As March Madness was ramping up, I introduced College Track Bracketology. The idea is simple: pick 64 teams based on the indoor season, seed them into brackets, and play them off.

I compared marks made by the matched-up teams in various portions of the outdoor season to determine round winners. The Final Four were determined by results from last weekend’s conference championships.

Your final four are Oregon, Arkansas, Texas A&M and LSU. It may or may not be a coincidence that these represent the champions of the Big 12, the champions of the Pac-12, and the champions and runners-up of the SEC.

Here’s the complete bracket so far.

If you prefer a .pdf, here you go.

The semifinals will match up Oregon and Arkansas (two teams that have already committed to face off in a dual meet next year) and Texas A&M and LSU (two teams that already faced off in a dual in January). Those will be determined by marks made at the NCAA “preliminary rounds” (aka “Regionals”), which begin a week from now in Jacksonville and Austin. The finals will, of course, be determined by the NCAA Championships.

This was Conference Championship weekend, and it’s too big to award just one Athlete of the Week – this time there will be three.

Men

Athlete of the Week #1: Kyle Merber, Columbia
At a little D-III “last chance” meet on Monday night at Swarthmore College, Merber jumped in the 1500 meters with a mostly pro field chasing the Olympic ‘A’ qualifying mark. He won, running 3:35.59, the second-fastest time ever run by a collegian (and the fastest by an American collegian). It was a PR by nearly ten seconds, although his mile PR of 3:58.52 is worth roughly 3:41 for 1500 meters.

Watch more video of 2012 Outdoor Track and Field Season on flotrack.org

This is a huge breakthrough for Merber, who was tenth at the NCAA Outdoor Championships and 15th at the Indoor Championships two years ago; he redshirted the 2011 season and didn’t qualify to the NCAA Indoor this year.
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Almost every conference in NCAA’s Division I held its conference championship this last weekend. An unusual number of meets reported the attendance, and it was unusually good.

I hesitate to take any credit for an increased trend in reporting attendance, but I’m the only nutjob who obsessively keeps track of that kind of data (and possibly the only one who even asks for it), so maybe I should. But why, when reported, was the attendance up?

One possibility is that it’s an Olympic year and interest in track and field is up everywhere. I doubt that has much if anything to do with attendance at conference championship meets, though; the vast majority of the athletes, and even the individual event champions, have no real chance of making the Olympic team.

A significant factor affecting attendance is one over which we have no control at all, and that’s the weather. It was warm and sunny over the weekend for most of the country, and that’s important for getting people in the stands everywhere outside the roofed facilities of Hayward Field (Oregon) and Weaver Stadium (Princeton).

But I think there’s something else at play. Within the small community of track and field media, we have been steadily beating the drum about paying attention to the needs of the fans. You need to promote the meet and you need something for people to see. It looks like organizers at the college level are finally beginning to pay attention.
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The four big conferences — the Pac-12, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC — all finish up their championship meets today. I’ve taken a look at how two of the closest meets are likely to shake out.

Pac-12

Meet website | Schedule | Live results
The men’s side of this meet is going to be a tight battle, and it now looks to be more or less a toss-up between Oregon and Arizona State. I used the Eugene Register-Guard’s formcharts, updated them with yesterday’s results, and this is what I get:

Oregon 124
Arizona State 120.5
Arizona 99
UCLA 88
Stanford 86
Southern Cal 75

Basically, the meet is between Oregon and Arizona State, and whichever team has its athletes perform closest to their abilities (and makes the fewest mistakes) will win.
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This is Conference Championship weekend for almost every team in the country, which makes it the biggest meet (and last meet) of the season for 90% to 95% of the teams and athletes. Let’s take a look at some of the bigger meets on the docket.

