The value of track & field

[Sic_em]

This ran in Sunday's Star-Telegram and I thought it was interesting since it appears that Copeland was looking strictly at the bottom line when he cut men's T&F.


BUSINESS INSIDER

Collegiate track an all-American deal

By Jeff Caplan

Star-Telegram Staff Writer


The 11 members of the U.S. men's Olympic basketball team who played in the NBA last season made about $75 million in salary.

Seven of the 11 spent one year or less at college before turning pro. Two skipped college altogether, and just one went all four years. These players, of which only three of the original team selected actually accepted, now have a unique opportunity to win an Olympic gold medal without, necessarily, having ever carried the burden of the Olympic dream.

Regardless of the outcome, none of the players' future earning power will be affected. Their pro salaries and endorsement contracts are already in place.

For most of the U.S. athletes heading to Athens, a lifetime of riches remains a golden dream. For instance, members of the U.S. track and field team, such as Baylor undergraduates Jeremy Wariner and Darold Williamson, can potentially build a financial base by becoming Olympic champions. A gold medal can mean worldwide celebrity and lucrative endorsement deals, the reward for a lifetime of training and competing in virtual anonymity.

Those who don't win either return to the track or must move into a segment of the working world.

This brings us back to the distressing topic of last week: the ongoing elimination of Olympic sports -- or nonrevenue sports -- at U.S. universities and colleges, the training grounds for those sports. Student-athletes in Olympic sports are also more likely to remain in school throughout their eligibility and leave the university with a degree.

However, the overriding hurdle for universities seems to be how to properly measure the value of these sports beyond the bottom line of operational costs.

"While the bottom-line factors are important, the only answers aren't contained there," said Jack Swarbrick, chairman of the newly created NCAA/U.S. Olympic Committee task force created to study ways to stop athletic departments from dropping these sports.

Task force members are deeply concerned that, as universities continue to sacrifice Olympic sports, the number of opportunities for student-athletes to study and train are greatly reduced. Ultimately, this country's Olympic ideals and standards could be compromised.

"Men's track and field is an endangered species," said legendary Baylor track coach Clyde Hart, who will join his student-athletes this week in Athens.

Collegians have long become great Olympic champions such as Jesse Owens (Ohio State), Edwin Moses (Morehouse), Bob Hayes (Florida A&M), Carl Lewis (Houston) and Michael Johnson (Baylor). Unlike SMU earlier this year, none of these schools were among the more than 140 track and field programs partially or totally dropped at more than 115 schools in all divisions over the past five years.

Perhaps that's because they understand the value of producing Olympians, a value that can't be measured in hard currency. And that fact threatens an alarming number track and field programs, and other sports, at schools across the country. Some, like Hart, contend that dividing college sports into those capable of making money -- football and men's basketball -- and those incapable, is disingenuous.

"How can you measure having two kids on the Olympic team?" Hart said. "One of them had his picture in Sports Illustrated. They were featured on NBC sports at the [U.S. track and field] trials. Baylor's name was everywhere. One is going to be in Time magazine. NBC spent a whole day with Jeremy Wariner, who is going to be profiled at the Games. Fifty million people will see that."

During filming, NBC's camera crew also captured the Baylor campus and Waco.

"What would that cost our institution to get that kind of publicity?" Hart said. "I have a hard time with this, 'Oh, well, you're a nonrevenue sport.' We do have potential to bring rewards to the university, and you can't measure it in the greenback dollar, but you can certainly measure it for positive publicity. I don't think people have measured all of the ramifications of what those programs do for the institutions."

As well as what those programs do for the student-athletes, and what those student-athletes then do for their country.

Jeff Caplan writes about sports business every Sunday.


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Jeff Caplan, (817) 390-7760 [email protected]

[No Cal Pony]

Could easily be that SMU dropped T&F due to finances, but it was a sad day. The article also doesn't mention Michael Carter. Multiple ncaa shot put champion and Olympic medalist. I was working in LA at the 1984 Games. That was a great year for SMU Olympic athletes. Of course, Steve Lundquist overshadowed most of the others, but what a joy. (I was on deck at the swim stadium for the mens relay finals, and for Ricardo Prado's silver in the backstroke.)

It would be a shame fro other sports to become so endangered, but as we need to remember, fielding many non-revenue sports is quickly becoming part of the fallout in the arms race over football and basketball. And even a school such as ucla had to give up on gymnastics to support the other programs.

I do wish that SMU would and could quickly build a new swim complex.

Go Ponies!