I missed the initial announcement on this last month, but organizers of the Nike Team Nationals cross country championships have made a major change that works out quite nicely for New York's elite teams.

   Beginning this fall, New York will be a one-state region, assuring that at least two boys and two girls teams will advance to the national meet.

   For the first time, seven regional qualifying meets will be held Nov. 10, 17 and 24 to determine a total of 14 boys and 14 girls representatives. Because New York and California are single-state regions, invitations in those states will be based on "end of season performances."

   The Nike announcement did not specify which meets would be considered, but the presumption is that the Federation Meet will now carry enormous weight because it's likely that not all of the top contenders will race in the same class at the NYSPHSAA championships.

   As has been the case in the past, there will be four boys and four girls wildcards selected nationally. New York's third-best girls team will always be in the mix for a wildcard, and the same will usually hold true for the boys.

   The fourth annual NTN finals are slated for Saturday, Dec. 1, at the Portland (Ore.) Meadows race track.

   New York has enjoyed enormous success at previous NTN finals. All three girls champions -- Saratoga, Hilton and Fayetteville-Manlius -- have come from New York, with 'Toga and Hilton also each racking up a second-place finish. Among the boys, Saratoga won in 2005 and Fayetteville-Manlius has two top-three finishes.

   Holding seven regional qualifiers for the first time removes subjectivity from the mix. The NTN selection committee will still publish weekly regional rankings, but those picks will have no bearing on qualifying.

   'Newsday' columnist pulls no punches: I've been kicking the tires on it for a day and still can't decide whether Gregg Sarra's column yesterday in Newsday hit a home run or missed the mark.

   Either way, he deserves credit for taking a stand on the topic of out-of-state travel for high school teams. In case you were wondering whether he approves of trips, note that Sarra used the word "stupid" quite a bit, which is hardly characteristic of the milque-toast journalism that some newspapers prefer their columnists to practice.

   Taking note of Rockville Centre South Side's recent troubles on a lacrosse trip to California, Massapequa baseball's famous visit to a Florida strip joint and

Mepham football's infamous football camp assault on newbies in the Poconos, Sarra wondered why coaches assume the risk of these trips when there are plenty of opponents to play on the Island.

   And he showed no sympathy for the three South Side coaches who threatened to resign before 18 holdouts confessed to drinking vodka on the California trip.

   "Some people are portraying the South Side coaches as heroes . . . But they were far less than that," he wrote. "They scheduled the trip and they should have been on top of the players. Clearly they weren't. And there should be a deeper look into the issue. One question - where were the coaches during the drinking?"

   Track and field: Making a smooth segue on the topic of travel, just a reminder that the Penn Relays take place this Thursday through Saturday at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

   If you've never been to Penn, then you've never been to a track meet. I've covered two U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials and can assure you that the atmosphere there is no match for the excitement inside Franklin Field during Championship of America races.

   David Halberstam dies: Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Davia Halberstam died yesterday in a car crash in San Francisco. He was 73.

   Halberstam was en route to interview Y.A. Tittle as part of his research for a book about the 1958 NFL championship game. Many of his books were about sports, including the classic Summer of '49 about the Yankees-Red Sox pennant race and Playing for Keeps: Michael Jordan and the World He Made.

   He won his Pulitzer in 1964, at the age of 30, for reporting on the war in Vietnam. Aspiring reporters should read as much of his work as possible if they want to break into the business -- and stay there.

   Extra points: Former Liverpool and SU hero Chris Gedney will join the radio broadcast team for Syracuse University football. . . . Metal bats will be banned from New York City high school baseball next season after City Council overrode Mayor Michael Bloomberg's veto by a 41-4 margin. Opponents, including the PSAL, announced plans to file a federal lawsuit to block the law. . . . The American Football Coaches Association wants the NCAA's board of directors to compromise after the NCAA management council proposed eliminating text messaging and continuing limits on other forms of electronic communication with prospective recruits. The National Association of Basketball Coaches meets Thursday to discuss the proposal.

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