I'd hate to see the traditional relay meets hurt significantly, but I also think that regionals may be the way to go. The current chasing of qualifying marks is NOT what I believe the sport should be about. On the other hand, the relay meets represent the essence of the sport - head to head competition with individual times only a secondary factor.
So what's the answer? Are there people out there who think the current qualifing system DOESN'T suck? If not regionals, how do we get the focus back on competition? A few years ago the collegiate dual meet series started back up and that certainly seems like a step in the right direction - one question I have is how many NCAA qualifer types compete and compete at 100% in those dual meets. I'm not convinced that regionals would hurt the big relay meets very much, but I've been wrong before. Again, I wonder what the answer is. Possibly identify top conferences and fill 50% of the NCAA spots based on conference meet results rather than qualifying time. I suspect this idea would not be practical but it is one other thought about how to reward head to head competition. - Ed Parrot
