Because there was always another
starting line...
But for many of my peers, the
opportunity to race again was taken away yesterday by the NCAA.
I understand the calamity and the magnitude of
COVID-19, and it's not my intention to undermine it. But it has been one of my
life's greatest privileges to care about running as much as I do, and I know
many of my peers second this opinion. That being said, running and competing is
a major aspect of many athletes' identities in college, and that's okay. We put
so much love and effort into our sports that we should be allowed to hurt as
much as we are right now after hearing that we will no longer have an
opportunity to compete. So while I understand the rationale behind the NCAA's
decision, I'm going to allow myself to grieve.
I started the year with massive goals
for outdoor track. While I always gave my full attention to the season I was in
(cross country and indoor track), my coach and I both knew that outdoor track
was where I was going to have the most national-level success.
Last year at Drake Relays I ran a
10:31 3000m steeplechase. This was a school record and good enough to take third in
the race. But as soon as I crossed the finish line and saw the time, I had a
bad feeling that I was going to be just shy of making the NCAA West Regional.
For Division 1, there are two Regionals (east and west) and each allows 48
competitors per event to come to compete for a spot at Nationals. Based on past
years, athletes and coaches can relatively guess the average time that will
make the meet, so my coaches and I knew that my time would put me on the
bubble. Sure enough, I was less than a second away from making the meet: four spots out.
Ever since finding out that I was just
barely out of qualifying, it's been my goal to earn my spot on the starting
line and then find success while there. We've been practicing steeple technique
for months and I've been working on my anxiety surrounding the water barrier
for over a year. But now I won't have an opportunity to showcase all my hard
work.
I've agonized over a second of time on
a clock for a year, and now I have to wait another full year in order to chase
that goal again. But I'm one of the lucky ones.
Even though I'm a senior, I still have
a full year of redshirted eligibility that I planned to use while getting my
masters. But many of my peers and friends didn't account for this season to be
canceled, or now for the NCAA to give eligibility back. Many people in my
class already have jobs or new homes lined up for when they graduate college.
But all of them had looked forward to experiencing and enjoying their last
opportunities to compete at the collegiate level. And now things have become
more complicated.
Because the NCAA just granted
eligibility back to spring sports, many current seniors will have decisions to
make. But the NCAA and individual universities will now have to negotiate many
new problems and change a lot of rules in order to accommodate this decision
(which I fully support by the way).
Many seniors I know have already
applied and been accepted to graduate programs at other schools because they
didn't previously have eligibility lined up. So they now lose the opportunity
to compete at the school they currently attend and would have competed for this
spring season. Many of these same student-athletes are enrolling in medical
school or physical therapy school, which forbid (unless special permission is
granted) their students to keep competing collegiately. And seniors, who hadn't
planned to continue education, and instead move into the real world, now
have to decide if they want to pursue a job or more collegiate athletic
endeavors, which could cost them more money than they didn't account for.
Some of the biggest issues I've
thought of that face individual schools and the NCAA are scholarships and
roster spots. Teams have already signed a number of incomers, and have planned
to reallocate the scholarships that their graduating seniors are currently on. Because
eligibility has been given back, and if seniors choose to stay, universities
will now have to find new ways to spread the money. The other issue is that
teams are only allowed a certain number of athletes. This obviously becomes problematic
when athletes choose to remain at their school, but their spot on the roster
had already been given up to a freshman. Many NCAA rules will have to change in
order for more eligibility to be fully possible.
Another barrier between seniors taking
the extra eligibility is the issue of education. Many graduate school programs
have already closed their application deadline, so even if an athlete wanted to
stay, they wouldn't have an opportunity to receive an education. Individual
universities and their athletic programs would have to make accommodations for
new late applications coming in from athletes who wish to keep pursuing their
sport. And this causes more financial issues for schools in terms of allotting
academic scholarship as well as possibly having a larger student body than
previously expected.
I'm still heartbroken about the
decision made by the NCAA regarding this spring season, but granting more
eligibility does take the sting off just a little.
The
NCAA made the decision to cancel the spring and remaining indoor seasons in the
best interest of the general public, and I'm so happy that they now acted in
the best interest of its athletes-the people who have invested time and money
into making our sports great. I'll keep training through this hard time,
because above all, I love running not just for competing. But I am eager to see
how things within my sport and the NCAA continue to unfold.
