SBC ITF Championship

[hapapp]

After 12 events, App women are 6th and the men are 7th.

[NavyApp]

I watched some of the prelims yesterday on The Ocho(a joke), from what I saw Ark St is very deep and talented in the ITF.

[Yosef84]

The Belt is much stronger in general than the SoCon is in T&F. Arkansas State always has a solid team. I hope we climb from those positions though. I will be disappointed if we can't beat a 6/7 finish.

[hapapp]

The Belt is much stronger in general than the SoCon is in T&F. Arkansas State always has a solid team. I hope we climb from those positions though. I will be disappointed if we can't beat a 6/7 finish.

We're just not as strong this year. I believe, the women won the title last year.

[Yosef84]

The Belt is much stronger in general than the SoCon is in T&F. Arkansas State always has a solid team. I hope we climb from those positions though. I will be disappointed if we can't beat a 6/7 finish.

We're just not as strong this year. I believe, the women won the title last year.

So it seems. On a related note, I see that Charlotte just won the CUSA title. My first reaction was that CUSA must be a weaker conference than the Belt, but in comparing the performances, I was disappointed to see that is not the case. The winning performances for CUSA are consistently better than the SunBelt...at least in the events so far. T&F is an odd sport though when it comes to team titles. Two or three stand-outs can deliver a championship in a multi-team meet while a better TEAM (across all events) scores poorly. That's the nature of the sport. I do miss the days when we used to have dual / tri-meets during the season.

[hapapp]

Both teams finished 6th.

[apptrackalum]

So it seems. On a related note, I see that Charlotte just won the CUSA title. My first reaction was that CUSA must be a weaker conference than the Belt, but in comparing the performances, I was disappointed to see that is not the case. The winning performances for CUSA are consistently better than the SunBelt...at least in the events so far. T&F is an odd sport though when it comes to team titles. Two or three stand-outs can deliver a championship in a multi-team meet while a better TEAM (across all events) scores poorly. That's the nature of the sport. I do miss the days when we used to have dual / tri-meets during the season.

Charlotte is a fully funded scholarship program, 18 scholarships for women, 12.6 for men. From my understanding, App has around 8 for men and 12 for women. I could be off a little. Charlotte's operating budget is more than $100K larger. That's a lot in track. Charlotte has six full time coaches, App has four. The two programs are not working on a level playing field. App's coaches are very good though, and do well with very little.

The SoCon and Sunbelt are very different in track and field. The SoCon was all about having a lot of solid athletes in every event. You nickle and dime your points to a title. App and Western would both score 200 points scoring in every event, and third would have 50 ish. The Sunbelt is about having impact athletes. You need a healthy number of top 3 athletes to win, and that level of athlete requires scholarship dollars we don't have. You win with 120-130, and get top three with less than 100 points often.

The program has a great history. It will work its way back to the top, but with our resources, its going to take a while.

[Yosef84]

So it seems. On a related note, I see that Charlotte just won the CUSA title. My first reaction was that CUSA must be a weaker conference than the Belt, but in comparing the performances, I was disappointed to see that is not the case. The winning performances for CUSA are consistently better than the SunBelt...at least in the events so far. T&F is an odd sport though when it comes to team titles. Two or three stand-outs can deliver a championship in a multi-team meet while a better TEAM (across all events) scores poorly. That's the nature of the sport. I do miss the days when we used to have dual / tri-meets during the season.

Charlotte is a fully funded scholarship program, 18 scholarships for women, 12.6 for men. From my understanding, App has around 8 for men and 12 for women. I could be off a little. Charlotte's operating budget is more than $100K larger. That's a lot in track. Charlotte has six full time coaches, App has four. The two programs are not working on a level playing field. App's coaches are very good though, and do well with very little.

The SoCon and Sunbelt are very different in track and field. The SoCon was all about having a lot of solid athletes in every event. You nickle and dime your points to a title. App and Western would both score 200 points scoring in every event, and third would have 50 ish. The Sunbelt is about having impact athletes. You need a healthy number of top 3 athletes to win, and that level of athlete requires scholarship dollars we don't have. You win with 120-130, and get top three with less than 100 points often.

The program has a great history. It will work its way back to the top, but with our resources, its going to take a while.

Thanks for that information. Yes, the SunBelt is ahead of the curve in that college track is now structured differently with the emphasis on invitationals rather than dual/tri-meets. Invitationals favor the programs that have a few "stand outs" who place high. You summed it up very well, thanks!

I wasn't thinking about Charlotte's program being fully funded. I used to keep up with these things better but I've lost touch. Thanks again.