make the sport at the Division I level even more exciting. Just like the NCAA basketball tournament, all athletes now have a chance to make it to the big show instead of the one's able to, perhaps, travel father in warmer weather to participate in a meet with the right conditions early.

The Division I outdoor season has already opened up with the reality of the regionals now in place.