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That's all that needs to be said. I'm happy to go into it further if there's demand, but...yeah.
That's all that needs to be said. I'm happy to go into it further if there's demand, but...yeah.
Pitt track @ ACC Champs
- Thread starter CMUandPitt
- Start date
when i was boarding my plane sunday the pitt track team was coming off the plane. Not sure where the flight was coming in from but it was an early flight.
Meet was in Durham, hosted by Duke. Sort of surprised they flew back Sunday morning vs. Saturday night.
Maybe this is a @CrazyPaco question, but it got me thinking. Pitt sent 33 athletes, 20 men and 13(!) women to the meet. So all in all they probably sent 40 people, if we're counting coaches, trainers, and support staff.
(First off, as an aside, they only sent 13 women to the meet? What the hell?)
So that's 40 people, two flights, four days of hotels, renting a bus, and so on. I'd guess that's like $2500 per person, so we paid $100k to get our asses whooped. My understanding, and correct me if I'm wrong, is that unlike the NCAA meets which are comped, this is all spent out of the team's budget and not reimbursed by the conference. Track in general is a fairly long season if you count indoor and outdoor, and on that schedule are a lot of travel meets -- to Arkansas, to Miami, to Texas, to Florida.
I'm well-aware of the recruiting difficulties from a facilities perspective, but I find it really hard to believe that they're actually giving out their full allotment of scholarships based on the extremely borderline talent that is there.
I guess what I'm asking is, this just feels like a weird way to actually administrate the team -- I would absolutely be prioritizing recruiting, facilities, and using the full allotment as opposed to flying the team around a bunch to have an 800 runner run 1:55 and finish 70th at an away meet in Miami. There's more than enough high-quality meets around between Penn State, the MAC schools in Ohio, and the Liberty League schools that I don't honestly believe there'd be a huge dropoff.
There doesn't seem to be any specific rhyme or reason to team composition -- unlike NC State's focus on distance and VT's focus on field events -- so I would much, much rather the team pare down the roster, pare down the schedule, give a full allotment of scholarships so they can at least attempt to attract a higher level of talent, and use some of those reserves to start to do something, anything to address the facilities situation.
(First off, as an aside, they only sent 13 women to the meet? What the hell?)
So that's 40 people, two flights, four days of hotels, renting a bus, and so on. I'd guess that's like $2500 per person, so we paid $100k to get our asses whooped. My understanding, and correct me if I'm wrong, is that unlike the NCAA meets which are comped, this is all spent out of the team's budget and not reimbursed by the conference. Track in general is a fairly long season if you count indoor and outdoor, and on that schedule are a lot of travel meets -- to Arkansas, to Miami, to Texas, to Florida.
I'm well-aware of the recruiting difficulties from a facilities perspective, but I find it really hard to believe that they're actually giving out their full allotment of scholarships based on the extremely borderline talent that is there.
I guess what I'm asking is, this just feels like a weird way to actually administrate the team -- I would absolutely be prioritizing recruiting, facilities, and using the full allotment as opposed to flying the team around a bunch to have an 800 runner run 1:55 and finish 70th at an away meet in Miami. There's more than enough high-quality meets around between Penn State, the MAC schools in Ohio, and the Liberty League schools that I don't honestly believe there'd be a huge dropoff.
There doesn't seem to be any specific rhyme or reason to team composition -- unlike NC State's focus on distance and VT's focus on field events -- so I would much, much rather the team pare down the roster, pare down the schedule, give a full allotment of scholarships so they can at least attempt to attract a higher level of talent, and use some of those reserves to start to do something, anything to address the facilities situation.
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They split the team. It looks like only 9 sprinters went to Miami, the rest bused to WVU the same weekend. Maybe thought the track was faster or competition for their sprinters was better in Miami. It isn't uncommon to split the team to different invites.
The following week, they split the team again...this time 4 ways...their studs went to Texas Relays (a huge meet) with others competing 30 miles away at Texas State. Others went to NC State's relay meet (a lot of NE schools go to that one too), and another contingent competed at Carnegie Mellon. Basically they seem to have split it up where their athletes could be competitive or get better times, maybe get more of a rest (CMU) ,but there may be other reasons that factor in.
Florida Relays is a huge meet and UF often hosts regionals. Don't know how much of their team they took, but many teams in the east go to that meet.
As far as going to the Duke Invite, that is where ACCs was held so you definitely want to take the team to that to get them experience on their track. PSU was also there. They could have probably bused to that if they didn't have the budget to fly. They clearly have the budget to fly.
UVA Challenge, that's fairly close and can bus to that and it is a conference member, but for instance, Duquesne and PSU went to that too as did a lot of schools in the NE.
Penn Relays is a no brainier.
Pitt's schedule is pretty normal.
As far as I know, they are using up all of their scholarships. It is only 12.6 for men and 18 for women...that includes XC too. Those all get split up. It isn't that many when you are distributing it across a full track team.
To recruit, you have to be willing to take your good kids to the big meets too.
The following week, they split the team again...this time 4 ways...their studs went to Texas Relays (a huge meet) with others competing 30 miles away at Texas State. Others went to NC State's relay meet (a lot of NE schools go to that one too), and another contingent competed at Carnegie Mellon. Basically they seem to have split it up where their athletes could be competitive or get better times, maybe get more of a rest (CMU) ,but there may be other reasons that factor in.
Florida Relays is a huge meet and UF often hosts regionals. Don't know how much of their team they took, but many teams in the east go to that meet.
As far as going to the Duke Invite, that is where ACCs was held so you definitely want to take the team to that to get them experience on their track. PSU was also there. They could have probably bused to that if they didn't have the budget to fly. They clearly have the budget to fly.
UVA Challenge, that's fairly close and can bus to that and it is a conference member, but for instance, Duquesne and PSU went to that too as did a lot of schools in the NE.
Penn Relays is a no brainier.
Pitt's schedule is pretty normal.
As far as I know, they are using up all of their scholarships. It is only 12.6 for men and 18 for women...that includes XC too. Those all get split up. It isn't that many when you are distributing it across a full track team.
To recruit, you have to be willing to take your good kids to the big meets too.
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Even worse than you'd guess at East Regional. Yeesh.
I feel like I'm beating a dead horse, but I don't care about the facilities. I can buy that Webb can't bring in elite talent because of it, but what talent is there isn't being developed, nor does it show up when it matters. AJR going from 46.03 at the ACC to running 47.61 here in better weather, then Feagin two heats later goes from 46.36 earlier this season to a time (48.61) that wouldn't win a D3 conference meet.
All I hear is excuses. The team is crap.
I feel like I'm beating a dead horse, but I don't care about the facilities. I can buy that Webb can't bring in elite talent because of it, but what talent is there isn't being developed, nor does it show up when it matters. AJR going from 46.03 at the ACC to running 47.61 here in better weather, then Feagin two heats later goes from 46.36 earlier this season to a time (48.61) that wouldn't win a D3 conference meet.
All I hear is excuses. The team is crap.
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