Come On!! Why is the NCAA XC Championships held on a Monday, and in Terre Haute? This is BAD for the sport.

NXN is not a cross race it's a trade fair in a godforsaken piss poor location in cold and wet Portland in December. Real Einsteins picked that one. More like real W. Bushs ;-) Footlocker is the big high school champs each year.

They should hold NCAA D1 XC champs on Sunday. Mythologists work on sundays at airports, McDonalds, prisons, Starbucks, Silicon Valley startp companies, casinos, police departments, whore houses, etc. so the mythologists can race on sunday too if they are told to do so.

The way to get attention to the sport is not to hold this meet in the middle of nowhere on a Monday.

It makes about as much sense as holding the Olympic marathon trials in Alabama.

And we wonder why nobody cares about our sport. We make it really hard to care.

Rip a page from the Olympic Trials. Find a way to hold it in Central Park the day before the NYC marathon.

d2xccoach wrote:

There is an open bid process for most NCAA Championships and also for Regionals - in almost all sports (all? not sure about sports that are televised). The paperwork is available on the NCAA website, and in fact we recently received a memo inviting schools to submit a bid for about 15 different sports on all 3 divisional levels. In my experience with this process in other sports there has been a sort of "gentleman's agreement" among interested schools about where NCAA's and Regionals will be held and who will put a bid in for certain years. I have no idea if this is the case with XC.

So there really isn't any demand for change from the folks who are the ones who will have to actually organize, put on and pay for the championships?

Maybe those who want NCs held in New York or Boston or wherever might want to address that issue before they complain about it being on a Monday in Terre Haute.

Slowpokeman wrote:

Rip a page from the Olympic Trials. Find a way to hold it in Central Park the day before the NYC marathon.

Brilliant idea. That should make finding hotels easy.

How stupid to hold the meet in the middle of the country. What an absurd idea. It should clearly be in a coastal city. It should especially be an east coast city because that's where all the best teams come from. This should drastically reduce travel for everyone.

NCAA XC should not be an opening act for a PED promotional event like the NY Marathon. NCAA XC should be held on a saturday in Orlando, Houston, San Diego, Dallas, or some other warm tourist area.

halfman wrote:

Brilliant idea. That should make finding hotels easy.

As if finding hotels in Terre Haute is easy.

Son of Dad wrote:

As if finding hotels in Terre Haute is easy.

There are more than enough hotels within 30 miles of Terre Haute to accomodate all participants in the NCAA XC national meet. I have never heard of any team or parent or fan having difficulty finding a hotel. And for those of you who say "but I called two weeks before and all the hotels were booked," that's simply because many teams have blocks of rooms saved for them. Then, when they don't qualify, those rooms are released. If you can't get a room, you aren't very smart.

But you are right, it would be much better to have the meet in a major tourist city the day before a major event.

The meet has been held on this Monday for decades and decades; I am surprised no one else has mentioned it. Since there are at most two additional school days people can depart for home rather than return to school. This was a big deal when many teams had to drive to Nationals. They have kept it because it is convenient and it does fit the news cycles well (Sat has college football while Sunday adds the pros as well as numerous other sports, ranging from basketball to tennis).

As for location, Indiana State has continued to make the meet a priority and deserves credit for doing so. Wisconsin is making a bid to host Regionals, then Nationals. Madison is a more interesting town with more hotel space and flights and is closer to Chicago (but Indy is close for TH).

The course is already at least as good and will get better; I ran on it Saturday after a week of rain (mostly light) and after two (small) races and the footing was good virtually everywhere and it only got muddy/wet in a few places. Of course, there is the issue of weather in late winter in Wisconsin to deal with, but on a good course, it should be only a matter of dealing with cold weather and it should almost always be at least in the 30s.

Next year they will have both the early-October Invite and the Big Ten meet. In the invite they not only had the two college races but an alumni race and then 8 high school races. At the end of the day the course was still in good shape.

Bull Turkey wrote:

NCAA XC should be held on a saturday in Orlando, Houston, San Diego, Dallas, or some other warm tourist area.

But who in those or any other area is clamouring to actually do the work and spend the money to organize the championships?

You can say all you want about where the races should be held, but if you've got no one stepping up to put them together, you're not going to have much of an event.

My favorite is that one of the big points against an NCAA Football championship series is that the players would miss too much school. However in my knowledge football players miss hardly any school ever with their chartered flights to and from everywhere. However we host XC Nationals on a Monday.

How come no one is concerned about the XC kids having to miss a day of school?

Look More Closelerly wrote:

My favorite is that one of the big points against an NCAA Football championship series is that the players would miss too much school. However in my knowledge football players miss hardly any school ever with their chartered flights to and from everywhere. However we host XC Nationals on a Monday.

How come no one is concerned about the XC kids having to miss a day of school?

Because XC Runners are not dumb ass football players (on average).

Are most schools even in session the Monday before Thanksgiving? I know we got the whole week off at my school, which was nice. I got to fly straight home from nationals (D-III, so it was on a Saturday) instead of going back to my school then flying home from there.

I think Tuesday in Dubuque, Iowa was already taken.

apple donuts and pies wrote:

Are most schools even in session the Monday before Thanksgiving? I know we got the whole week off at my school, which was nice. I got to fly straight home from nationals (D-III, so it was on a Saturday) instead of going back to my school then flying home from there.

Yes, most schools are in session during most of the week. I think most schools get that Thursday and Friday off.

The only real answer here is Minneapolis. Centrally located, easy to travel to and around, adequate hotels, and the community is crazy about the silent sports. However, a problem could come about with that white stuff.

boston is on a monday.... is that bad for the sport? hahaha

ummmm wrote:

boston is on a monday.... is that bad for the sport? hahaha

To further elaborate on why it isn't bad for the sport:

It is held on Patriot's Day, so basically everyone in Boston will be out on the streets; the marathon ends in Boston, lots of fan support. Also, the Red Sox's game for the day is scheduled earlier than usual so the game ends (generally) as the leaders of the marathon are coming into town. You have all the fans of the game coming out. Makes for a great day.

Versus will televise this years' championships!