Conference Realignment is a big problem for college track and field
The Pac 12 conference is dead, or at the very least it has gone on life support. Which is a much bigger deal than most people realize. For years that conference has brought us some of the best track and field programs in the nation, like the Oregon Ducks on both the men’s and women’s sides. But that is all about to become a thing of the past. Track and field is considered by most people to be an individualized sport. But if you are a fan of the sport at the NCAA level, you will notice that all those individual athletes are wearing team uniforms. They compete for conference championships, and national team titles just like every other sport in college, and the ones who do it all the time, become dynasties in their own right.
In life things do tend to change, so we are headed to a world where USC, UCLA, Washington, and Oregon are about to join the Big Ten. That is the same conference as Rutgers which is all the way in New Jersey! If you combine that with Colorado, Arizona, Utah, and Arizona State joining the Big 12, the Pac 12 is pretty much dead. The truth is that football is king when it comes to college sports, so whatever happens to the conferences is always in their best interest. Which also means it’s probably not a good idea for almost anybody else.
So here is a breakdown of what FBS conference realignment actually means for track and field, because things are about to get pretty ugly for the sport of track and field. To be totally honest not every college team is even going to survive this, and the ones who do, will have to deal with the consequences. Josh Pate of CBS Sports said it best, “college football is going to be fine, but I cannot say the same for the other non-revenue generating sports”. Unfortunately, track and field is near the top of that list.
Why do college track and field teams get cut?
There is a reason that track teams specifically are threatened by conference realignment. The short explanation is that the more money a school spends on football, the more they have to spend across other sports teams. But if that money gets interrupted in any way, football is never the team that you get rid of, it’s everybody else who is on the chopping block. This was true in 2020, because Clemson in the ACC cut their men’s track program, and only brought it back after 32,000 people signed a petition. Clemson said cutting the team would save 2 million dollars. But Clemson track and field is a very legitimate program. They actually won the ACC conference in 2023, so it isn’t because the team was losing. Minnesota which is in the Big Ten actually planned to cut their men’s team as well. Soon thereafter they brought it back by popular demand just like Clemson. But they still cut indoor track and field, and cut men’s gymnastics, along with men’s tennis instead to do it. I bring this up because if schools like them can cut track and field, without feeling bad about it... Then it can happen to anyone, at any time.
What the end of the Pac 12 conference really means
This is all so relevant because the Pac 12 is about to be a thing of the past. The Big Ten kidnapped 4 of their teams, in one week and the Big 12 grabbed 3 more. Whether it’s the Big 12 or the Big Ten it is all about making big time television money. For the record that clearly has nothing to do with track and field. You can barely even find any track highlights of the Big Ten or the Big 12 conference even when you look hard for them on YouTube. USC is the same program that brought us Rai Benjamin, Andre De Grasse, and Michael Norman so it’s safe to say they take track and field seriously. Oregon was the last repeat champion at the NCAA championships on the men’s side, not named Florida. Even Washington finished in the top 10 at the NCAA meet in 2023. At this point, the Pac 12 is down to 4 teams, isn’t that ironic. For the record Stanford who just finished 3rd overall at the NCAA men’s outdoor meet is one of them. But these teams are all joining the Big Ten because they are just doing what all the other cool kids are doing. The SEC has been building a super conference for a while now, they added Texas A&M, and Missouri a few years ago, and are now joined by Texas and Oklahoma. Keep in mind, Texas just won the women’s NCAA championship, and they dominated when they did it.
The point of all this is that college football has created a world where we have 3 super-conferences; basically professional sports leagues disguised as college athletics. The SEC, Big Ten, and now the Big 12 are those conferences, and they are spending more money than anyone else on football as a result. That means every other team, including the track team will benefit as much as possible. If you run for one of those teams than it’s great for you. But this is a bad thing if you are not one of the 50 teams in those 3 conferences, Everyone else is now competing for a participation trophy at the NCAA level, not just in football but in every sport, track included. That’s if you get to compete at all, which is not a given. Historically on the men’s side we have not had a D1 outdoor NCAA champion who will not be a member of the super conferences, since 2008. But that’s nothing compared to women’s track and field. Nobody outside the Big 3 has won the NCAAs since 1984.
