Transferring to Walk On

With all due respect UGA has like three 9:40 two milers rostered. Clemson has one guy barely under 15. I believe you are still under the impression I am trying to run at Stanford. All of my PRs are legit I have them on video on the track and the 5k was on a USATF certified road course. You may be right and I suck hard and will not make it on. But I don't care and I am not giving up.

would it be crazy to look up the coach's office phone number, pick up the phone and call? I ran at a D3 school, so not a D1, but I know the coach would not have been offended to get a call from a student - transfer or not - interested in trying out for the team.

From a D3 perspective, I know the coach would have asked about your grades and how far along you are in the process of applying/acceptance. It might be a good idea to just let them know who you are and to see if you can stay in touch during the application process

Is there a reason you are set on an ACC or SEC school? Have you considered any mid-major D1 school? There are D1 schools who would take you as a walk on, but probably not in the major conferences.. Also, Georgia and Clemson don’t seem to put much into their distance, which could also explain their lack of response.

CollegeHopefull wrote:

With all due respect UGA has like three 9:40 two milers rostered. Clemson has one guy barely under 15. I believe you are still under the impression I am trying to run at Stanford. All of my PRs are legit I have them on video on the track and the 5k was on a USATF certified road course. You may be right and I suck hard and will not make it on. But I don't care and I am not giving up.

Yep, but by your own admission, you have only run 15:28. Pretty good, but you are failing to see the disconnect between how major program coaches think and how you feel they should think.

Cunniff and Pounds probably don't care that you could maybe beat out the 5th or 6th guy on their XC teams and and finish 70th-100th in the SEC or ACC. They probably can't have more than 14 guys on the team anyway and can easily fill their depth with high school walk-ons who they think have more upside.

In terms of transfers, scholarship level athletes these programs are not looking for you. I imagine Georgia really wants track scorers (top 8 in the SEC is an entirely different world than 15:28) and everyone else is a walk-on XC runner who is a necessary annoyance to Petros.

Clemson probably does not even look for that. Have they had a a man score in the ACC distances in the last decade? In reality they want a handful of guys who can finish the XC race at ACCs and not complain about racing locally all the time. They might partially scholarship a sub 4:08 HS miler every once an awhile to have a shot at getting a DMR team to indoor nationals as they usually have pretty high level middle distances.

being on the roster at a blue chip is not all its cracked up to be. maybe consider a program with a coach that would beg to have you on the team and truly give you a ton of attention and focus on you. This situation will make you faster, give you more competition opportunities (you probably wont make the travel roster for a team you have to beg to be on) and just an overall more fulfilling running experience. 15:28 wouldn't even be in the top 300 D2 guys. maybe think about going that way.

CollegeHopefull wrote:

Thank you for the reply but I am not going to quit on my goal. My current college is not a great fit for me in many aspects such as my major, socially, and the climate is pretty awful. I just want to know if I would have a shot at walking on if i transferred?

Your real issue is that you are probably trying to get on to D1.

First find a place that matches your post college goals.

Then find a standard you can meet, with racing opportunities. You are young so will continue to develop later, but with those times you window is too short.

If you find a great college walk on. There are plenty of great schools outside of top tier D 1.

Good post. All spot on.

My son played baseball and was taught a few life lessons.

1- If a college coach did not recruit you, they are not interested.

2- Go where you are wanted.

3- You are not forcing your way onto any team.

My son was cut from a major d1 team where he was not recruited.

He then went to a JC where he had the time of his life. He loved riding around the South in a van and staying in cheap hotels playing ball with his buddies.

His real lesson was taught at d3, he was sure he'd play at this school as his JC team{he started} spanked this d3 school. He was not recruited but was sure he was better and the coach would see this and start him.

The coach didn't care one bit, the d3 coach was a former HS coach in the area and made promises to kids and their coaches and he kept those promises.

My son stole home on his own {trying to impress the coach} and was safe but the coach was furious and it was over.

