These threads literally just turn into no-name-school advertisement reels.
It is very unlikely you're going to get a completely unbiased opinion here, OP.
Also furman is nowhere near a school that "gets DII and DIII runners" and develops them. They literally picked up one of Newbury Park's top runners from last year.
AppState usef to only care about placing high at conference meets. The last significant athlete they had to make nationals and be competitive was Mary Jane Harrelson in late 90's, early 2000s. Nearly made Olympic team in 2000. Coached by Ben Thomas.
Pat Tyson up at Gonzaga University has done a good job producing fairly exclusively local/regional talent and still is able to compete at the D1 national level. The program has come a long way in the past 5-10 years if you want to consider true athlete and program development. University of Portland is still holding it's own for not being a P5 school (down more recently) but seems like their reach is more national than Gonzaga's. Both distance only squads though.
I feel like a better more nuanced thread would be dive into successful D2 and D3 coaches. Lots of great college coaches out there, lots of questionable ones too if I'm being honest.
Meh, fully funded (unlike most small D1) and on top of that spend their full funds on distance/xc. Have some great recruiting classes, regular seasons, and fall apart when it counts
Lol Youngstown State? That's hilarious. They haven't done anything special yet they're fully funded, have huge rosters, and have basically no academic standards.
Ryan Cole of Air Force. W/ a student population of 4000, rigorous academic standards, military training requirements, no redshirts, foreigners, 5th-6th-7th years, or grad transfers. The men were 7th last year with 0 sub-9 min HS 2 milers, 0 Champs XC qualifiers, 0 NXN individual qualifiers. The women were 8th in 2019 with even less HS talent.
Jay Koloseus at Drake does a tremendous job with the resources he has. Consistent development of top end and back end and has had a few All-Americans to show for it.
University of Gonzaga also primarily all mid tier Washington/Oregon athletes with a couple studs. Actually develops Americans unlike most national competitors.
Mike Hillyard at University of Southern Indiana. Still a bit of an unknown in the D1 ranks, as this is year two for USI in D1, after many successful years in D2. Does a great job developing untapped talent and has built an amazing culture over the years. Will be very tough to match the team successes he had in D2 at the D1 level, but won't be surprised to see him make his mark.
Top Non-P5 Schools at Nationals 2022 (excluding Big East, Ivy, and programs moving on to different conferences soon)
NAU
Air Force
Tulsa
Gonzaga
Montana State
Utah State
Colorado State
Granted this is irrespective of resources, I'd say most of these programs are very well funded as far as XC programs go.
Other programs I'd note, in no particular order:
Furman, as others has mentioned, is a perennial nationals team and does well for themselves. Some might argue they underperform in relation to their resources (XC/Distance program only, and well funded), but they get it done
ETSU, second fiddle to Furman in SoCon every year, but some standouts will upset Furman's individual favorites at conference on occasion. IMO George Watts is one of the most underrated coaches in the nation, but its a very underfunded program. They just recently got a transfer from NAIA who has the potential to be an All American in cross this year.
Lipscomb, Nick Polk is great at developing. The women are nationally ranked and while the men are underperforming a bit right now they've yet to debut some very strong transfers and recruiting has taken a step up in recent years.
Tulane, the coach here has taken this program to another level in the last year or so. 5th at American conference champs last year but expect them to make a run at the title this year. Very transfer friendly.
Stony Brook, admittedly I don't know much about this program but I feel like I always see them in results with surprisingly solid times. Might be worth checking out.
UMass Lowell, again I don't know much about this one but they decimated the B race at the Virginia meet recently, strong team
Adam Ward of Maine… former D2 coach who is able to take a little talent and poor resources and make a powerhouse of a team. He developed Augusta University into a great D2 team. Took a bunch of 16-17 min 5k guys from high school and turned them into 14:30-15:30 college runners…
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