Dave Wottle may be the most famous track athlete ever produced by a Mid-American Conference program.

Winner of an Olympic gold medal in the 800-meter run at the 1972 Munich Games, Bowling Green State University's Wottle also was famous for wearing a golf cap in races.

Wottle's success brought positive attention to a competitive track conference with a proud history, but it's fair to say that few followed his lead on head wear.

Today, however, track coaches around the nation are worrying that another MAC product -- a trend toward cutting men's track and field programs -- will inspire all too many imitators.

Only nine of the MAC's 13 multisport members currently are sponsoring men's outdoor track and field programs, down from 12 that participated in the 2001 conference championships. Only eight of those nine sponsor indoor track programs. Two more conference members have announced they will drop their indoor and outdoor programs after this season.

It seems impossible to single out a specific reason why nearly half of the league's men's track teams have been cut in only three years' time -- or at least impossible to agree on a reason.

As typically happens when men's programs are cut, some blame fallout from enforcement of Title IX. But try to make that argument here, and plenty of people vigorously will disagree, replying that gender has only a little, if anything, to do with it.

Others point to a range of factors, from pressures on the MAC's Division I-A football teams to be nationally competitive, to NCAA sports-sponsorship and financial aid limits, to the tough budgetary climate at most state-funded universities and colleges.

Some will argue the MAC's situation is an aberration, the product of a perfect storm. But others see the cuts as a warning for other regions, and hope the storm sirens they are sounding will be heard and heeded, before the sport of college track and field is damaged beyond repair.

"It's terribly distressing to me to see what the Mid-American Conference has done, or that it would become a trend across the country in conferences," said Terry Crawford, head track and field coach at California Polytechnic State University and president of the United States Track Coaches Association (USTCA). "That's a glaring example of why this issue of elimination of programs has to be explored in depth right now, and brought to the attention of the public."

History and diversity

Track and field certainly isn't the only sport threatened in recent years by program cuts. It has been hurt far less than wrestling, in which sports-sponsorship numbers have been declining for years. A lengthy upward trend in sponsorship of men's track and field programs reversed itself only in the past couple of years, and much of that decline is attributable specifically to the cuts in the MAC.

But that reversal disturbs not only coaches, but others who appreciate the sport's place in NCAA history, as well as its built-in diversity of events and athletes.

Track and field was the Association's first championship sport, and this year's men's championships will be the 83rd since the inaugural meet at the University of Chicago in 1921. The NCAA added women's track championships in 1982, setting the stage for the emergence of international stars like Jackie Joyner-Kersee.

"Track athletes are a pretty diverse group -- you just can't have a shot putter running the 10,000 meters...and in my mind that's diversity," said Dave Johnson, director of the Penn Relays, American track and field's oldest continuous campus-based track and field event. "We talk about how diversity is a goal of college campuses, and now we start chopping away at what is probably the most diverse athletics program on most campuses. I think educators would see that as a tragedy, but I don't hear that discussed."

"We provide gender opportunities better than any sport," said Dennis Mitchell, track and field coach at the University of Akron. "There isn't any sport our size that has combined meets, combined championships -- we do everything together. It's the most gender-equal sport.

"We also provide a lot of diversity of minorities. We've also been the leader for years in promoting the fitness benefits of athletics. So when you look at all the things we provide -- participation, Olympic opportunity, all the things from an educational standpoint -- there's no sport that provides as much as ours.

"But now we live more and more in a climate where the emphasis is not as much on that anymore; the emphasis is on money and fame. And your program has to bring some kind of money or fame to the university. That's what an administrator sees -- how much bang they get for their bucks."

Mitchell offers that view not as a complaint, but as matter-of-fact reality. He is a member of a task force recently formed by the USTCA's Crawford to study reasons for recent cuts in track programs, and to suggest ways of combating further reductions.

Mitchell's men's and women's teams compete in the MAC, giving him a front-row seat for observing the variety of problems that track and field faces today.

