The controversy has been raging for more than a decade and this season NCAA outdoor track will undergo some major changes -- whether people like them or not.

After a very long and heavily divided debate, the NCAA is instituting a regional qualifying meet that will take place before the NCAA Outdoor Championships. The main purpose of the meet is to raise the number of competitors in the national finals.

In the past, about one out of every 24 athletes qualified for the NCAA Championships, the lowest such ratio of any team sport. Now, the ratio will be closer to 17-to-1, with the total number of athletes increasing from 388 to 544.

"For the student-athletes, access and the opportunity to compete was lacking," NCAA assistant director of championships Mark Bockleman told the Track and Field Writers of America.

The country will be divided into four regions, each of which will hold its own championships and send qualifiers to nationals. Athletes will now qualify for regionals during the regular season, albeit with lower standards than what national qualifying times have been. The top five finishers in each event, as well as the top three relay teams, will automatically qualify for the NCAA finals. Additionally, a group of at-large selections will be made that will mimic how provisional qualifying marks worked in the past.

Penn State women's track and field coach Beth Alford-Sullivan is a proponent of the change, but admits that it's not perfect.

"I think it will be great for us," Alford-Sullivan said. "But the downside is that it will water down the competition somewhat. There are pros and cons to the old way and the new way."

Supporters of the new qualifier have been trying to give the championship experience to a greater number of athletes by giving them a more standardized means of qualifying for the national championships. The proponents hope that the regionals will help cut back on teams scrambling across the country, looking for ideal racing conditions for their athletes to qualify in.

For as many people who have fought for the institution of regional meets, there have been just as many that have fought against it. Some smaller schools are concerned that it may be too expensive and many coaches dislike that the meet lengthens the season and makes it harder on the athletes.

"The elite athlete is going to have to do the conference meet, the regional meet, the NCAA, and then have to go to the U.S. nationals in order to qualify to go to Europe as part of the U.S. team," Providence coach Ray Treacy said. "The body can only take so much and it will break down eventually."

Still, others have problems with the imbalance in the regions themselves. The East Region to which Penn State will belong will include over a hundred schools, whereas the West Region may have only around 40. This would affect the number of regional qualifiers in these regions, making qualifying for the NCAA Championships in the East Region more difficult.

"There are a lot of coaches who are opposed," UNLV women's track coach Karen Dennis said. "It took 10 years to get to this, with a very marginal vote in agreement for it. That's why we [were] really trying to hammer this out and develop a format."

Dennis is also a member of the NCAA track coaches championship commission.

Regardless of the differing opinions, the new regional meets will take place two weeks after the Big Ten Outdoor Championships. The East Region meet will be on May 30-31 at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.