The history of conference realignment in track and field
It wasn’t always this way, the conferences that existed, used to make sense. Even the “big money” conferences were primarily based on a particular region of the country. The best teams were spread out across multiple conferences. In 2011, my first year running in college, the top ten teams were from the Big 12, ACC, SEC, and Pac 12 in that order. Remember, track and field is a sport that barely makes any revenue dollars even at the schools that win. So it made sense to compete with schools that are in your general area. Buses and planes don’t pay for themselves, and nobody wants to bankroll a team that doesn’t get any spectators, forget tv money. I remember what it feels like to ride in a van ,not even a bus for 12 hours, to get back to campus from a D1 college track meet. Keep in mind, there wasn’t even enough time to shower, I walked off the track in my uniform, put on my warmup suit, and got in the van. But at least I got to compete, because remember, the world we are heading to, is one where some teams will disappear, I am almost sure of it.
Either way, if all the top track teams are in the same conference, they will be competing against each other for recruits. If you’re not the championship team already, you can still convince a kid to commit, by telling them who they get a chance to run against. In the SEC that’s Julien Alfred and Britton Wilson on the women’s side in the sprints, but those names used to be Sha’carri Richardson and Abby Steiner. Going forward Shawnti Jackson who is the USA junior champion in the 200 meter dash is coming soon to an SEC championship near you! Any recruit knows that winning in the other conferences, is basically a junior varsity track meet. If you want to actually be the best, you are going to have to beat the best. You cannot do that if they aren’t on the track with you.
What is the future of college track and field?
The fallout from conference realignment is going to get pretty ugly for the other 250 teams in D1 track and field. Like I said, some teams are going to get cut. Heather Dinich of ESPN said that Stanford has no idea what they are going to do right now, because they depended on Pac 12 tv money to fund a lot of their athletic department. There is no other conference they can join that would replace that football money. Clemson told us they could save at least 2 million by cutting track and field. How much would it be for Stanford? It is unlikely they will actually cut the team, but if they do cut sports track and field will be one of the first teams that they discuss.
Consider that Temple plays D1 FBS football, and cut their men’s track team over a decade ago. Delaware did the same thing, and they were winning FCS D1 football championships at the time. Some teams are going to survive by simply cutting their scholarship budget. Maryland is in the Big Ten, and years ago, they threatened to cut track entirely. They brought it back without an indoor season, and cut some scholarship money when they did. That is why they finished dead last in the Big Ten conference outdoors, which in many ways defeats the purpose of having a team.
Conference realignment also affects all the other 29 conferences in D1, because they have to scramble to get new teams as some of theirs get taken away. When the Big 12 lost Texas, it forced them to grab teams from the American conference like Houston and UCF. I don’t know what the future will look like for everyone else, but I can tell you some of the crazy things that have already happened until now. The MEAC conference used to be the premier D1 HBCU conference. But thanks to conference realignment they’ve all but fell apart, and the best 2 track teams who were in that conference, North Carolina A&T and Hampton are today in the CAA. They gave us individual NCAA champions Randolph Ross and Cambrea Sturgis, so yeah that actually matters. Liberty in Virginia has owned the Atlantic Sun in track for years now, but their headed to the Conference USA with teams as far west as UTEP in Texas! That’s going to make traveling their team to conference championships significantly more expensive than before.
Eventually when all the dust begins to settle, a bunch of Division 2 teams are getting called up to D1 at a moment’s notice, to fill the gaps. That’s how J.T. Smith won the NCAA D2 championship in 2022 at Texas A&M Commerce. Yet in 2023 they moved up to D1 where he ran as fast as 9.92 in the 100 meter dash, ranking second in the entire nation. He won the Southland Conference and made the USA championship final. But he’s still not eligible to run in the NCAA D1 meet, because his team is still on probation for moving up a division, which is a shame.
The Bottom Line
If you are a football fan I’m sure you are curious what UCLA vs. Penn State will look like on the field one day. However, things are getting out of hand. All these changes only make sense for football, and the consequences for a sport like track and field are pretty big, no pun intended. Most people love an underdog story, and in track and field that is no different. So take your pick, just about any team you want inside of D1. If they aren’t in the Big Ten, Big 12, or the SEC they are no longer the favorite to win just about anything going forward.
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