"There are three things: There's always the gender-equity issue, there are finances, and there's also what I'd call an emphasis on being successful in football," Mitchell listed as factors influencing recent cuts in the conference.

"When you talk about the Mid-American Conference, we're sitting there sort of in the middle of the road, and every issue kind of hits us."

Task force

Crawford appointed the USTCA task force in September 2003 to examine factors contributing to the elimination of college track and field programs and make recommendations for reversing the trend.

"In the time the task force has existed, it has learned there is not a quick fix for this issue," she said.

She listed four areas the task force is reviewing.

"One is to increase the awareness of our community of coaches as to how they demonstrate the value of their programs to college administrators and university communities."

The USTCA is preparing to distribute a "to-do" list to its members, titled "10-Lane Track to Victory." Much of the advice included in the document is based on conversations with coaches and administrators of programs that recently have been discontinued around the country (see page A3).

"All 10 items may not be relevant to every program, but we feel it's a valuable list to put out to our membership and the track community," Crawford said. "If a coach is addressing even half of the items, we feel like that program is making positive efforts to secure its future."

"Second, we wanted to explore some recommendations we could make to the NCAA and to USA Track & Field, so they can be positive contributors in giving relief."

Crawford suggests two actions the NCAA can take to help member institutions sponsoring track and field.

She is optimistic -- based on conversations with members of the NCAA Men's and Women's Track and Field Committee and concerns expressed about Olympic sports in general by members of the Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet -- that serious consideration will be given to one action: reimbursement of expenses for the Division I Men's and Women's Indoor Track Championships.

Currently, institutions choosing to receive reimbursement and per diem for the indoor championships become ineligible to receive reimbursement for outdoor championships. She said coaches regard providing reimbursement for both championships as an "equity and fairness" issue.

Crawford also is urging the cabinet to approve reimbursement for teams' participation in regional meets, which were created last year as qualifiers for the Division I outdoor championships.

"We want to bring that to (the cabinet's) attention and ask it to reconsider, because that in itself would be a financial relief to programs across the country, and would encourage athletics directors, as they look at balancing budgets."

"The third issue: We look at this as a two-way street, that it's not just a problem for administrators to fix. Coaches, administrators and officials in the track and field family have got to look at change in the sport ... so that we're making ourselves attractive and appealing to the public at large."

The task force is reviewing such issues as how to make the conduct and formats of track meets more inviting and understandable for fans, and ways to generate more excitement about competition.

"We have not focused on it, but we have to review how Title IX is being used to the detriment of the sport."

Crawford suggests that track and field, along with other Olympic sports, is negatively affected by current guidelines, and that more attention should be given to its effects.

Wake-up call

For all of those concerns, Crawford, Mitchell and others see much that remains right with the sport.

"I don't see a gloom-and-doom thing," Mitchell said. "I think there's a lot of hope. There's just a little wake-up call here. We've got to learn to compete in today's society just like everybody else does."

The recent adoption of regional competition has generated new excitement in the Division I Men's and Women's Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

"I would say that the Division I outdoor championships are alive and well," said John Kane, senior associate director of athletics at Boston College and chair of the NCAA Men's and Women's Track and Field Committee.

"When we came out of Sacramento (site of the 2003 championships), I was told by I don't know how many coaches that it was the best meet they've participated in during the last decade, and in some cases, ever. We had nine meet records, great attendance, great weather, and obviously great performances."

Kane believes student-athletes may be most excited of all about the regional format.

"When you increase the number of student-athletes from 388 to 544 in each gender, that excites student-athletes, and that's what we're all about."

Kane believes the Division I indoor championships are growing as well, judging from fan support at meets and improving television ratings.

"I really do feel that the state of indoor and outdoor track and field is good; it's healthy. We've got the best developmental system in the world, right here in our colleges and with our coaches and athletes," he said.

