March Madness is upon us, and it’s a blast. It is one of the best sporting events on the calendar, possibly the best one that does not involve track and field. The single-elimination format and the combination of superpowers and underdogs means anything can happen.

There is another similar event mostly unknown to American sports fans that follows the same knockout format but is even crazier. I’m speaking of the Football Association Cup. It’s a single-elimination tournament among 737 of England’s professional, semi-pro, and amateur football teams held over the course of the season, starting in August and culminating in a championship final in May. I’ve always thought it would be fascinating and fun to export the FA Cup format to American sports, such as professional baseball. In fact, I’ve decided to adapt it to NCAA Division I track and field.

This is actually easier than it sounds, because the times and distances and heights we record in track and field act as a sort of competition by proxy. Teams treat it that way, and the USTFCCCA’s national and regional rankings do so explicitly. In the internet age, competing online in this manner can and should be done.

Over the course of the 2019 outdoor season, teams will be seeded into brackets for a series of quadrangular meets which will be scored using data available from TFRRS.org. Multiple teams will qualify from each meet in the early rounds, but only winners will advance in the later rounds. Eventually one team will be crowned the champions of the Citius College Cup.

Here’s the nitty-gritty on how it all works…

FIRST ROUND

Scored using marks made outdoors through April 8
All Division I teams are entered, seeded using results from indoor season
Scoring is 6-4-3-2-1 for standard individual events, 6-3-1 for 4×100 and 4×400, and 3-1 for 4×200, 4×800, sprint medley, and distance medley

SECOND ROUND

Scored using marks made between April 9 and May 2
48 quadrangulars between 192 teams qualifying from the first round (half in west region, half in east)
Winners plus 16 highest-scoring second place teams qualify to third round
Scoring is 6-4-3-2-1 for standard individual events, 6-3-1 for 4×100 and 4×400, 4-2-1 for 4×200, 4×800, 4×1500, sprint medley, and distance medley, and 1 for shuttle hurdles

THIRD ROUND

Scored using marks made at conference championship meets
16 quadrangulars between 64 teams qualifying from second round (half in west region, half in east)
Winners advance to semifinals
Scoring is 6-4-3-2-1 for standard individual events, 6-3-1 for 4×100 and 4×400

SEMIFINALS

Scored using places achieved at NCAA preliminary rounds (aka “regionals”)
4 quadrangulars between 16 teams qualifying from third round (half in west region, half in east)
Winners advance to finals
Scoring is 6-4-3-2-1 for standard individual events, 6-3-1 for 4×100 and 4×400

FINALS

Scored using places achieved at NCAA Championships
Four qualifiers (two from west region, two from east)
Scoring is 6-4-3-2-1 for standard individual events, 6-3-1 for 4×100 and 4×400

Come back tomorrow to see the women’s seeding and first round matchups!