The Big Ten Championships run through Sunday at Wisconsin’s McLimon Memorial Track & Soccer Complex. This meet is usually close, a dogfight between several teams. The indoor champions this year were Indiana’s men (a big upset) and Nebraska’s women. Men’s defending champions Iowa present an underdog threat to win, but it could be any of five teams (the two mentioned plus Nebraska, Wisconsin and Minnesota).
Meet website | Schedule | Start lists | live results
The meet will be televised on the Big Ten Network on Sunday, May 20, at noon.

The SEC Championships run through Sunday at LSU’s Bernie Moore Stadium. The indoor champions this year were Arkansas’ men and Florida’s women. Arkansas and Florida have waged some epic battles in men’s competition over the last few years, but the Gators are without stars Jeff Demps (gimpy hamstring) and Gray Horn (suspended for DUI arrest), making the Hogs’ path to the championship a little easier. LSU’s women are the highest-rated team in the USTFCCCA rankings, but those don’t necessarily mean a lot in conference meets.
Meet website | Schedule | live results
The meet is being webcast live on ESPN3.com from 3:30 PM (ET) Saturday and 2:00 PM (ET) Sunday, and will be televised on ESPNU on Wednesday, May 23, at midnight.

The Big XII Championships run through Sunday at Kansas State’s R.V. Christian Track. The indoor champions this year were Texas A&M for both the men and women, and both teams are prohibitive favorites to leave the conference as champions.
Meet website | Schedule | live results
The meet will be televised on Fox Sports Net regional channels on a myriad of dates; check here for listings.

The Pac-12 Championships are on Saturday and Sunday at Oregon’s Hayward Field, and the Ducks are trying to extend a pair of win streaks. Oregon’s women have won the last three meets and are overwhelming favorites to make it four straight. Oregon’s men have a five-year win streak, but are only one of several teams figured to be in the picture. USC looks good on paper, but I’m hesitant to think highly of a team that got blown out in its rivalry dual against UCLA (and a very average team at that). The teams I think have the best chance are Arizona State and Stanford.
Meet website | Schedule | Start lists | live results
The meet will be televised on Fox Sports Net regional channels on a myriad of dates; check here for listings.

Of course there are many more conference meets, so check the USTFCCCA’s Conference Championship Central page for more info, and check their Broadcast Schedule for webcast availability.

Things are really beginning to ramp up on the professional side of things. Here’s a guide to the weekend’s action.

The Diamond League kicks off on Friday with the Samsung Diamond League Doha in Doha, Qatar. There will be a bunch of great clashes, unusual for such an early-season meet: Veronica Campbell-Brown versus Allyson Felix in the women’s 100 meters and Asafa Powell versus Walter Dix in the men’s 100 meters are just two, but the list of top-notch talent is long.

Meet website | Schedule/start lists/results

Fans in the USA can watch beginning at 12:00 noon (Eastern time) at UniversalSports.com (free to DIRECTV subscribers, subscription req’d to everyone else). Fans in Canada can watch for free at CBC.ca, also beginning at noon ET.

Here’s a video preview from Universal Sports:

Other previews:
IAAF | Let’s Run | Associated Press

On Saturday, the UAE Healthy Kidney 10k will be run in Manhattan, featuring all three U.S. men’s Olympic marathoners: Abdi Abdirahman, Ryan Hall, and Meb Keflezighi.
Let’s Run: Ryan Hall talks atop the Empire State Building

On Saturday, the USA 25 km Championships will be run in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in conjunction with the Fifth Third River Bank Run. The race will be streamed live beginning at 8:20 AM (Eastern time).

On Saturday, the Ponce Grand Prix de Atletismo, the next stop on the IAAF’s second-tier World Challenge circuit, will take place in Ponce, Puerto Rico. The best races on the schedule are the men’s hurdles, where Dayron Robles will mee Jason Richardson in the 110 meter race and Javier Culson will meet Bershawn “Batman” Jackson.
Meet website | Schedule | start lists
IAAF preview

On Sunday, the Volkswagen Prague Marathon will be run, an IAAF Gold Label road race.
Preview: Lydia Cheromei favored

On Sunday, the Brazilian tour continues with the GP Internacional Uberlandia. The top events here are the men’s triple jump and the women’s hammer throw.
Meet website (in Portugese) | Schedule | Start lists | Live results

As March Madness was ramping up, I introduced College Track Bracketology. The idea is simple: pick 64 teams based on the indoor season, seed them into brackets, and play them off.

