Why hasn’t that team raced at all this season. They ran one home race and the rest of their group is just no where? Why do they even redshirt their guys? They could be so good instead they waste talent by training them all for what? Redshirt years?? They’ll get stomped come ncaas
They're resting up for an important time trial the week after nationals.
I can accept that basically our sport has devolved into "peak for nationals", but it sucks as a fan. It sucks hard because there is no tension on building up as an XC builds up. It sucks as a fan because you get little or no emotional involvement in the season before building up to the championship.
What other ways can we continue to shoot ourselves in the foot with running as an actual sport?
I said this on the Friday 15 SC podcast last week. Source told me they heard the big guns are racing Pac 12s. They aren't going to redshirt.
Ok State never races this weekend either.
Maybe we should just accept that our sport is all about 1 meet a year and whatever meets it takes to qualify for that meet.
In xc, thankfully, there are two big meets - conference and Nationals.
Oklahoma St.'s region (Midwest) is much, much weaker than the West region. They are almost a guaranteed top 2 spot, so they don't need to worry about at-large points as much. Oregon going all in on top 2 spot without any at large points for insurance is crazy stupid.
Guys like Yuki are taking the right mindset to the pros.
An overabundance of injury-related caution is a common trend across sports. Load management in the NBA, mileage management in NCAA XC, two marathons a year on the roads, a few fights a year for pro boxers. The guys I like best are the ones who are out there all the time, competing and doing what they do, not afraid to lose every now and then. Guys who know how to take care of their bodies and aren't injured every other week.
can’t wait to come back to this post at the end of the season and see if the complaining was worth it.. not everyone enjoys how brutal racing often can be. Besides.. a big over-funded university coach not racing their A-team much? Isn’t that the norm?
You have to be in high school or something…every single athlete that signed here after Jerry joined knew what they were getting into and they were more than okay with it. Just because you aren’t doesn’t justify this entitled complaining. Stanford sucks this year. CU sucks compared to the golden days. Oregon will probably win or take second if they are gonna super peak for nationals, like they did last year. They will easily make nationals, they’ll take second/ third at regionals after CBU and Stanford., CU and every other team will push them in. The guys at Oregon aren’t training to be the best at cross country when they are pro’s. They are training to be making the us final for outdoors in their respective events and, same with NCAA’s champs. The average joe who isn’t at the high level won’t understand this. The women race 6k. The men race 10k. Two completely different events. Again, they could have gone anywhere else if they weren’t okay with training under the one of the best coaches in the NCAA, who understands periodization and overload 1000x better than some kid who rants on letsrun “oh no bad for the sport no no”.
That all might very well be true. But it IS still bad for the sport, won't you agree?
How is it bad for the sport? They will race Conference , Regionals and NCAA’s
That all might very well be true. But it IS still bad for the sport, won't you agree?
How is it bad for the sport? They will race Conference , Regionals and NCAA’s
They hope so.
Potential West Regional Contenders:
Oregon, Stanford, Cal Baptist, Portland, Gonzaga, and Washington.
That's six teams vying for two spots. A lot is riding on the next two races for Oregon.
Stanford and Cal Baptist will likely get in on points if not the auto qualifier. Oregon has to either get top two at regional or top three plus a Pac12 win. Those aren't guaranteed at this point. Portland, Gonzaga, or Washington could sneak into NCAAs if they've been sandbagging up to this point. I don't see a scenario where 4 west teams get in.
Washington is terrible and won’t qualify despite a lot of talent. Oregon will beat Stanford, Portland and Gonzaga. They will win or get second at regionals if JS decides to pull the redshirts and race everyone. They will finish top 10 at ncaa and all of the clowns that are whining about “this is what’s wrong with our sport” will go home devastated. Most of you don’t even know our sport so how can you know what’s wrong with it. Enjoy the championship season. It will be a great one. That’s what is great about our sport. That and the fact that 31 of the best teams will actually compete Head to head against one another. Basketball doesn’t, nor does football. XC is awesome!
Guys like Yuki are taking the right mindset to the pros.
An overabundance of injury-related caution is a common trend across sports. Load management in the NBA, mileage management in NCAA XC, two marathons a year on the roads, a few fights a year for pro boxers. The guys I like best are the ones who are out there all the time, competing and doing what they do, not afraid to lose every now and then. Guys who know how to take care of their bodies and aren't injured every other week.
What I think most of you are missing is - no one outside of Letsrun cares. This isn't like the NBA where fans are paying money and disappointed that Lebron took the night off.
No one is going to an XC race and saying "Oh no - Oregon isn't here, this is going to suck".
