Indiana State to host 2008 DI XC Championships

Pondering... wrote:

What I was asking was what are the specific requirements that a host institution needs to address in order to put together a successful bid.

I suspect you can guess what's required, to a large degree. Airport, hotel rooms, officials, championship facilities, etc. The enclosed area might be a bonus.

I don't see how ISU gets the nod with airport and hotel rooms. Might be a "if it ain't broke, don't try to fix it" sort of thing. They have a very spectator friendly course that is fairly flat.

Alan

Plusses include the excellent course and the excellent meet management. It is easy to see that ISU takes the meet very seriously and does a great job with it.

Minuses include the issue of having it in the same place year after year, and the fact that Terre Huat is not the greatest place in the world for hotels and (particularly) team meals.

I think ISU has raised the standard for the meet, but I would be happy to see it begin rotating among sites again, nonetheless. Maybe set up a rotation like the regionals, so the participating schools build up expertise and learn from one another.

Taking only the course into consideration, I think Indiana State has been an excellent host for the meet. With that said, is there any chance that the meet might return to Northern Iowa or Iowa State for a year? How did those courses compare to Terre Haute?

Clay:

One of the aspects working against N. Iowa and Iowa State was something they couldn't control - the weather. The last time they both hosted the meet it was freakishly cold. N Iowa it was minus 10 at times and Iowa State had sleet coming down so hard you couldn't see. This has a lasting memory in many coaches heads. But those places have to submit a bid. Basically, when a coach submits a bid they almost have to place coaching their team on hold unless they have a great administration (which most don't).

The committee which decides the championships can only make choices on who has submitted bids. With the move away from awarding three year contracts it might open up some new venues. Home football games were working against places that wanted to host (on a three year contract) since all DI FB teams would have at least one home game in that three year window.

There are several schools working on dedicated cross country courses, so I think you will see a few more good choices within the next 5 years. We need for schools in the West and South to come up with bids. It would be nice to have a rotation of great places so the meet could be moved around the country.

Right now in track there is Sacramento, Oregon, Arkansas, Drake, Texas, Indiana that have facilities able to host. It makes it easy for the committee too move the meet based on those places.

There are criteria which must be met and all that is on-line at the NCAA website. Anyone can review that information.

Hope this helps.

Alright i am just getting sick of this course. It just isn't that great of a course to run if you ask me. It's not that hard, it's just so damn repetitive. I had to race here my senior year in high school. And also for my first 4 years of college. My only hopes for running somewhere else for nationals is during my 5th year. Come on California, can't they just get it for nationals for once

I don't think it has to be a 'dedicated XC course', in particular. All of the fences and whatnot at Terre Haute are pretty cool and add nicely to the atmosphere, but the course at Iowa State was just as good in my opinion, and lots of other golf course races are good for both the athletes and spectators. For example, the mountain regionals are equally good at Ogden, Provo, Albuquerque and Ft Collins. All of these are just golf courses, but all are good for racing, watching, cheering and getting splits. New Mexico's course is a particularly good example of a really cool course laid out on a golf course. You can run two miles and intersect the race 10 times.

Most of the athletes like to see the big races rotate among sites... otherwise, every year is the same.

Personally, I would like to see some XC courses with real hills in them. We're developing a tradition of making XC as close to track conditions as possible, without the track. Too bad, because racing hills used to be one of the best and toughest parts of cross. A lot of courses are trying to create 'fall track'.

My 2 cents ...

As a Mizzou fan I hate to endorse KU, but I thought the 1998 NCAA XC Championships at Rim Rock were awesome! Perhaps it was the perfect weather and the "Running with the Buffaloes" factor, but they hosted 4 races (DI and DII) that day and entertained 1000s of spectators. The course gets better and better each year and it hosted Big XIIs last year. Lots of tradition and centrally located (plus it's only a 3 hour drive for me!)

bump

Its nice to see the Waytons back on the board...even if it is about his former school.

The course at ISU is great from a spectator point of view. You can stand about 800 meters from the start and see about 60% of the race. The start, the mile mark, the winding around in the middle, then you see the race develop the second time the come around and then you move to the finish area to see the end.

But it is funny to watch all of the people bust ass to the different points on the course.

Having raced and been to the national meet the past 3 years, it is a great course on all accounts. But with everything you will still have people who will find faults with everything.

Mute point unless they get off their tails and host.

Kuck Fansas wrote:

My 2 cents ...

As a Mizzou fan I hate to endorse KU, but I thought the 1998 NCAA XC Championships at Rim Rock were awesome! Perhaps it was the perfect weather and the "Running with the Buffaloes" factor, but they hosted 4 races (DI and DII) that day and entertained 1000s of spectators. The course gets better and better each year and it hosted Big XIIs last year. Lots of tradition and centrally located (plus it's only a 3 hour drive for me!)

KU's problem was access to the course. They had hellish traffic that left athletes jumping the fences from the road to get to the meet.

Vee wrote:

Mute point unless they get off their tails and host.

Try moot instead of mute......

Kuck Fansas wrote:

My 2 cents ...

As a Mizzou fan I hate to endorse KU, but I thought the 1998 NCAA XC Championships at Rim Rock were awesome! Perhaps it was the perfect weather and the "Running with the Buffaloes" factor, but they hosted 4 races (DI and DII) that day and entertained 1000s of spectators. The course gets better and better each year and it hosted Big XIIs last year. Lots of tradition and centrally located (plus it's only a 3 hour drive for me!)

as noted above, there were some problems. however, a fantastic course and a great host for nationals. would love to see it host again.

people on here are suggesting california and other sites. but it's pretty much going to be a midwest site because of travel. the east coast teams don't like going to the west coast and vice versa. that's one reason indiana state continues to get the meet. centrally located, has handled it well in the past, and so on.

To be fair, it was the old KU staff that had the meet in 1998. Redwine has built up the high school meet at Rim Rock in the past ten years to where it draws crowds much bigger than the NCAA and they don't have the parking and traffic problems anymore.

Given the success that Stanley has shown in putting together big CC meets - plus their relays - I think Kansas deserved another shot. Nothing against any other course.

Inside info from an NCAA committee member --

There were only two schools who bid -- Indiana State and Indiana.

The NCAA committee was ready to give the meet to Indiana, but the new coaching staff didn't want to host the meet. It was the former staff that supported the bid.

So back to Indiana State we go.

We need more schools who are willing to bid. One problem most people don't realize: in most college towns, if there is a home football game the weekend of the meet, there is no way possible to host. That is immediately going to elitinate around half of all possible schools.

We need more schools in a major metro city to consider hosting.

KANSAS DID NOT PUT IN A BID! YOU CAN NOT BE CONSIDERED UNLESS YOU PUT IN A BID.

Spikes87 wrote:

Inside info from an NCAA committee member --

There were only two schools who bid -- Indiana State and Indiana.

That's not true. Three schools bid. If an NCAA committee member said that then they couldn't have been at the meeting or weren't paying attention. There is a new site in the mix for '09 and '10 that did bid for '08 as well but needs more hosting exposure first.

Have they improved access to the course. Last time teams and spectators were trapped in one enormous traffic jam. the course I here is superb.