Can I go D1?

95% of D1 programs will never qualify an athlete to nationals. The overwhelming majority of D1 schools are not fully funded. They also compete mostly at invitationals where the fields are a mix including D2, D3, JC, and NAIA teams.

My advice is to go where you will get a decent education and graduate without six figures of loan debt. Go where you are wanted. Enjoy you last few carefree years while you have your youth and a relative lack of responsibility. When you enter the adult world, no one knows or cares what D1 is. Also, you could be a good D1 track athlete and folks in the office will fall all over themselves because the new guy in sales was the third string punter at Alabama, never got into a game, but wears his national title ring and has an autographed photo of himself and Nick Saban on his desk.

Those are really good times for a HS junior, especially on a lower mileage program. Why don't you try bumping your mileage up and really going all in on training this year. If you can get that 1600m sub 4:30, you can probably walk on to a low-level D1 team, or you could have a lot of options at the D2/D3 level. Good luck and keep us posted!

D3 lower end schools. The competitive D3’s and I’m being very serious would not look at theses times. We need to start teaching reality here. Sure you can run at a school and you always want to improve, but no D1 with a decent program would look at those times.

These D1 threads are tiresome. Its dripping with insecurity..

The truth is the great majority of Division schools suck, and an ever larger percentage of the D1 individuals suck, as represented by all of the posters on this thread. (the suckiest of the suck)

If you are the real deal you aren't compelled to to seek unearned gravitas by calling yourself "D1". You just are. You're simply a college runner and you have real credentials.

If you want to disparage D2 and D3 from now on every one of you need to cite your credentials.

1. Your name

2. Your school

3. # of NCAA championships competed

3a. # of NCAA scoring places, or All-Americas youve earned

3b. # of NCAA participant tours

For Heavans sake, D1 credentials doesn't mean squat. Let it go. If you actually had real credentials you wouldnt need to disparage other divisions. Real runners just dont.

In my entire running career I've never heard any of my peers say, " I ran D1". Words that only matters to insecure douchebags.

Go to a program where they will support you and have a progression of development. This could be any division. Could be NAIA. Could be JUCO. Wanting to go D1 just to "go D1" reeks of insecurity.

A teammate of mine came our D2 program with a 3200 PR of 10:54. He just recently ran 8:16.

It doesn't matter what program it is. It doesn't matter what your PRs are coming in. All that matters is your drive to get the most out of yourself.

Well it is D2. The schools are so bad that you can train all day. Academics are more important than running.

What type of area would you like to live in...urban, rural, mountains, coast, north, south, etc? Do you have any inkling of what you would like to study? Even just general idea? Are you an intense person, or more laid back? Are you going to need to have a job in college? Think of college as 3 parts; acedemic, sports (maybe) or just activities, and a social life. Do you want to actually compete in college, or just be a member of the team? Good luck have fun

So if nobody cares about all track/xc imagine how much less they care about D2 or below?

There are roughly 320 D1 men's xc/track programs and you are saying only 16 of them qualify athletes for Nationals? Did you just make up your data? No chance that is accurate. Please show me where 95% WON'T make it to NCAAs.

Also, it SHOULD be hard to make nationals. That's what makes it special. Not qualifying for D2 nonsense where only the top third of the field is decent.

1. Getting dropped every workout

2. Bottom 10% if not DFL every race

3. You won’t travel with a 4:40+ mile even if you’re the best on the team cause it’s not fast enough to get seeded in invites.

4. No scholarship money for expensive schooling

5. A D1 team that would roster a 4:40+ guy does not have the budget for lots of free gear/equipment.

I second Juco. Lots of them have mid-D1 spending budgets that they’d actually use on a 4:40-10:00 guy, you’d get to go to invites, and you could transfer once you get faster.

I agree with Malmo here.

There are NAIA and Jucos that would throttle half of D1. Track is a sport where your success is as easily defined as your marks.

The sentiment is right on the dot too. If you’re a 4:20 guy let alone a 4:45 guy who gives a crap what division you run in? That’s a drop in the pond in every division of collegiate running. It doesn’t matter if the worst are worse or the best are better. It’s different in other sports, because if you score 3 touchdowns a game it’s completely different in D3 than D1. If you run a 4:00 mile you run a 4:00 mile. If you’re good at this sport, you don’t need a title to prove it.

The best path to success in running is to have training and training partners at or slightly above your level, and competition that pushes you. If you throw a 4:40 guy into a conference where sub 4:10 is expected to score, coach is gonna have those kids running 2:15 800s, 62 400s, and 28 200s for days. As a 4:40s guy that’s asking to just not be physically able to finish workouts thus not getting the benefits, and racing people that don’t push you because they are almost lapping you.

I disagree. Anyone can run at D3? Wrong, those times don’t get you recruited. They may or may not get you in the team. Of course the little crappy programs will let you run.

You are correct. Mist D3 teams have roster caps amd they are under requirement ls of Title IX.

Try your best and work hard. There are opportunities to run at any level if you look for them.

recruiting.studentathleteworld.com

Best Academic D3 Schools - STUDENTathleteWorld

Below are the most highly rated academic schools that compete in NCAA D3 athletics. These are 74 of the most highly rated and highly selective schools in the nation. All 74 schools on these lists are in the top 5% of all coll...

Link:recruiting.studentathleteworld.com/rec...

I'm just trolling you guys, that was fun.

The best answer is you probably can't run D1 at a good school. Don't go the way of going to a big D1 and running for their club team. I've seen many do that and they end up losing their way. If your goal is to run D1, your best bet is the juco system and give yourself two more years to improve. If you can run decent times schools will take a chance on you as you'd be low commitment for only 2-3 years.

My other advice is, open your mind up to some D2 or D3 schools. There are some incredible lower division programs that have a great student-athlete experience. Chances are if you want to go to even a decent D2 you're looking at walking on. Maybe find a school that you can earn a lot of academic money to make things affordable.

Also, get that GPA over 3.5 over the next year. That will make you much more marketable and hopefully in line for academic aid. Crush your ACT/SAT.

This isn't the "fun way" or the easy route you were hoping to hear but if you truly want to run at a high level it's going to be hard and it's not always going to be fun. Now go out there and EARN IT.

HEy, people are criticizing this post but I say - get as much feedback as you can, haha. College is already a difficult decision for the "normies" (aka, non athletes) BUT it's so much more complicated for runners, imo.

further propagated by the fact that distance runners don't have an off-season during the school year: in the fall it's XC, winter is indoor, and spring is outdoor. Compare to that to a sport like soccer or football where they have an actual off-season where they do not travel.

some of the most successful people I know had a round-about way of pursuing their college education. One woman kept taking time off because she "didn't know what she wanted to study." Well, you can't do that as a runner, they usually want you to go straight from 12th grade to university. Plus, once you start competing, the NCAA clock starts ticking. I regret not visiting more colleges, I only took one trip to a non-athletic scholarship school, and two trips to Div 1 scholarship schools. I should've visited more places that wanted me (Div 1); I regret not doing that.

You still have your entire senior so who knows what kind of times you could do. I agree with some of the other comments - I recommend going somewhere where you are *middle of the pack*

Don't go somewhere where you are *by far the best runner* because you'll never improve.