Central Michigan University Drops Men’s Indoor and Outdoor Track & Field

[runohio]

Central Michigan University Drops Men’s Indoor and Outdoor Track & Field.

The discontinuations drop CMU from 18 athletic teams sponsored to 16, which is the threshold to remain in the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision.

Track & field is one of the most diverse sports as there are 17 different events for high school athletes and 20 for collegiate athletes to challenge themselves. According to The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) girl’s track and field is the largest participatory sport for high school girls and boys track & field is the second largest participatory sport for boys.

There are 12 schools in the Mid American Conference – Now there are only 5 schools with a men’s track & Field programs.

The following MAC schools no longer have Men’s Track & Field:
Ball State
Bowling Green
Central Michigan
Northern Illinois
Ohio University
Toledo
Western Michigan

Plus, there is no Division I University in West Virginia sponsoring Men’s Track & Field as Marshall and West Virginia dropped the sport years ago.

FYI

From the MAC web page: “Since its inception in 1946, the Mid-American Conference has progressively grown and developed into one of the most aggressive Division I conferences in the country.”

The first recorded examples of organized track and field events at a sports festival are the Ancient Olympic Games. At the first Games in 776 BC in Olympia, Greece, only one event was contested: the stadion footrace.

Olympics, Paralympics and world championships

The major global track and field competitions are both held under the scope of athletics. Track and field contests make up the majority of events on the Olympic and Paralympic athletics programmes, which occur every four years. Track and field events have held a prominent position at the Summer Olympics since its inception in 1896.

40 different countries won a Men Track & Field medal in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

 

[psycho_dad]

When Eastern drops CC or Track and Field, we might as well just give up. I went to BGSU and they will never see another dime from me. I used to take their calls just to mess with them, but I don't care enough to even do that anymore. There are some issues that I have and a lot of it is our "coaches" own fault. No more dual meets. No rivals. No on campus meets for anyone to go to. When I ran, we would have a lot of people in the stands for at least a few meets each season. AD had to at least be in attendance. We had meets that came down to the final event against both Kent and Eastern many times. Now, no meets to even go see. I have seen BG at a few indoor meets only. I'd go watch if they ran at Akron or Kent or I'd travel to BG if they had meets for me to go see. Can't even go see the women. To have a sport, you have to have a sport.

 

[NECoach]

Wrestling has done the same thing. Shot themselves in the foot! In the quest to get the best competition for their top kids at all times, coaches have sacrificed the team aspects of their sports.

 

[runohio]

Miami University almost dropped men’s track & field 20 years ago. Rumor has it Wayne Embry was a MU trustee and he showed up at a MU Board of Trustee meeting that included discussion about which men sports the university was going to drop. Men’s track & field was discussed until Embry stressed issues the university could have if they dropped one of the sports which helped attract minority students to campus. Many believe the race issue was a strong reason to keep men’s track & field. Men’s golf, tennis, soccer and wrestling were eliminated from the Miami athletic department.