So to the original poster, a JC coach in this thread invited you to email him and you ignored the guy.

Go back and email the JC coach as he offered, say thank you for the interest and at least hear what he says.

With a 9:10 3200 you would 100% be able to walk on to most D1 schools, I don't know what everyone else here is thinking. You're definitely limiting yourself if you're only looking at ACC and SEC schools, they're certainly not going to go out of their way. Although it does surprise me you haven't heard back from Clemson or UGA since you're probably faster than a good amount of their athletes. My advice would be to just keep emailing schools you're interested in. There are a ton of D1 conferences where you could fit in well at (i.e. Big East, Mid-American, Missouri Valley), but if your goal is specifically SEC/ACC I would keep contacting coaches of the lower-tier programs until you actually are told no.

He may be faster than 1/2 the guys on every P5 D1 team and still not be offered a walkon spot on any of the teams.. Coaches offer spots, not Letsrun posters. Coaches like HS kids, not current college kids unless they will immediately score big at the conference meet. There is less upside and there may be baggage and there are most likely no roster spots due to Covid.

CollegeHopefull wrote:

So right now I am at a college with an elite D1 program. It is my goal to run for an ACC or SEC school in college. My high school PRs were 16:11 5k 9:44 3200 and 4:28 1600. This year my first year of college I have run 15:28 5k 9:10 3200 and a 4:21 1600. All legit times on certified courses with them on video and results online. The coach at my current college will not let me on but I have been looking at transferring to schools such as Clemson or UGA to walk on, money is not a problem for me and all I want is to run. Do I have a shot or should I just throw in the towel. Every time I email a coach at one of these schools I get ignored. Will they not respond until I am accepted into the school?

No D1 school is going to give an athletic scholarship to an incoming sophomore with a 4:20 1600m PR.

Like others said schools, especially at big football schools will have roster limits... they are not going to cut a kid that is already in the team to add a transfer that they don’t even know.

These kids are so wrong lol. Some smaller and not as good D1 teams would give this kid a decent amount of money. Non power five teams would be happy to have this kid.

He said he isn't looking for scholarship if he transferred he could most likely walk on especially if he kept improving.

Don’t give up your dream because of the wankers humble bragging about whether you’re D1 material or not. I think too many people are focusing on your road 5k, which quite frankly, is no good, same for your 1600. But your 3200 at 9:10 shows promise. I ran a summer time trial in 9:12 and ended up running mid 24 on a tough 8k course and score for an ACC team.

I was a walk-on. You still have time to get your track 5k under 15 this Spring. Consider the junior college route and save your eligibility (this was all the rage in the 70s).

The major knock on you is why would a coach invest a roster spot on an unproven 20 year old when they can roll the dice on an overachieving high schooler. Age doesn’t matter, results do. There is enough online stuff today to get you to where you want to be. Go for it.

For the record...

I am an actual Division I coach...and I would in fact be very interested in a walking 9:10 transfer (if verifiable). But the OP is only looking at some specific, mediocre, P5 programs.

Obviously Georgia and Clemson are not interested. And as a coach, I know why, and outlined why. The same will be true for most ACC and SEC schools.

There are 12.6 scholarships potentially available to split between the entire men's track team (i.e. sprints, jumps, throws, distance) and the XC team. And that is a IF and only IF the school chooses to fully fund up to the allowable limit. Quite a few schools do not even fully fund up to 12.6

Clemson and Georgia distance times are terrible because those specific schools choose to use their scholarships in events other than distance. There is likely little or even no money that the coaches of those schools choose to allocate towards distance.

If a school has crappy distance times it is likely due to some combination of the below

1. The school doesn't fully fund up to the 12.6 scholarships

2. The coach's focus is on sprints/field events

3, The school's running environment sucks (located in a concrete jungle, very snow or very humid climate, etc)

4. The coach is terrible

Given the above issues that drive terrible performance, why would you want to run distance at one of those schools??