I'm curious how our move to the SEC will impact Track. I don't know enough about it to say, but I wonder if we didn't just hand the national championship to Oregon or Stanford. Don't you qualify for Nationals out of conference? Seems like we'll be offsetting a lot vs Florida and the other good programs.

It will only help.

We won't win as many conference championships, but it could possibly help recruiting.

You qualify for regionals by time. You then qualify for nationals by running at a regional. We will still compete in the West "regional". The conference has no bearing on the national meet.

I agree- IMHO this should only help us. Track & Field is very different from other sports. Frequent top level competition like the SEC will ultimately translate to better overall performances for our athletes at both regionals & nationals.

Florida has really been the team we've had to beat out at nationals for the past few years and regular competition against our new conference foes...including LSU, Arkansas & UT (Vols)...should only make us better prepared for the NCAA championships. More importantly, the SEC move will also help recruiting. Gig'Em!

-Mike Stulce


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Thanks!

I mean, really, we run a LOT of meets against the SEC every year anyways. And I imagine the competition against Texas will probably continue, just because of how many people you have to move for a track meet, gotta take advantage of the close ones.

Besides, winning conference titles in track has never really been our forte anyways...the men's win last year was their first outdoor title in a decade.

Will be exciting to host SEC Championships...if you add A&M to that mix, it truly becomes a world-class meet in many events, and that's the kind of event you can really pull in some attention/coinage with.

sort of on topic, but I drove by Arky's track facility last weekend...DAMN that place is nice

Spot on, Mike!

And remember $BB's contract is set up to give him a months pay as bonus each for a mens or womens finish in the top 10 nationally. There is no bonus money tied to either track conference championship so that really isn't so important upstairs.

blastoff:
Texas actually refused to attend any of our indoor meets last year except Nationals, which they couldn't refuse. Bubba got his underwear in a wad the year before.

I don't think it matters. We have Pat Henry. We are building and olympic type stadium for track.

I sat next to the father of a sprinter/recruit from NC. Bottom line, how can you turn down Pat Henry? you can't, unless you get a full ride elsewhere and we cannot match that offer.

There aren't many full ride scholarships in T&F or CC - especially at schools that field competitive teams. The NCAA limits them to 18 for women and 12 or 13 for men. Most scholarships are split.

yes, but according to a recruits' father, they help them get scholarships in other ways.

Will Bubba exclude A&M from future Texas Relays?

Exclude A&M from future Texas Relays? That’s really funny. Pat Henry OWNS Bubba and Bubba has no authority to “exclude” A&M. The fact is A&M is doing Texas a favor by going to a track meet in Austin. A&M is the premier T&F program in the country and without A&M it really isn’t a meet. A&M currently has one of best indoor track facilities in the world and will have the best outdoor facility before too long. When it comes to T&F, A&M is “the Jones”.

Just asking. I do think that since the Texas Relays is an invitational meet that Bubba could not invite or exclude any team he wanted to just as Henry coult fail to invite or exclude Texas or any other school from a meet in College Station.

Will the new facility be called Pat Henry Stadium? Does anyone know if someone is sponsoring this already? A great name for a great coach!!

are they starting construction on the new facilities now? heavy equipment and earth being moved along the west side of the track.

We badly need a new outdoor track but we will not likely host anything along the lines of Olympic Trials or even an NCAA Outdoor Championships. The town does not have hotel space to accomodate meets of that size (the outdoor meet is much larger than the indoor meet) and in the case of the Trials, the heat in Texas is a big problem for the decision makers as well. I personally think the team will win more conference titles in the SEC than we do currently because the talent in the conference will make it similar to NCAA's and not require as much depth. The top end of Coach Henry's squad can compete with anyone. As for Texas Relays I am not sure that anyone on here has a real clue of how that will evolve. I would hope that A&M will continue to be a part of the meet.