This was the first year that the NCAA experimented with a new format for the Outdoor Track & Field Championships, which just wrapped up in Eugene, Ore. Instead of combining the men's and women's meets like they did in years past, this year they split the meet by gender. The men went on Wednesday and Friday, with the women on Thursday and Saturday.
When they first announced the format change a couple months ago, I was a little skeptical. I wasn't sure how it would work out or what my reaction to it would be. I wanted to give it a chance before passing judgment. From what I saw, the new format worked well. There are still some tweaks that need to be made, but all in all, I'd say it would have to be deemed a success. The athletes seemed to be happy, the crowds were great, and ESPN certainly liked it better (although, they really need to get a new announcing team).
The biggest reason the NCAA wanted to tweak the format was because it was too hard to follow. Under the old format, using the 1500 meters as an example, it would be one followed by the other. The men's 1500, then the women's 1500, or vice versa. So, they'd essentially do half of each championship on Friday and the other half on Saturday. A few events (mainly the 10,000 meters and decathlon/heptathlon) took place on the first two days of the Championships, and the field events were scattered across all four days. Trying to figure out the team standings could easily get confusing (a few years ago, Dwight Stones said the Kansas women were "running away with it" entering the last event when they had, in fact, already won).
One area in which this new format definitely succeeded was making the team race easier to follow. Again with a few exceptions (the 10,000 and the decathlon/heptathlon, as well as some field events), the meet was broken down into semifinals and finals. Friday was all finals in men's events, and Saturday was the same on the women's side. There was no going back-and-forth. The streamlined method was a big hit (even though Oregon had already won both team titles before the final event).
Probably because of the format change, ESPN had more coverage than ever before this year. The semifinals on Wednesday and Thursday both got three-hour TV windows on ESPNU (the women were even on ESPN Thursday night), while the finals were both two-and-a-half hour live blocks. ESPN3, meanwhile, had coverage that entire time, too, showing the field events that are never actually on TV. On Wednesday and Thursday, ESPN3 came on hours earlier to show the decathlon and heptathlon.
Obviously, Eugene's location on the West Coast made things a lot easier for ESPN, but the amount of coverage they dedicated to the meet was still impressive. ESPN was one of the strongest advocates for a format change to the gender-specific format because they thought it would let them tell a better story and lead to a better broadcast. While there were still a number of issues with the broadcast (Larry Rawson being the main one), you can't say lack of coverage was one of them.
Part of ESPN's "narrative" was to talk about individual athletes, who, of course, were the ones most affected by the change. And it's on the athlete side where I see both the good and the bad. They got a day off between the semis and the finals, which is something they don't normally have in a big meet and I'm sure was appreciated. It should be noted that they generally already at this day off at NCAAs under the old format, but they would often have another event on their "off" day.
Under the new format, athletes get an entire day off even if they're entered in multiple events. But the down side of that is that those athletes competing in multiple events now have them all on one day, and generally in a narrow window. On Thursday, for example, Oregon's Jenna Prandini ran the 4x100 relay, then went over and long jumped, took a break from that to run the 100, went back to the long jump, then ran the 200--all in little more than two hours. She didn't have to long jump on Saturday, but still had the 4x100, 100 and 200 (and likely the 4x400 if Oregon had made the final). These athletes are used to doing multiple events in a short period of time at conference meets, etc., but it's obviously not ideal.
Because of this, some athletes had to make a decision. Do I run the 1500 and 5000 or just one? And which? Is it worth it to try and double? Will it help the team? All of those questions have to be weighed, and I'm not really sure there is a right answer. But it did lead to some athletes scratching from an event they otherwise could've scored in. Even worse, it led to some expected to produce big points losing their second (or third) race of the day to somebody fresher. I hope the NCAA figures out a way to ease that burden on individual athletes and ensure the strongest fields possible in every event.
For the most part, I think the new format for the NCAA Outdoor Championships was a worthwhile experiment, and one they should definitely try again. The issues with it are minor, and I think the NCAA can easily work on them.
Besides, the most important thing isn't going to change anytime soon. The NCAA Championships will be at Hayward Field until 2021, the same year Eugene hosts the World Championships. There's been some criticism about the "permanent host" status they've been given, but there's no other place for them. And if it gives Oregon a home field advantage, so what? Because as long as they're in track-mad Oregon, the NCAA Outdoor Championships will continue to be successful. No matter what the format.
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