And even with track's emphasis on individual development and accomplishment, some coaches also see team competition making at least a small comeback -- a development that could help generate more fan interest in the sport on campuses.

"I think there's more interest that way," said Dave Nielsen, track and field coach at Idaho State University and originator of the USTCA Team Power Ranking (www.team-power.org), which ranks more than 60 participating Division I programs on the basis of "quality of athletics performance," team depth, and dual-meet scoring potential. "Traditional rivalries maybe are becoming a little better again. I may be quite biased about it, but I seem to hear more about it, and maybe that's because I'm looking for it."

Nielsen says Idaho State's scored meets with rivals are most likely to attract local fans.

"When we have a home meet, we'll take gate, and if we have a good dual-meet situation, relatively short by track and field standards at 2 1/2 to three hours, and especially on a Friday evening, we'll pull more people in there," he said. "We get quite a bit of interest when we have a dual, when Montana State comes down or Weber State comes up, and top teams in the conference are dualing off.

"More people will come to the gate, as opposed to when we have a big invitational thing, where it's harder for us, anyway, to get the good gate."

Current scholarship limits, however, are among factors that may block more than a token move back toward team competition.

"This is my own personal opinion, but I'm not sure we're going to see a return to head-to-head competition in track and field under any format, as long as the number of scholarships is not equivalent to the number of events," Kane said. Division I members currently can offer only 12.6 scholarships for men's track and field and cross country, and 18 for women, but most track meets feature 20 or more events.

"It's hard to have a dual meet between Boston College and Georgetown if we're not competing on the same ground, in terms of scholarships," Kane said. "Coaches are going to go where they have the best opportunity to qualify their athletes, or in this case, to regional meets."

Watching the MAC

For now, worried eyes are focused on the MAC, and searching for clues that the storm that has settled over that conference is moving elsewhere. Meanwhile, the league itself is coming to grips with the aftermath.

"I grew up around this conference, and I actually went to MAC meets before women were involved, so I've seen both ends of the spectrum," said Sue Parks, head women's track and field coach at Ball State University and daughter of Bob Parks, former coach at Eastern Michigan University, where Sue was a league cross country champion.

"Now, we're up to 13 teams on the women's side, and next year we'll have six men's teams indoors and seven teams outdoors. So the conference basically has been cut in half on the men's side. It's turned into two different meets, on the women's side compared to the men's side.

"It's a scaled-down men's meet. There's half as many heats of everything. Definitely now, with eight scorers, the points are cheap on the men's side. There's still quality athletes there, great athletes, championship-level athletes, but there's not going to be the depth there is on the women's side, ever again."

"We always thought that track was the best sport in the conference," Mitchell said. "The athletes who developed, and the way it was set up, we truly had a team conference. You'd go to the high jump, and there'd be meets where you couldn't place unless you went 7 foot, and now, it looks like you can win at 6-8 and place at 6-6. The quality of performances has been drastically cut, and that's hurt."

Next year, Parks will take her team to the MAC championships, but for the first time, the men's team will not accompany the women. Ball State will discontinue men's track and field at the end of this season.

"I think it's going to be a lot harder than I've anticipated," she said. "We share buses with the men, we share equipment, we talk about training ideas, they help us and we help them; there's always a give and take between the two programs. I've never been involved at a school that hasn't had a men's program.

"I think it's going to be real interesting to see how it all plays out, and how I'm going to feel about it when next year comes and we have just one program. It's kind of an empty feeling for me right now."

The roll of the missing in the MAC now already includes Wottle's former team at Bowling Green, and next year will include Western Michigan University, a longtime power in the league whose distance runners won NCAA cross country team championships in 1964 and 1965.

"What does become sad is that it seems so permanent when a program gets cut," Mitchell said. "When it gets cut, that's it; that whole history -- all those teams in Western Michigan's history -- is gone. It will disappear, and it will not be a part of Western Michigan history anymore.

"That's why it's so important that coaches do all they can to take this wake-up call and make something happen. "