Imagine attempting to organize four regional track and field meets that should follow the same schedule of events but may have very different numbers of competitors. How about revamping national championships that have 40 percent more athletes and additional rounds of competition, but having to do so in the same number of days as previous meets?

Oh, by the way, this work has to be done in addition to the full-time duties you have on your campus. And you have the short span of 13 months to complete the task.

Such has been the challenge that the Division I track and field subcommittee has faced in preparing for the 2003 men's and women's outdoor track and field championships.

Most Division I student-athletes will have to compete in the regional meets that will serve as a qualifying round for the national championships. The new format is a change from the method of competitors advancing directly to the national championships if they met standards established for each event.

The Division I subcommittee first proposed an increase in the field size of 388 student-athletes per gender in the national championships in 1999. The Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet did not approve the request and instead asked that the subcommittee propose a qualifying system that would ensure potential access for all Division I institutions.

Thus, the regional format was born out of discussions between an ad hoc group of subcommittee members and U.S. Track Coaches Association representatives.

The resulting proposal, which included an increase to 544 competitors per gender at the national championships, was first unveiled to the cabinet in 2000, but did not become a reality until the Division I Board of Directors approved it at its April 2002 meeting.

Subcommittee moved quickly

While details such as the number of regions, their geographical boundaries, and qualifying methods to the regional and national meets were included in the proposal, a multitude of details had to wait until the proposal received the Board's blessing.

"It would not have been a wise use of time and resources to do such things as develop regional meet schedules or solicit bids from institutions wishing to host regionals until we knew they were going to happen," said Mark Bockelman, NCAA assistant director of championships and liaison to the Division I track and field subcommittee.

Bockelman and the subcommittee sprung into action after the Board's decision. By the end of its annual meeting in June, the subcommittee had made its host recommendations for each of the 2003 regionals and all but one for 2004, decided how many rounds would be needed in the running events, approved regional qualifying standards, and set qualifying deadlines, to name just a few moves.

Fields for the regional meets will be composed of conference champions in each event and those who meet the new regional qualifying standards. "Guaranteeing all conference champions an opportunity to participate in the NCAA championships format was a key point in addressing the cabinet's concern," Bockelman said.

The 2003 regional qualifying meets will be May 30 and 31 at the following institutions: East, George Mason University; Mideast, Ohio State University; Midwest, University of Nebraska, Lincoln; and West, Stanford University. Getting personnel from those institutions to appreciate the significance of their responsibilities was an important step in the implementation process, according to John Kane, senior associate athletics director at Boston College and chair of the Division I track and field committee.

"All four hosts are serious about wanting to be a part of a top-notch event," Kane said. "They are in tune with the mission the subcommittee has set forth, realizing that this is part of NCAA championships competition. They also are doing a great job marketing the meets so the entire atmosphere of that weekend will be indicative of its meaning."

The top five finishers in each individual event and the top three teams in each relay event, who then declare their intention to compete in the event in the national championships, will advance automatically from the four regionals.

Since the regionals carry the importance of advancement to the national championships, the subcommittee has stressed trying to make them as similar as possible. While the group cannot control such factors as the weather and the number of qualifiers, it has worked diligently on those items it can control.

"The biggest challenge definitely has been to formulate and publish the regional and national meet schedules," Kane said. "We want an athlete in the East regional to get the same amount of rest between races as one in the West."

Kane said the subcommittee has met via conference call weekly over the past three months, and on a bi-weekly basis during the rest of the academic year, trying to address those kinds of issues.

Feedback has been quiet

Kane also recognized the effort of past subcommittee members who laid the groundwork for this initiative. "We would not be preparing for regionals if it were not for the work of such persons as Diane Howell (associate athletics director at the University of Houston), whom I succeeded as chair last year."

Once the automatic qualifiers from the four regional meets are determined, the track and field subcommittee will complete the national fields of 544 men and 544 women by selecting at-large competitors from descending-order lists. Those lists will include all regular-season competition and the regional meets.

Adding 312 total competitors to the national championships necessitated the creation of a qualifying round in the field events and an additional round of races in the track events. However, this had to be accomplished without an adjustment to the four-day format of past years.

Subcommittee member David Langford spearheaded the effort to create a feasible schedule. Kane was quick to point out that Langford successfully completed the task, even while assuming new duties as athletics director at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Metropolitan Campus, moving from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

"David's dedication to seeing his job through to completion is really indicative of the attitude of the entire subcommittee," Kane said.

The increased amount of work has not been limited to the subcommittee. Tournament Specialists Inc., the company contracted by the NCAA to compile descending-order lists and set the fields for each event, has received more than 10,000 proof-of-performance (POP) forms, verifying that athletes have either met the regional qualifying standards or won their conference championships.

Last year, POP forms totaled about 5,200 when athletes were attempting to reach more stringent national qualifying standards. According to Bob Podkaminer of Tournament Specialists, the increase in the number of forms, along with the need to produce descending-order lists for each region, has meant 10 more hours of work per week for the company.

The workload is sure to increase since Podkaminer will be accepting hundreds of e-mails from coaches officially entering their athletes into the regionals. Once the declarations are complete, Podkaminer will set up the heats for the running events and the flights for the field events, for each meet.

The men's and women's 10,000-meter runs, the decathlon and the heptathlon will not be part of the regional qualifying format because there is not an adequate amount of recovery time for athletes between the regional and national meets. Competitors in those events will continue to qualify directly to the national championships.

Kane considers the lack of negative feedback he has received on the details of the new format as his biggest surprise with the process. He knows, however, that everything will not be perfect the first time.

"There will be things that we will see at the regionals that we will want to change for 2004 and beyond," he said. "We're looking at this year as a learning experience."

The 2003 national championships will be June 11-14 in Sacramento, California, hosted by California State University, Sacramento, and the Sacramento Sports Commission.