D1 schools go home devastated at Louisville!

I specified Ohio St XC. But sure, Ohio St has a strong sprint/hurdle crew and some good field event performers. Even then. GV had people in the 200m, 400mH, LJ, and a few throwers Ohio St would gladly have one their. GV would have beat MSU and probably Michigan in track last year. In addition to XC. Size of the school in college isn't nearly as important as you seem to be claiming. Nor is being public. A number of historical DII powerhouses in XC and track were private. Ashland, St. Augustine's, Abilene Christian... The schools willingness to put resources into their program is far more important.

I agree with you completely. There are smaller private schools that have strong XC/track programs and large public schools that have mediocre programs. It's dedicating resources and coaching that makes a program.

Coaching and culture can make a difference. Funny that.

How about 9:50

A lot of high school runners and their parents are in for a huge shock when they start pitching themselves to college programs. Especially male athletes.

GVSU is in the great running state of Michigan. No surprise, its in the water. (not literally, our water is toxic).

Love me some GVSU, but wont beat UM or MSU in Track and Field, they will compete but not a full squad meet (which unfortunately for our sport never happens except at championships).

This thread started as a D2 guy bragging that a D2 school beat some no name D1 schools. They all are limited to 12.6 scholarships and they can load XC if they choose so it is not a surprise.

I agree. There are going to be a lot more bad DI programs moving forward as well. If you take a deep dive into the back half of any DI conference I bet you will find a few similarities. Low funding (scholarships, and overall all operational) 1 coach for both genders, no paid assistants, program focused on other event areas, general lack of care for the XC team in the athletic department.

I used to coach at a DI school, we had no facility or locker room for years, less than 1k per student athlete in travel budget, a hard cap on roster spots, less than 1 scholarship per gender. Some years we were solid, other times a team like GV could put 12 in front of our 1.

They have an outstanding coach but also amazing facilities, large roster, athletic department support, and a great budget.

Let's be honest. This was not exactly the cream of the D1 crop they were up against. Probably not a single team they beat will qualify for nationals.

I still think the best DII in recent memory was the crew Adams had in 08-09 range. Pretty sure they won cowboy jamboree that year, most of the guys were normal college age so you can’t hold that against them either.

Lee actually doesn’t put as many resources into distance running as you would think, they just have really good development. I am a recent alumni and I texted the coach. He said he put 4.96 scholarships into distance. The current #1 who went 24:01 this weekend only went 4:46/9:53 in high school. The #7 a true freshman who went 24:40 was only a 9:54/16:37 guy last year. The usual #7 guy Ezekiel Harless 24:33 was only 4:39/9:57 in high school. Just good development, I’m sure they are not outspending a lot of the D1s they beat this weekend.

There may have been a distance runner that got an athletic full a some point in the history of UGA but probably not. All the money has gone to sprints, weights, and Multi’s. Even Sumner didn’t get one. So congrat’s on your academic money

None of the D1 schools are putting 5 scholarships in distance. Some of them don't have 5 total.

What's the point of even having a cross country team if you're Georgia.
I'm not going to go and look it up, but did they even have one person in the top 20 in the SEC or South Regional. At best they have one individual who might be able to score a few points in a track meet, but they're such a long way from getting five scoring runners at the level that it wouldn't be an embarrassment for a power SEC school, I wouldn't bother. Isn't that what USC and LSU do?

What's the point of D3 sports?

What's the point of collegiate sports in general?

Only 12% of college athletic programs make money.

Collegiate sports are supposed to promote unity and pride in the institution, school spirit, and a connection to the university. These are all 20th century ideals when going to college was actually an accomplishment.

Alan

Yes. Georgia has a XC team. You answered his question.

Some people actually like to have balance in their lives. They want a social life, they want to concentrate on academics, and they also want to be able to compete at something they like doing. It’s not rocket science, genius.

Also, depending on the sport, there are D3 schools that can beat a lot of D2s and even some D1s. Many mid-majors are glorified programs anyway. Additionally, there are a lot of D3 athletes that could compete at the D1 or D2 level but that is not the life that they want.