What's to See in D3: Times and their counter intuitive response to the recession

February 18, 2009

In the limited formal journalism education I have (a few classes in high school), I was always taught that the first few sentences in an article should answer the important questions everyone could have given the headline....the Who, What, Where, When, Why and How. However given that I am considered by FloTrack to be a columnist, I felt it more important to begin with a brief explanation about the absence of my article from the site on Mondays when most of you were used to reading it.

I struggled with how to go about writing an article on track, because simply posting marks that could be read elsewhere adds very little and is for lack of a better term boring. I considered interviews and still will but after a few fell through I backed away from this approach as well. Then came the travel, I have filmed/covered meets from State College, PA to Boston, MA to Derwood, MD and writing an article sunday evenings became a difficult task. So now I will be looking to put out my article on Wednesdays giving me an opportunity to choose an athlete of the week to interview, rotating between the sprints, jumps, throws and distance events and to make things more interesting than just listing times I will be looking to do a commentary each week as well...we'll see how it all works out. Now for this week's article...

As many of you have certainly noticed the world is in the midst of an economic crisis and while banks, auto makers and others receive bailouts and national media attention the sport of track and field is not immune. Some may have read about the downsizing being done by Reebok one of our sports major "players," but outside of the professional ranks and big corporations the collegiate system has and will continue to feel the effects of this crisis.

You know its bad when a school like Stanford with the third largest endowment of any university in 2008 and one of the largest athletics programs in the country proposes to terminate sports teams (not running ones) in an effort to save funds. This is a trend that more than likely will continue and trickle down through divisions as many other schools have seen their endowments greatly reduced. My alma-mater lost roughly 25% of its endowment and as a result has put the golf program and the swimming and diving teams into a steady state of nervousness.

Although I am not aware of any running teams in D3 that have been eliminated or threatened as a result of current budget crunches, that does not mean teams throughout the division have not felt effects in other way, perhaps through limited rosters, limited schedules and especially reduced travel.

Enter the rise of the formerly small local track meets, these are the meets that are held on the many 200 meter or smaller flat tracks throughout the country that used to only have maybe four or five teams that this year ballooned to over ten as programs looked to stay closer to home. These smaller meets that used to welcome open athletes with outstretched arms because of the added competition and their $10 entry fees no longer had the excess room in their heats.

So how is it that with less travel we are seeing across all divisions one of the best years in recent memory as far as indoor performances and what does it mean for parity in the sport when some teams remain able to travel to meets at BU, Washington, Notre Dame, and others remain at smaller venues spread across the country.

In D1 we are witnessing a remarkable year that looks like it will take an auto qualifier to make either the men's mile or 3k, and while D3 looks to still have room for provisional qualifiers the marks set this season have been some of the most impressive depth wise in recent memory. While a number of the top times have taken place on flat 200 meter tracks or oversized tracks that do not receive the fanfare of Washington or Notre Dame, there are still a large number of times being produced at the "mega-meets" from teams that have had to travel quite a way.

Perhaps its the 300 miles from Oshkosh, WI to Aimes, Iowa or the staggering 1100 miles from Atlanta to Boston, some teams are still willing and more importantly able to make the drive to bigger meets, in order to produce impressive times. With budget crunches at our colleges and universities only beginning, how long is it before gap between our wealthier institutions and smaller ones are truly noticed. Recruiting, travel, schedules, rosters these are all things that can and will be effected and while it may not show this year, as a result times, heights, distances will suffer.

Is this the catalyst that was needed to push forward the previously proposed legislation for Division 4?

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#7	Dan Suher October 18 at 1:23pm Hey Andrew, Sorry for the delayed response. Unfortunately with a new job I do not have as much time as I did last fall to write the weekly articles, although I do try to keep up as much as possible. I am in and have been for the past few months been working to find a replacement for myself and while I have someone in particular in mind I just need to get them to agree to take over. reply
#6	Andrew Tobben September 29 at 8:40pm Hey I'm a D3 athlete and I really like what you're doing here. I was just wondering if you were going to write articles this season also? reply
#5	JPHIL February 19 at 9:35pm Good read Dan. Look forward to weekly recaps! reply
#4	Mike Higgins February 19 at 8:21pm Hey i like the new writing format you have going. And about D IV, what about NAIA? As a DIII runner we run into these teams all the time, some which are really impressive. I dont think there is a need for a 4th Division. But, anyway i do like the interviews that were posted here before. Most avid DIII fans dont get to hear much about their favorite DIII runners. I havent heard one thing about Peter Kosgei and his track season; he won XC Nats!! Is Willy Kaul gonna give him a run for his money? Indoor conferences are only a week away. reply
#3	Dan Suher February 19 at 8:08am I wanted to leave the reader in suspense, next weeks column will largely have to do with the topic of division 4/division 3 AA. So rather than explain it all now, like I would like to, I am going to make you wait a bit. reply
#2	Reader February 19 at 1:06am Anonymous Coward said: “division 4? where can i find information about this? i didn't even realize this was an idea...” It's not an idea it is a reality. It will be happening within a few years. Although it will not most likely be called D4 there will be a split of the D3 division because it is simply getting too large. reply
#1	Anonymous Coward February 18 at 11:11pm division 4? where can i find information about this? i didn't even realize this was an idea... reply