Coaches cant lie in recruiting anymore and its hilarious. Thanks Transfer portal

And on top of that we act like there werent insane provisions like you cant transfer to a school in state or in conference? So if a kid went to a florida sec school but was from georgia and wanted to move back closer to home, guess what? In what way does that help the kid? Oh and dont let me get on compliance hiding or not reporting release letters to athletes.

Coaches probably refused to grant releases in the old days because that athlete would score points for a rival. Of perhaps it would look bad to the AD. Either way it was remarkably selfish.

I agree - the portal is on balance a good thing, but that doesn’t mean every athlete uses it to their benefit.

College is a business. Freedom is the name of the game in business. The portal is anti socialism and we freedom fighters love it!

Please elaborate, with a few specific examples of what a coach promised, then prospective student-athlete signed, then attended and then entered the portal based on what a coach promised.

Nearly all of the coaches that recruited the top kids I coached straight up lied to the kids. Full stop and they certainly knew they were lying in those moments.

The primary lie? Coaches saying that training would be very much individualized to that runner, which is absolute BS. They all end up doing the same workouts no matter what, and that generally means way too much anaerobic work.

Oregon, Washington, Duke, Georgetown, Utah, SLO, etc. it's the same everywhere with very few exceptions. College coaches may as well be bots.

But yes, of course parents and kids are gonna hear what they want to hear, which is why things don't change and college coaches and their assistants doing the recruiting can get away with it year after year after year.

Not even following. Of course it is individualized. Guys on my team did between 65 and 90 MPW. Faster guys had faster reps. If somebody had a pain, they cross trained. What are you expecting? It takes 5 years working with someone through trial and error to see precisely what is optimal.

There should be unlimited transfers.

In the real world if someone is willing to hire me I can go from one job on Friday to a different job on Monday.

I see no reason why it should be different with colleges and athletics. If you’re now officially enrolled at the university and you have eligibility remaining you should get to run. Hell to me you can start the XC season on team 1, run for team 2 by mid-season, and run championship season for team 3. Why wouldn’t that be allowed?

Event coach promising opportunity to earn some/more scholarship money in future for results knowing darn well the scholarship money is not available or that head coach will not allocate more regardless of results.

Not quite sure what you are trying to say, but it sounds like you think transfers are quitting and taking the easy way out. One could just as easily say that they are showing initiative, taking charge of their own futures, or displaying courage in pursuit of personal growth. No doubt there are good reasons and bad and that it varies by individual.

The transfer portal is a good thing. Why trap a kid that is not happy and doesn't want to be on your team?

“…the portal is on balance a good thing…”

Amen, but there are pluses and minuses to all important choices in life. There’s no free lunch on the other side, so-to-speak. What is often revealed in a portal move is that it doesn’t necessarily cure what was ailing’ ya at the other place; one has merely packed up one’s troubles and moved them someplace else, only to be once again revealed when all the excitement of the move wears off and reality sets in.

Also, look real hard before ya leap. Not everyone gets picked up by the place they might have envisioned when they entered the portal, and having now burned the bridge with the old place, they are stuck with a collection of lesser options — none of which they expected.

Which school did this? You can't name one so it doesn't exist.

Track and field has always had one free transfer where you didn't need to sit out.

The only change is the database.

Also here's very little you can lie about in track.

Portal = teaching kids how to run away from their challenges. God have mercy on this unaccountable lot of Zoomies still clinging to mom and dad's hands.

Back in my day we’d go to whatever college was furthest (and walk) and if our coach was abusive we’d just suck it up cause it’d make us tougher.

After I worked my butt off all of highschool I was accepted onto a team where I got worse, and my coach would never race me. But I pulled myself up by my bootstraps, and rode that bench like there was no tomorrow. I got injured 2-3 times a year and ain’t even complain cause my generation was TOUGH. I hated my college experience and so should everyone else!

This just seems counterproductive to me. Why would coaches shy away from individualization? Are they really that lazy or ignorant?

I give them the benefit of the doubt that they are neither lazy or ignorant, but mostly likely overworked/under-resourced. They simply don't have the time and are mostly paid pretty bad too.

I understand it can feel like team culture may suffer if everyone isn't doing the same or nearly the same workout.

As an example, one of the FL all-americans I got the chance to coach has the typical marathon build and physiological characteristics. He was running about 50 mpw his senior year of high school. They reduced his mileage slightly and greatly increased the number of track workouts. 400s to 1ks for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Unsurprisingly he never improved in college.

Above scenario has actually played out for most of the kids I coached. Reduced mileage and significantly increased anaerobic work.

Only kids I've seen improve are the ones that never made the high school varsity team, but went on to run in community college and got more serious about it. Those are the kids that have been the most fun to watch run in college. The uber-talented kids all got thrown in the meat grinder and it's just been sad to see.

I think most college coaches tend to be former elite/pro/olympic athletes that were ALWAYS phenomenal and as such don't actually understand training nearly as well as they think they do.

Dude. You are an exercise in contradictions. You don't want an unhappy kid staying and tainting your program...but a minute later you want that same kid to stay and "learn a lesson of perseverance?" In your previous post, most coaches are both for and against the portal?

Are you a coach? I bet everyone in your sphere hails your clear communication style (sarcasm)

I appreciate your perspective but this is simply not the way most good D1 coaches currently train distance runners. It may have been true in the low mileage era of the early 90’s but high volume and strength based training are the way things are done today.