By Rod O’Donnell - As I watched West Virginia University’s baseball team win the Regional Championship before a sold-out stadium in Morgantown, I remembered the day in April 2003, when it was announced that the WVU men’s track and field program would be discontinued, effective 2003-2004. The renowned program that was established in 1898 and produced many All-Americans and several Olympians was gone.
Many in the track community voiced their dissatisfaction, but the administration stood by their decision, citing Title IX and budget constraints as their reasons. Today, Utah, UCF, and WVU are the only schools that do not compete in track in the 16-team Big 12 Conference. Athletic budgets for these three departments are $130 million, $121 million, and $131 million, respectively, according to the most recent posted information.
Revenue is the “name of the game” at today’s Division I schools. WVU’s decision to support their baseball team appears to be paying off, both financially and especially with the positive media attention, with a special feature on NBC Nightly News (6/4/26).
Let’s take a look at why track and field offered little hope versus baseball:
For a moment, imagine that you are the WVU athletic director, and you have attended the only home meet that is held during the season. You arrive at the track on a dreary, overcast day, as the start of the first race begins. You notice that there may be 200 spectators, and most are the parents of the competitors. The teams that are competing are representing Division II schools. Entering the 4th hour of the 8-hour meet, when you ask what the score is, you are told that the meet is not scored, and that everyone is more interested in PR’s and qualifying for the national championship. You ask “What is a PR?” and who has met a qualifying standard, since there has been no information announced during the entire meet. You are told to check the website if you want to see results, but, when you check, no results have been posted. At the end of the meet, when you check again, you read, “The meet is over, but results haven’t yet been posted. We will get them added as soon as they are available.” Unfortunately, you have neither the time or patience to look elsewhere. Your next question: “Where is the star athlete who is receiving a full athletic scholarship and what events is he/she competing in?” You are informed that he/she is competing on the West Coast, and is not in town for today’s only home meet.
The 8-hour event is finally ending with the 4 x 400 relay, but only two teams are competing. The others decided to call it a day – they were cold and have a long drive home.
As you leave the million dollar, infrequently-used facility, you are thinking about sports to support and sports to drop. After today’s experience, the decision is a “no brainer.”
Unfortunately, as track and field slips further and further from the mainstream of sports culture, the previous scenario is a very common occurrence. The Columbus Dispatch rarely covers the sport, one of 36 sponsored by Ohio State (despite the fact that there is space to cover top returnees in girls’ basketball next winter.)
As this writer has said countless times, “What occurs at the top level of any sport, eventually affects all levels.” I see many of these destructive trends, including dual meets that feature only JV participants; consistently holding athletes out of meets (despite competing in countless cross-country meets, post and regular season), MANY indoor meets (run on tightly-curved 200 meter tracks), and telling athletes that the only meet that counts is the State Championship. This neglectful and laissez faire attitude includes a de-emphasis on conference championships.
Note: Trying to manage a high school team of several hundred participants who are only on the team to avoid taking a legitimate physical education is a major problem. Coaches are forced to deal with these numbers, taking time and coaching away from the serious team members. (These numbers explain one reason our national participation numbers are so high.)
Despite what the uninformed, naïve or oblivious optimists say, our wonderful sport has storm clouds on the horizon, and if we don’t adapt, change, and make innovations (i.e. wrestling, volleyball) as other sports have done, we face another deluge from the rapidly approaching storm, and with the same results that WVU’s historic program faced in 2004.
Yours in track,
Rod O’Donnell
Read more of Coach O’Donnell’s Keeping Track articles on www.runohio.com