D1 Walk-On Track Times: 6 Programs' Published Standards

A walk-on track time is the mark a college program says it will consider for a roster spot without athletics aid. Six NCAA Division I programs that publish theirs are compared below. In the boys' 100m the lines run from 10.35 at Florida State to 10.99 at Eastern Illinois; in the girls' 100m, from 11.55 to 12.50. Each program sets its own number, and a published line is an invitation to email the event coach, not a promise of a place.

I read each program's own page or PDF on November 1, 2026 and transcribed the walk-on column as printed, units included. Florida State prints one sheet for athletic scholarships and recruited walk-on consideration, with a Target and a Minimum column and no separate walk-on column, so its column here is the Minimum. A dash means the program lists no standard for the event.

Published walk-on standards, boys

Published walk-on standards, girls

Sources: Florida State, scholarship and recruited walk-on standards (ACC, posted September 2026), Iowa, recruit standards (Big Ten, undated), Villanova, walk-on and scholarship standards (Big East, posted October 2024), Fordham, recruiting central (Atlantic 10, posted August 2022), Longwood, recruiting standards (Big South, posted August 2024) and Eastern Illinois, scholarship and walk-on standards (Ohio Valley, PDF file created October 2024). Villanova's women's table labels its sprint hurdles row as the 110 meter hurdles; the women's race is the 100m hurdles. Iowa's site carries an older copy of its page with slower numbers, and the table above uses the one its Recruit Standards menu links to.

One division, very different lines

The spread inside Division I is the first thing the tables show. In the boys' 100m, Florida State's minimum and Eastern Illinois's walk-on line are 0.64 seconds apart. In the 1600m the boys' lines run from 4:07.0 to 4:36 and the girls' from 4:48.0 to 5:35. A time that walks on at one program can be well short at another, so compare yourself with programs at a similar level, not with the division as a whole.

Set against the Division I table on this site's standards hub, the walk-on lines straddle the bottom of the recruiting band. The published Division I range for the boys' 100m is 10.30 to 10.80. Florida State, Iowa, Villanova and Fordham set their lines inside it, while Longwood at 10.95 and Eastern Illinois at 10.99 set theirs slower than its floor. For the girls' 100m the range is 11.40 to 12.00, and only Florida State at 11.55 and Iowa at 11.70 sit inside it. The 1600m splits the same way. The Division I range is 4:05.00 to 4:20.00 for boys, and Florida State (4:07.0), Iowa (4:10.0) and Villanova (4:14.00) set their lines inside it, while Fordham (4:25), Longwood (4:35) and Eastern Illinois (4:36) sit outside. For girls the range is 4:32.00 to 5:02.00; Florida State (4:48.0), Iowa (4:52.00) and Villanova (5:00) are inside, and Fordham (5:15), Eastern Illinois (5:30) and Longwood (5:35) are outside. A mark outside the Division I band can still be a Division I walk-on mark at the right program.

What each page asks for besides the mark

• Villanova calls its numbers the minimum marks for consideration and says every performance must be verified through official meet results.
• Florida State and Fordham both say that meeting a standard does not guarantee a roster spot, and both list academics and team needs among the factors.
• Longwood prints a 3.0 GPA minimum, with 3.5 preferred, above its table.
• Iowa says athletic aid can range from 1 to 100 percent and that meeting standards in more than one event raises the chance of aid.
• Eastern Illinois calls its sheet a baseline and asks athletes to reach out whatever their current mark.

Villanova's verification rule is the practical one. Send the official results link with every mark, from Athletic.net, MileSplit or the meet's own page, so a coach can check the time without asking.

The 45-athlete roster cap

Since July 1, 2025, NCAA Bylaw 17.2 has capped Division I indoor and outdoor track and field at 45 athletes per gender, and cross country at 17, at every school in a defendant conference or opted in to the House settlement. The cap replaced sport-by-sport scholarship limits rather than sitting on top of them, as the NCAA announced when its board adopted it. A walk-on now needs one of those 45 places.

The 2026-27 Division I Manual adds the timing catch. A team submits its roster by the day before its first championship-selection meet or December 1, whichever comes first, and after that it can add an athlete only while it is under the limit. A walk-on who tries out after the deadline has to be added the same way. Athletes a school designated when the caps arrived do not count toward the 45 for the rest of their eligibility, so a roster can sit above it for now. The roster limits guide covers Division II, Division III and the NAIA, none of which this bylaw touches.

The tryout comes after you enroll

A Division I program cannot hold a tryout for a high school athlete. Bylaw 13.11 bars testing a prospect's athletic ability, with exceptions such as open meets and camps, and for that rule a prospect is anyone who has started ninth grade and is not enrolled at the school. Bylaw 17.02.19 allows a tryout of an enrolled student who is eligible to practice. South Alabama's walk-on page, posted in 2022, shows what that looks like: be accepted and enrolled, complete a physical and a sickle cell test, show proof of insurance, then test on a 30m sprint, a 150m and a 300m among other drills. Every Division I freshman, walk-on or not, also needs NCAA Eligibility Center certification to compete, and to keep practicing after a 45-day grace period (Bylaws 14.3.1 and 14.3.4.1).

Check the date on any standards sheet

Two of the six pages state contact rules that do not match the current NCAA manual. Eastern Illinois's sheet says coaches cannot talk to prospects before September 1 of junior year, and Iowa's says the staff may not call before July 1 of senior year. The 2026-27 Division I Manual sets June 15 at the end of sophomore year for calls (Bylaw 13.1.3.1) and for recruiting materials and electronic messages (Bylaw 13.4.1), and, under a bylaw adopted October 7, 2026, for off-campus contact in track and cross country (Bylaw 13.1.1.1.9). Florida State's September 2026 sheet has the June 15 date right. A sheet that is stale on the calendar can be stale on the marks, so treat an old one as a line to beat and confirm the current number with the event coach.

Searching their official athletics sites on November 1, 2026, I could not find a published walk-on standard for LSU, BYU, Purdue, Virginia, North Carolina A&T, Oregon, South Florida or Auburn, all names that Google's autocomplete pairs with walk-on times. The numbers that turn up for them in search sit on third-party recruiting sites, not on the programs' own pages.

How to use the tables

1. Pick the programs closest to the level you are aiming at and compare event by event.
2. Convert first. A stopwatch time is not a FAT time, so run it through the hand time to FAT converter, and turn feet into meters with the feet and inches converter before reading a metric line.
3. Check the same mark against the Division II, Division III and NAIA ladders, or type it into the rating tool, to see where else it plays.
4. Fill in the program's questionnaire, then email the event coach with the mark, the meet, the date and the results link. How to email a college track coach has a template.
5. Ask how many places the event group has next year. Under a 45-athlete cap, a full event group can mean no room even for a mark that meets the line.

Read next: when college coaches can contact you, good hurdle times for high school and good pole vault heights.