If you've been paying attention to the news in our sport at the collegiate level, you already know that the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association voted this week to recommend to the NCAA that 1500 metes be replaced in the national championships with the mile.
Part of the impetus for this is that the IAAF recently began allowing mile times to qualify for the World Championships 1500.
Well, all of that raises an interesting question. @hat if the NCAA does adopt the mile for competition purposes? Does that, or should that, start a domino effect that makes its way down to the high school level?
Currently, Massachusetts is the only state that runs the mile at its outdoor state meet. Hawai'i, Oregon, Vermont, and Rhode Island all run 1500 meters. New York and Iowa run 1500 meters for girls and 1600 meters for boys. All other states run 1600 meters at their state meet.
But, it's possible to see the mile trickling down to a whole lot of states if the NCAA adopts the mile.
What would it mean? It would mean another line on the track, roughly nine meters behind the current start/finish line. A mile takes roughly two seconds longer than a 1600 to run. It means we have to decide what to do with (and where to find!) a whole bunch of old mile records dating back to the late 1970s and earlier.
This is a great audience participation question. I've set up a poll on the forum of Colorado Track XC that is linked here. To a visit to the pole and let us know what your thoughts are!
