Athletics News

Connecting The WA/USATF/NCAA Qualifying Disconnect

Connecting The WA/USATF/NCAA Qualifying Disconnect

USTFCCCA’s CEO Sam Seemes points out that the American collegiate system “supports track & field more than any country in the world.” But WA demanded changes. (KIRBY LEE/IMAGE OF SPORT)

WORLD ATHLETICS HAS RULED that effective January 01 of this year no marks from meets run under NCAA or U.S. high school federation rules will be recognized for any of its purposes. Not for points-scoring in its rankings system, not for World Championships qualifying, nor, it would appear, for WA’s yearly and all-time lists.

For WA — which since the introduction of Olympic qualifying standards in ’60 has accepted performances from meets sanctioned by U.S. collegiate and prep federations — marks will no longer exist unless meet organizers agree to conduct competition in accordance with WA’s rules.

Furthermore, the international federation — with USATF obligated to agree and supportive of the underlying rationale — is requiring that in order for performances to be recognized, meets also must be listed on WA’s Global Calendar. In order to appear on that Calendar, U.S. meets must be sanctioned or endorsed by USATF.

And effective March 01, meets must have lined up inclusion on the Calendar 60 days before the meet is staged. USATF is urging organizers to initiate the application process no later than 70 days ahead of time.

If that’s news to you as a fan, athlete or coach you are not alone. When WA instituted the policy last summer, it notified member federations but as far as the general public of athletics devotees is concerned it buried the lede on page 4 of a 6-page PDF linked from an August 22 web release on the Budapest ’23 qualifying system and entry standards.

Rule changes by the NCAA and the NFHS (national high school federation) will be needed to stave off further vexing and confusing balkanization of track & field, yet 5 months is a short period in which to cajole rule changes in a non-revenue sport out of a massive century-old, $1-billion-in-annual-revenue behemoth like the NCAA.

WA — having no direct relationship with U.S. collegiate and scholastic federations — has, as is the normal course, ceded that concern to USATF, whose officials have been scrambling.

Michael Nussa, USATF’s Associate Director Of High-Performance Programs, cites at least one saving grace. “Most NCAA rules are in alignment with USATF or World Athletics rules already,” he says. “USATF and the NCAA have been working really closely together over the last…

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