I don't have any strong opinions on this topic but looked through the thread out of curiosity. Although a serious teenage runner, I never had any interest in the NCAA and never participated in it. So, all I know about being on a college team comes from Chris Lear's books and from reading this Board. Nearly everyone here always encourages the subject of a thread - whether a famous runner such as in this one or some beginner asking for advice - to be part of a team as much and as long as possible.
So, the high school freshman starting a thread will be told by many posters to join both the XC and track teams, and don't waver from a commitment to them. Even better, in the court of public opinion, is a school that has a year-round continuous program. A graduating senior will be told to absolutely get to a college and, by all means, get on a team. Threads about young potential pros, perhaps nearing their peak years, involve poster after poster saying runner X should absolutely use all his/her NCAA elegibility.
In all these cases, this idea is invariably floated by the crowd here:
You can do _______ (run marathons, trail races, big-time pro meets, WC/Olympics, etc.....anything non-school-affiliated) for the rest of your life or however long you can, but you only have these precious few years to be on a team. There have even been threads about how great the school-sponsored team experience is. "All my best friends were there" is a common refrain.
Here's another perspective. Let's say all your best friends are NOT on the team in question. I stumbled across my high school track team - I was working out and came across them - and I saw one guy I knew. 1. And a bunch of people I'd never met. Even the one guy wasn't someone whose house I'd ever been to. Nowhere near 'my best friend'. If we were close at all, like maybe at the level of having each other's phone numbers, I might have been aware he was on the track team. Instead, it was like, "Hey man, you're at track practice?" (This was the only time I was at one.)
If I HAD somehow ended up at a college with a team, I would have had no friends at all on the team. Just a bunch of random strangers. Nothing resembling 'all my best friends' as I've read on probably a hundred posts from people describing their own experiences.
I just think all the advice given to folks who are actually reading their theads, and advice theoretically given to the big-time runners everyone is commenting on, is based on YOUR experiences. Maybe the great team of best friends isn't what the subject of this or any old thread is experiencing. I would encourage anyone thinking of going out on their own, and avoiding school teams to do so. Those who have the great team all of you write about aren't the ones considering ditching it. If it's all that cool, you're not posting here asking whether you should move on. And, admittedly, running unattached is what I did in high school,so I've always though it was OK.