I compared marks made by the matched-up teams in various portions of the outdoor season to determine round winners. The third round winners were determined by best marks made in the last two weeks of April and the first week of May. The third rund gets it down to eight teams. Upsets are in yellow.

If you prefer a .pdf version, here you go.

The third round saw the following scores:
Oregon 98, Air Force 65
Iowa 83, Indiana 76
Stanford 80, Oklahoma 69
Arkansas 108, BYU 51
Nebraska 122, UConn 41
LSU 100, Texas 46
Texas A&M 96, Georgia 65
Penn State 84, Arizona State 75

The Final Four will be determined by marks made at this weekend’s conference championship meets. These eight teams come from only four conferences: the Big Ten (Iowa, Penn State and Nebraska), SEC (Arkansas and LSU), Pac-12 (Oregon and Stanford) and Big 12 (Texas A&M). It will be interesting to see if the champions of those conferences are the same teams that are still left in the playoff.

Earlier this week I rolled out the College Dual Meet Hall of Fame, and so far I’ve honored a rivalry (USC vs UCLA), a venue (Hayward Field), and a coach (John Chaplin). Now it’s time to honor the people who really make it all happen, the athletes.

My intention is to honor athletes of both sexes (but more men than women, given their longer history of competition) and from a variety of events and eras. Also note that the Hall of Fame in general will have a western/southern emphasis in its spring honorees, and a midwestern/northeastern emphasis in its winter honorees.

The five athletes honored are…

Gail Devers (UCLA, sprints/hurdles/jumps, 1985-88)
George Horine (Stanford, high jump, 1910-13)
Mel Patton (USC, sprints, 1947-49)
Meg Ritchie (Arizona, throws, 1980-83)
Henry Rono (Washington State, distance, 1977-81)

Gail Devers was a one-woman wrecking crew for UCLA. Against archrival Southern Cal, she competed in 24 events in four years, winning 13 individual races and five relays and scoring 76¼ points. She did the 100, 200, 100 hurdles, long jump and triple jump; she still ranks among the best ever in dual-meet competition in the 100, the hurdles and the long jump.

George Horine set the world record in the high jump at 6′ 6¼” while competing for Stanford against Southern Cal in 1912. He was a pioneer who created what was later known as the western roll.

Mel Patton, aka “Pell Mel”, was the best sprinter in the world during his time at Southern Cal. Against UCLA in 1949, he bettered two world records, running a wind-aided 9.1 in the 100 yards (obviously not recognized as a record) and 20.2 for the straightaway 220 yards (approved as a record). He was undefeated in collegiate competition, beating such notables as Herb McKenley, and his Trojans were also undefeated in dual meets during his years there.

Meg Ritchie was the most dominant collegiate thrower of all time. She still holds the dual-meet records for shot put (18.99m/62′ 3¾”) and discus (65.00m/213′ 3″). The shot put mark was her lifetime PR, and she holds all five of the best discus marks ever made in dual-meet competition. She was undefeated in dual- meets over her last three years. She later worked as Arizona’s strength and conditioning coach, the only female in such a position in all of NCAA’s Division I athletics.

Henry Rono was simply the greatest collegiate distance runner of all time. In 1978 he broke the 5000 meter world record in a tri-meet against Arizona State and Cal, running 13:08.4, which stands as the dual-meet record. He also holds the dual-meet record for the steeplechase at 8:14.75. He has three of the four fastest steeplechases in dual-meet history, and two of the three fastest 5ks. His only loss in dual-meet competition was during his freshman year, when he took 5th in a 1500 meter race while doubling back from the steeplechase on an hour’s rest.

LaShawn Merritt races the host of NOC’d Up in a series of odd contests…