BYU track tries to figure out what to do with no conference

[rainbowgirl28]

http://universe.byu.edu/node/13577

Where will track and field go?
By Kristian Ekenes - Mon, 01/31/2011 - 22:04

Photo by Stephanie Rhodes. The BYU track and field team still has yet to find a conference to join.
It’s been five months since BYU announced it would go independent in football while most of the other sports would compete in the West Coast Conference.
Key word: most.
Now that the conference realignment hype has largely come to a close, some people may have forgotten BYU still hasn’t found a home for its indoor and outdoor track and field teams.
Why? The WCC does not sponsor track and field. It has cross country for distance runners to compete in, but not track and field.
BYU track coach Mark Robison said he understands why it has been so difficult for the athletic department to find a conference for the track and field teams.
“The problem is most conferences have a couple rules that make it very restrictive,” Robison said. “One, most conferences do not allow independent teams to come in. So, if you’re not affiliated with that conference, most conferences don’t allow anybody else to compete in a single sport.
There are some conferences that don’t have that clause, Robison said.
“Either [the clause] has been an issue or the conference coaches and so forth voted and said, ‘You know what? We don’t really want you to come in,’” Robison said.
Behind Robison’s desk is a case displaying the 24 conference championship rings he earned as a coach at BYU. Robison helped the Cougar outdoor track team win 11 MWC championships and 10 MWC indoor track championships. The other three rings come from WAC championships.
Are other conferences afraid of BYU’s competition?
“In some conferences for sure,” Robison said. “No question. There’s [nobody] out there that says, ‘Man, we want to have BYU’s track.’ There’s no real benefit. From other outside conferences’ viewpoint they’re not going to get anything out of it. And if you bring in another team like BYU who does well in their conference, then you run the risk of changing the whole dynamic of the conference. [They] have less opportunities to win it or to place in certain events.”
Robison said some conferences have been more difficult to deal with than others.
“[Conference USA] said to us, ‘You can be in our meet, you just can’t place and score points,’” Robison said. “And that’s like, ‘Are you nuts? Why would you ever do that?’”
Affiliation and fear of BYU’s competition are not the only things that keep BYU from joining a conference, Robison said.
“Then the other issue is Sunday play,” Robison said. “Almost all the conferences compete on Sunday. I think the only two that don’t are the WAC and the Mountain West.”
The Mountain West won’t allow BYU’s track and field to stay because they have a clause that says the school must be an affiliate institution to compete in any sport.
Unlike other sports, next year’s schedule for the indoor and outdoor track and field teams would not be much different than it is now.
Both teams compete in invitationals throughout the season where they compete against schools all across the nation. The Cougars rarely have the opportunity to compete against schools from the MWC before the conference meet at the end of the season.
“We could survive without a conference,” Robison said. “We don’t want to, but we could.”
Robison said if BYU couldn’t find a conference for its track and field teams before next season, the teams would compete as independents, like football and gymnastics. In this case, the indoor track team would join schools from the Pac-12, Big West and West Coast conferences to compete in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation meet at the end of the season. The MPSF scores teams in the meet, but doesn’t award conference championships.
The outdoor track team would likely compete in the Georgia Tech meet at the end of the season, Robison said. The Cougars could be scored and placed at that meet. However, BYU could not be awarded a conference championship because it is not affiliated with the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Robison said a conference championship meet is beneficial because it’s a stepping stone for the regional and national meets at the end of the season.
“We’re always trying to get them to nationals,” Robison said. “But if we didn’t join a conference, the only thing they would measure my team is how well [it] does at nationals. And that’s kind of scary.”
For indoor track, conference affiliation doesn’t matter, Robison said. No matter where certain athletes place in the conference, they can go to nationals if they rank among the top 15 in their event nationally.
Athletes competing for the outdoor track teams become eligible for nationals based on how well they perform at regionals. BYU isn’t required to be a member of a conference to compete in regionals.
Despite the struggles, Robison said he’s optimistic the Cougars will be invited to a conference.
“Right now, there’s more unanswered questions, than answered,” Robison said. “We might find it’s a pretty great thing [to be independent].”