I don't know, let him on the team after he beats your guys....
The freshman comments were from last year...it's hard to remember which freshman stud he was talking about.
I don't know, let him on the team after he beats your guys....
The freshman comments were from last year...it's hard to remember which freshman stud he was talking about.
That's exactly what he did though... He was training with the team a week after those events.
At this moment there is a committee that has been commissioned by the coaches association to discuss the current system of how teams qualify for nationals.
There will be big proposals come convention time in December and mark my words, this will be the hottest topic of the year.
Good ole boys club Vs. New school revisions.
It is interesting to see the old coaches who have seen it all, starting to come around to the idea that chasing teams to beat during the season and being unable to race teams (not getting into Wisconsin etc) is hurting things.
The process can definitely be tweaked a little bit. It doesn't need a massive overhaul. I suspect a "first round of the ncaa" type of meet instead of Wisconsin weekend. We will see more chances for teams to go head to head and establish common opponents..
Wait and see how it all rolls out.
The college XC season is already a joke. It really is a 3 meaningful race season for many. And then for some reason it is all crammed into a 6 week window.
Conf. Regions and Nationals.And a meaningless prep race somewhere along the way. which some do not even run full squads at any more..
It is the equivalent of NCAA football teams playing 8 games, Hoops 20's.
HS kids run as many as 8-10 5Ks a season, then drop into this farce at the next level.
Is 10-12 too many? Probably, but what has happened at the next level is a joke.
It is easy to see why running gets a black eye all over the place, the sport including track is lightly competed, there is so much prep and training anymore that the sport is hardly even competed. Marquee matchups are ducked, etc. etc.
Trust me, I am not the only person who thinks like this.
Obviously I have never been, and never could have been, a competitive D1 athlete (or D2/D3 for that matter). So maybe my opinion doesn't matter. I fail to understand, though, how it could be so harmful to do an actual race 7 weeks before NCAA champs. I mean, I understand that a coach has his plans and he can sure as heck do whatever he wants (although I don't like that it impacted at large points but I'm not convinced it will be a huge deal in the end), but I just don't see how it is harmful to race more than 3-4 times in a season. I think that racing every other week would be great. Obviously there is a good argument that racing every single week would not be a benefit to the team, but I don't see anything wrong with racing 5, even 6 times a season.
So, I am not even that concerned about the whole at-large points thing though I acknowledge Wisco's actions affected it - for me, this just brings up the question of, would it really have been harmful to his kids to actually race this meet? And the larger general question of, what's the big deal with racing more than, what, 3 times? To me, it is important to have race experience. Tempoing a race is not race experience.
I guess it's just different for some people. All I can say is, with some DI colleges' race schedules, I wouldn't have wanted to run for them. Probably would have looked for a coach who at least partially shares my running/racing philosophy.
Not that it is the official selection, but it appears that in Flotrack's KOLAS prediction, they removed any points to teams that beat Wisco at Louisville.
Illinois and Eastern Kentucky are not among the at-large squads, and neither are the other squads that would be pushed in by a team with lots of KOLAS points at the regional: Furman, Virginia Tech, Iowa State.
cross-country is not football and sure glad it isn't. Wins and losses should only matter at conference, regionals, and nationals.
If a coach wants to race 1,2,3,4,5,6 or etc. times a season its their right. Each coach has their traning philsophies and beliefs. Some coaches like to race more or less. Its hard to race a lot at the big time level every week. I understand why younger teams and less experienced teams would want to race more, but if your a veteran experienceed group you can get away with racing less and focusing on the big picture. Just my two two cents.
Wisco's national experience should speak for itself.
Their points are accounted for, however, Illinois is projected to finish 5th in their region (OK State, Oklahoma, Iowa St., and Tulsa). EKU is projected 6th in their region as of today. The rule states that you must go in order of regional finish. So, even if EKU accumulated 16 points (massive number I know, but trying to make a point), but finished 8th in their region, they wouldn't get in. So, yes, their points are there, but their regional finish is not.
Add a race. Conference->Round 1->Regions->Nationals. The added race will filter out undeserving teams.
Alan
Depends upon what you consider the tournament. Regionals are the tournament, especially if they directly determine who advances to the next round. Therefore they would have tons of participation. About 250 teams.
Runningart2004 wrote:
Add a race. Conference->Round 1->Regions->Nationals. The added race will filter out undeserving teams.
Alan
Exactly.