This is collegiate cross country running. It's a niche aspect of a niche sport. The broader running community (i.e., everyone outside of North America) doesn't care about NCAA cross country, and the broader sport community doesn't care about running.
Guys like Yuki are taking the right mindset to the pros.
An overabundance of injury-related caution is a common trend across sports. Load management in the NBA, mileage management in NCAA XC, two marathons a year on the roads, a few fights a year for pro boxers. The guys I like best are the ones who are out there all the time, competing and doing what they do, not afraid to lose every now and then. Guys who know how to take care of their bodies and aren't injured every other week.
What I think most of you are missing is - no one outside of Letsrun cares. This isn't like the NBA where fans are paying money and disappointed that Lebron took the night off.
No one is going to an XC race and saying "Oh no - Oregon isn't here, this is going to suck".
This is collegiate cross country running. It's a niche aspect of a niche sport. The broader running community (i.e., everyone outside of North America) doesn't care about NCAA cross country, and the broader sport community doesn't care about running.
We care. Isn't that enough? I tuned in to Pre-Nats excited to watch Ok State and Oregon. It sucked that they weren't there. It means the cross country season is less interesting than it should be.
I said this on the Friday 15 SC podcast last week. Source told me they heard the big guns are racing Pac 12s. They aren't going to redshirt.
Ok State never races this weekend either.
Maybe we should just accept that our sport is all about 1 meet a year and whatever meets it takes to qualify for that meet.
In xc, thankfully, there are two big meets - conference and Nationals.
Oklahoma St.'s region (Midwest) is much, much weaker than the West region. They are almost a guaranteed top 2 spot, so they don't need to worry about at-large points as much. Oregon going all in on top 2 spot without any at large points for insurance is crazy stupid.
But that's all part of the plan. Forget about the rest of the season and peak at regionals to grab an auto top 2 spot. Nationals is just a week later, you don't lose that much fitness. It's not inconceivable (although still a bit stupid). Don't be surprised if the conference and regionals squads look different.
Washington is terrible and won’t qualify despite a lot of talent. Oregon will beat Stanford, Portland and Gonzaga. They will win or get second at regionals if JS decides to pull the redshirts and race everyone. They will finish top 10 at ncaa and all of the clowns that are whining about “this is what’s wrong with our sport” will go home devastated. Most of you don’t even know our sport so how can you know what’s wrong with it. Enjoy the championship season. It will be a great one. That’s what is great about our sport. That and the fact that 31 of the best teams will actually compete Head to head against one another. Basketball doesn’t, nor does football. XC is awesome!
Why would we go home devastated if Oregon places top 10? I'm not arguing that they are not preparing in the best way to maximize their performance at Nationals. I'm saying that it is lame and boring and it sucks. Oregon and Oklahoma State have amazing teams. It would be more interesting and exciting to see them compete more often.
Washington is terrible and won’t qualify despite a lot of talent. Oregon will beat Stanford, Portland and Gonzaga. They will win or get second at regionals if JS decides to pull the redshirts and race everyone. They will finish top 10 at ncaa and all of the clowns that are whining about “this is what’s wrong with our sport” will go home devastated. Most of you don’t even know our sport so how can you know what’s wrong with it. Enjoy the championship season. It will be a great one. That’s what is great about our sport. That and the fact that 31 of the best teams will actually compete Head to head against one another. Basketball doesn’t, nor does football. XC is awesome!
Basketball has post-seasons. And a great regular season. Cross country does not have the latter. It would be better if it did.
I said this on the Friday 15 SC podcast last week. Source told me they heard the big guns are racing Pac 12s. They aren't going to redshirt.
Ok State never races this weekend either.
Maybe we should just accept that our sport is all about 1 meet a year and whatever meets it takes to qualify for that meet.
In xc, thankfully, there are two big meets - conference and Nationals.
LOL. One of the things I like about LR is that you guys genuinely try to think about how the sport can be better. Many of your ideas are lousy, but at least you try. And you think in terms of what's best for fans. So why just throw up your hands now? I know you don't like to criticize college coaches.
But do one of those thought experiments you often do, where you ask "What would it be like if T&F/XC does what other sports do?"
What other sports would allow teams to compete so seldomly?
can’t wait to come back to this post at the end of the season and see if the complaining was worth it.. not everyone enjoys how brutal racing often can be. Besides.. a big over-funded university coach not racing their A-team much? Isn’t that the norm?
Ok then why not race their B team or C team? Or let a few of their guys who almost certainly aren't going to make the XC team this year go do some races for experience? I'd be dying of boredom if I just trained for 4-5 years of XC and got to do 1 race a year in like September.
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