Track Coaches Preparing for Worst With Massive Changes to Collegiate Sports

The landscape of collegiate sports is going to be changed forever and track coaches are fearing the worst.

Jun 8, 2024; Eugene, OR, USA; Emma Tavella of Boston College races over the water jump in the women's steeplechase during the NCAA Track and Field Championships at Hayward Field. / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

The landscape of collegiate sports changed forever when name, image, and likeness rules were put in place. For the first time ever, athletes could earn money by signing endorsement deals with companies.

The NIL era has been a wild one, as players routinely hit the transfer portal seeking out as much money as possible. It has led to some of the top coaches in the nation opting to retire instead of adjusting to the new rules.

While the Mike Krzyzewski’s of the world had the choice to retire, there are some coaches fearing that their jobs could be on the line because of budget cuts.

A new legal settlement being worked out would allow universities to share revenue with athletes for the first time. That seems like it would benefit all sports, but 95 percent of the back payments that would come from the settlement are expected to go toward football, men’s and women’s basketball.

If budgets are going to be squeezed, it isn’t going to come at the expense of the bigger revenue sports. Instead, it could be Olympic sports, such as track and field and cross-country, that are on the chopping block.

Existing at all could be a challenge at some schools. It was a fear that USA Track & Field CEO Max Siegel and the organization’s president, Vin Lananna, expressed in a letter on the day the settlement was filed.

“The threat of potential cutbacks across the NCAA looms darkly on sports like track and field, which boasts the world’s most robust high school and collegiate programs,” reads the letter, which was obtained by Runner’s World. “The ability to compete at the collegiate level in programs with as high of a caliber as those in the U.S. has unquestionably led to USA Track & Field’s historic, unprecedented success on the world stage.”

While also doubling as the director of track and field and cross-country at the University of Virginia, Lananna believes this is a pressing issue.

“Anyone who thinks that those changes will not be dramatic is not paying attention,” he said during a phone call with Runners World.

The roster limits that are being put in place would seem to be a good thing when looking at them the first time. More scholarships to offer is certainly a positive for athletes looking to earn a spot.

But, there is no requirement to use all 45 spots per gender for track and field and 17 for cross-country. A majority of coaches believe their schools will come in well under those numbers because there will be less money for smaller sports that don’t turn revenue.

“[The settlement] has some implications on what we’re doing now,” said Ed Eyestone, the men’s cross-country coach at BYU. “When we’re in the midst of recruiting, it’s hard to make [scholarship] offers to individuals when you don’t know exactly what those numbers are going to look like.”

Roster limits are something that everyone believes is a fair route to go. But, schools will have the power to determine how many players are on the roster for sports.

Having to follow the Title IX rules, an equal opportunity for men and women, if the football team’s roster is maxed out at 105, those cuts have to come from somewhere in men’s sports.

As shared by Theo Kahler on Runners World, the fear is men’s track and field programs could be cut altogether.

“Some coaches worry that roster sizes in men’s track and cross-country programs, specifically, could be reduced. Or entire teams could be cut. Meanwhile, women’s programs might grow, to offset scholarship increases in men’s sports like football or baseball.”

One saving grace for people who coach or participate in Olympic sports right now is the number of sports required to be a Division 1 school, which is 14. To participate in the Football Bowl Subdivision, you need to have 16.

That should help keep the programs at some schools, but Sam Seemes, the CEO of USTFCCCA and a former coach at LSU, believes that universities could start to lobby for that number to be reduced should the settlement be adopted.

That could potentially be seen as the beginning of the end of sports such as track and field and cross-country, as they would be near the top of the list of sports to cut.