There is a lot happening at once, so lets get to it.
-- The NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships begin today with two regional meets -- tin NCAA parlance, the preliminary rounds -- in Lexington, Kentucky and Austin, Texas.
The regional meets are qualifiers for the actual NCAA Championships, June 7-10 at Hayward Field.
The goal in the regionals isn't to win, but to qualify and advance. How you feel about that probably depends on whether or not you care about the powerhouse programs.
For a school like the University of Oregon, heavily favored to win this NCAA women's outdoor title, traveling 42 athletes to the regional meet is expensive and carries with it the risk one or more top-level performers will have a bad day and fail to qualify.