WSU’s drops the field part of track and field, a preview of the cuts other sports will have to endure as college athletics continue its evolution

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Next time you are sitting around the sports bar with your buddies, try this little test. Start talking about track and field, except don’t use the field part. See if everyone knows what you’re talking about. Why? Partly because Washington State University announced Monday it will be conducting a similar experiment come the fall.

•••••••

• My hypothesis? Everyone will know which sport you are referring to – and will have a story or two about it. Calling the human race’s oldest athletic activity by its nickname has always happened, though the field part has been understood whether it is name-dropped or not.

As for the Cougars’ planned obsolescence of the field part? Sadly, it will achieve its purpose. Money will be saved, WSU will still be able to count the sport among the 14 needed to retain NCAA Division I status and there will be little fuss among the alumni, especially the ones who believe the football program needs to add another assistant football coach for tattoo refinement.

You know, to keep up with the “other” Power schools. After all, you can’t have your transfer defensive lineman having his old school’s mascot tattooed on his bicep. There needs to be someone on staff who can fix it.

If a long jumper or shot putter has to be sacrificed, so be it.

After all, as any football apologist can point out, Washington State’s legacy in the sport has revolved around its distance runners. Gerry Lindgren. Henry Rono. Julius Korir. Peter Koech. Bernard Lagat. Evans Kurui. Sprinters and javelin throwers? Who needs them? They don’t run cross country in the fall, do they?

No, they don’t. But the men’s track and field team just sent six athletes to the recently completed NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championship and five of them were sprinters. Only Kurui, who competed in the 10,000 meters, fits the new “distance-focused approach.”

Yes, there will still be sprinting and hurdling going on. We think. After sending out a release that supported the debatable premise “this change gives the WSU Track and Field program the best opportunity to remain competitive at the conference and national levels in distance events in cross country, indoor track and field and outdoor track and field,” the school didn’t make anyone available to talk about it. Not athletic director Anne McCoy. Not head coach Wayne Phipps.

The release made it clear field events will disappear. The athletes that competed in them? Their scholarships will be honored, of course. If they want to stay. And they will receive help finding a new school if they don’t. The sprinters, like Mason Lawyer, who set a school record in the 200 meters this spring? A scaled-back effort will be in place next year, so it’s possible he and others could stay. But why would anyone want to, other than Pullman is a great place to attend college.

It’s obvious some changes had to be made. Washington State’s media-rights income from the reconstituted Pac-12 will be up to $20 million less per year than it would have been if the conference had held together. Even with a larger pile of cash, the athletic department has run at a deficit way too often in the past decade or so and has a debt of more than $100 million with the main campus. As belts tighten from French Ad to Bustad Hall, McCoy’s budget isn’t as robust as the one Pat Chun operated with.

At a time when the school feels it must bolster the football and basketball programs to keep up with the Joneses of the college scene. Oh, lest we forget, there is the little thing of spending school funds to pay – that’s what it is – athletes, a number that can (and will) reach $20.5 million for schools who are really still of the Power variety. WSU will earmark less.

Cuts had to come somewhere. Using a scalpel to every program will help close the budget gap while, at the same time, allow the football program to keep adding people with titles like general manager or player retention specialist or commercial-talent ride-share coordinator or some other they-have-it-so-we-need-it-too addition.

The number of people covered by the football employment umbrella has more than doubled in the past 15 years or so. The amount of success? Well, that’s that judgment has to be made by the 20,000 or so who sing “Back Home” at Gesa Field on Saturdays or the unknown number watching on The CW or wherever.

The 49 athletes who represented WSU in field events or sprints or hurdles in 2025? They may just have to find a new home in 2026.

•••

WSU: The S-R has the right person around to write about WSU’s taking a meat cleaver to the field events. John Blanchette has this story on the changes. … Meanwhile, football recruiting never stops. Greg Woods has this story on the latest recruit, linebacker Josh Faraimo, to announce he’s headed to Pullman in 2026. … Elsewhere in the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, we knew this news was coming, just not when. No, not the media rights deal or an expansion decision. Nope. We knew California athletic director Jim Knowlton would leave the school at some point after the chancellor took control of the football program away and gave it to alum Ron Rivera in March. … John Canzano has his Monday mailbag. … There is a question in Colorado. Which school, Colorado or Colorado State, wins more football games this year? … Arizona just keeps on recruiting. … In baseball news, Oregon State is not uncomfortable with its position, despite facing a loser-out game today against Louisville. This season’s Beavers have been in similar circumstances before. … UCLA’s game with LSU was suspended late Monday as thunderstorms wracked the Omaha area. The Bruins and Tigers will resume this morning with LSU up 5-3 midway through the fourth inning. … The best pitching performance of this World Series. Arkansas’ Gage Wood struck out a record 19 Murray State batters en route the event’s first no-hitter since 1960. … Arizona could have another successful team next season. But could is a big word these days. … In basketball news, Colorado has a leader in place as it prepares to make a trip overseas. … Tommy Lloyd will be coaching just one incoming Arizona player this summer with his USA Basketball team.

EWU and Idaho: Around the Big Sky, Montana continues to mine the state’s smaller high schools for football players. … Northern Arizona always has someone who does well at the NCAA track meet.

Mariners: Logan Gilbert is back. And looked sharp, yielding just a first-inning solo home run and an Abraham Toro-driven in run in the third. That was enough for the Red Sox, though, as the M’s bats were muffled in the 2-0 loss. … One metric tells us Julio Rodriguez is having his best year ever. I’m not sure every M’s fan agrees. … They are probably pretty united in that, despite the recent contributions, the role players are still not good enough for the team to compete for a title. … Cal Raleigh should be the American League All-Stars’ starting catcher.

Kraken: Maybe all Edmonton needs to rally from its 3-2 deficit in the NHL finals is Connor McDavid do be a miracle worker. He has been at times in the past.

Sonics: Oklahoma City is one game away from winning its first NBA title and the Thunder have a former West Coast Conference star to thank for it. No, not Chet Holmgren, though he had a good game in their 120-109 win over visiting Indiana on Monday night. Santa Clara alum Jalen Williams scored a postseason-high 40 points to help OKC to a 3-2 lead in the series. … Williams’ performance was covered in-depth from San Jose to Washington D.C. and many places without a city to call home. … Tyrese Haliburton is hurting and so are Indiana’s chances.

Storm: With their backup center gone, the Storm needed to make a roster addition. They did.

Seahawks: We also linked this Times story on Grey Zabel’s baseball career a while ago. It is also on the S-R site today. … What may the roster look like?

Sounders: We linked this story about Club World Cup tickets in yesterday’s Times. And we link it again as it runs on the S-R site today. … A teenaged star will grace Lumen Field today.

Golf: J.J. Spaun’s greatest achievement Sunday? He saved the USGA from a lot of embarrassment. … Spaun also gave San Diego State another major champion. … LIV’s stars were not much of a factor again.

•••       

• The NCAA’s rules concerning a minimum number of sports needed to stay Division I may preclude any sport’s subtraction at WSU. But fewer scholarships and other cost-saving cuts? It’s possible. Probable even. … By the way, we posted early today due to personal commitments. If something happens (or happened, depending on when you are reading this) between 8 and 9 a.m. and it is not covered here, that is why. Until later …