BYU vs. Portland-WCC drama?!

very nice 8 of 10

What was Oxy's record or did the conference change part way through? They did not lose a conference champ (from WWII?) until Pomona edged them in the later 1970s.

Recently heard about this. WTF is BYU doing in WCC???? Yeah, yeah, TV revenue politics for football, but this is ridiculous. Would enjoy watching the conference meet this year.

The WCC isn't on the list of conferences in the LetsRun poll, yet it is one of only 4 conferences to be ranked with two members in the men's USTFCCA top 8, and one of 8 conferences with a member in the women's top 30. Where are the Sagarin cross country rankings of conferences?

My predictions:

Ironically, I think only Hopkins, Lars Malde and Kipchumba may be the only Pilots who have raced the WCC meet although I am sure Conner having seen races for 25 years on the course will get an advantage over the newbies from BYU

Men

Portland

BYU

USF

LMU

Gonzaga

SCU

USD

SMC

Pepperdine

Women

BYU

USF

Portland

LMU

Gonzaga

USD

SCU

Pepperdine

SMC

What you see here with the poll is another example of how little letsrun knows about anything. WCC ONLY has the #3 and #8 teams, so they don't count, right?

See the Wisconsin results. It appears now that BYU has a legitimate dark horse chance to win the whole thing (if German's shoe gets untied or something). That being the case, I would expect Ed Eyestone to be holding back in the conference meet and try to win the big one.

In nationals, I don't think Portland beats BYU. But if BYU thinks they can win NCAAs and Portland probably doesn't at #8, they might figure to go all out to win the conference for some bragging rights...and if they plan it that way, they might.

Gonzaga men are ranked #14 in the West. USF and LMU aren't ranked, so perhaps the voters out West are overlooking these two schools, or you have Gonzaga misplaced in your predictions.

WEST Region

Rank School Location Conference Last Week

1 Stanford Palo Alto, Calif. Pac-12 1

2 Portland Portland, Ore. West Coast 3

3 Washington State Pullman, Wash. Pac-12 5

4 UCLA Los Angeles, Calif. Pac-12 6

5 Oregon Eugene, Ore. Pac-12 2

6 Arizona State Tempe, Ariz. Pac-12 4

7 Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Calif. Big West 7

8 California Berkley, Calif. Pac-12 8

9 Long Beach State Long Beach, Calif. Big West 9

10 Washington Seattle, Wash. Pac-12 10

11 UC Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, Calif. Big West 11

12 Boise State Boise, Idaho Mountain West 13

13 Idaho Moscow, Idaho WAC 12

14 Gonzaga Spokane, Wash. West Coast NR

15 UC Davis Davis, Calif. Big West

BYU will win conference, win regionals and then lose to both Portland and CU at nationals.

The WCC is getting a lot tougher these days! I don't think BYU is a sure lock on the womens side. Didn't USF beat them at Wisconsin?

you really think portland is going to beat byu? byu is ranked 3rd in the country, and beat a pretty good stanford team.

whatever, BYU might sweep the top 3, it not even a race

I think it is going to be much closer on both sides than this thread is giving it credit. Real question in my mind is what Conner and Eyestone will do. It's not a course that's kind on the legs. But I also have a hard time seeing either concede anything.

I'm interested in knowing which coach you are

I agree that the teams are closer than many here will admit, and the course is not easy. I think most coaches now are well aware of the recent experience of Stanford at NCAAs and determined not to repeat same. Eyestone has to decide what he wants: He can clearly win conference, or he can have a shot at winning NCAAs if everything falls together for him...but not likely both.

For me it would be duh level simple...go for the big prize.

Underpants cult v. blue-collar heathen. Gotta luv

Blue collar my a**. With that said I think Portland will win. Portland has yet to run at full strength. Lots of guys that missed summer miles still gearing into form.

I think UP will have three in the top four --if they want to.

Ranks don't mean Sh&*, It's all about who is on there game on that given day. Anything can happen boys, and i can assure you someone will make a huge jump and beat some BYU boys. I know BYU might be goood, but i know that they can be beat.

WSU second in the region? WOW, I didn.t see that coming. Midwest/East Coast bias I guess.

Tightus Andronicus wrote:

Underpants cult v. blue-collar heathen. Gotta luv

Portland is made up of a bunch of sub 9:00 2 milers and foreigners splitting their 12 scholarships only among the xc team and yet somehow they're the blue collar ones?