The discontinuations drop CMU from 18 athletic teams sponsored to 16, which is the threshold to remain in the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision.

Track & field is one of the most diverse sports as there are 17 different events for high school athletes and 20 for collegiate athletes to challenge themselves. According to The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) girl’s track and field is the largest participatory sport for high school girls and boys track & field is the second largest participatory sport for boys.
There are 12 schools in the Mid American Conference – Now there are only 5 schools with a men’s track & Field programs.  

Rumor has it a few years after you graduated, Wayne Embry was a Miami University trustee and he showed up at a MU Board of Trustee meeting that included discussion about which men sports the university was going to drop. Men’s track & field was discussed until Embry stressed issues the university could have if they dropped one of the sports which helped attract minority students to campus. Many believe the race issue was a strong reason to keep men’s track & field. Men’s golf, tennis, soccer and wrestling were eliminated from the Miami.

The following MAC schools no longer have Men’s Track & Field:
Ball State
Bowling Green
Central Michigan
Northern Illinois
Ohio University
Toledo
Western Michigan

Plus, there is no Division I University in West Virginia sponsoring Men’s Track & Field as Marshall and West Virginia dropped the sport years ago.

FYI

From the MAC web page:  “Since its inception in 1946, the Mid-American Conference has progressively grown and developed into one of the most aggressive Division I conferences in the country.”

776 BC
The first recorded examples of organized track and field events at a sports festival are the Ancient Olympic Games. At the first Games in 776 BC in Olympia, Greece, only one event was contested: the stadion footrace.

Olympics, Paralympics and world championships
The major global track and field competitions are both held under the scope of athletics. Track and field contests make up the majority of events on the Olympic and Paralympic athletics programmes, which occur every four years. Track and field events have held a prominent position at the Summer Olympics since its inception in 1896.

40 different countries won a Men Track & Field medal in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro 2Olympics.