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2008 Men’s Collegiate Dual-Meet Rankings

Posted May 5th, 2008 at 9:30 AM by Jesse Squire

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, College

Years ago, the dual meet was the cornerstone of the college schedule, with some schools regularly taking part in half a dozen of them per year. Even into the early 80s they were quite common. But when budgets were slashed and team sized plummeted, the dual meet dropped off the radar screen.

The regionals format for outdoor track has taken much of the pressure off in terms of getting an NCAA qualifying mark, and in recent years the meet has seen a bit of a resurgence; a few were even carried on regional cable TV. This past weekend saw the end of the dual-meet season with three rather important matchups (USC vs. UCLA, Washington vs. Washington State, and Arizona vs. Arizona State vs. Northern Arizona).

Recognizing this fact, I’m going to reinstate something Track & Field News once did: National Dual-Meet Rankings. Rules for ranking are as follows.

Only actual meet results are considered in the rankings.
Only scored meets featuring two, three or four teams count.
To be ranked, a team must have beaten at least one Division I team in such a meet.
While rankings are based on a combined indoor-outdoor season, outdoor meets are considered more important than indoor meets.

Here are the inaugural The Final Sprint dual-meet rankings:

#1. Oregon
The Ducks won the four-way Pepsi Team Challenge (over Penn State, Minnesota and Washington) and defeated UCLA in a dual.

#2. UCLA
After losing to Oregon, the Bruins rebounded to defeat archrival Southern Cal.

#3. Nebraska
The Cornhuskers won their own Jim Click Shootout (over Arizona, Georgia and Arizona State).

#4. Arizona State
While the Sun Devils did come in dead last at the Jim Click Shootout, this was discounted somewhat in my rankings; they had just come off an NCAA Indoor championship and didn’t send their best team. They made up for it by sweeping their double-dual meet with Arizona and Northern Arizona.

#5. Stanford
The Cardinal defeated California in the annual “Big Meet”.

#6. Arizona
Gaining second in both the Jim Click Shootout and the recent double-dual was good enough for the Wildcats to earn a ranking.

#7. Penn State
The Nittany Lions’ defeat of both Minnesota and Washington in the Pepsi Team Challenge earned the ranking.

#8. Washington State
The Cougars defeated rival Washington in a dual.

#9. Missouri
The Tigers narrowly defeated Virginia in the inaugural “Jefferson Cup” dual meet.

#10. Ohio State
The Buckeyes had the most dual meets of any major-conference team with three. They defeated Kent State while splitting the newly-resumed indoor/outdoor series with That School Up North.

Coming soon: Women’s rankings