College programs that punch above their weight

Let's not pretend that BYU is underprivileged or has trouble recruiting or something. They aren't do it with "a bunch of local Utah kids". You made me look and 22 out of 56 are from Utah. Just because they aren't pulling too many foreigners doesn't mean they are just coming from Utah.

Here is are the factors I would consider when factoring who is doing well.

1. Athletic department resources- if a school with money and support wants to be good they can be. Example Ole Miss, Tennessee. Not good until they want to be. Resources for coaches, recruiting, scholarships, travel etc. Also if ALL the teams are successful, it’s a department thing.

2. Training facilities/ location. - Mountain schools have a natural advantage even if they don’t have great facilities.

3. School brand and desirability- Do students want to go to your school and do they know about it.

4. Admission standards. Not all schools are created equal. Look at the International students in the SEC or Big 12 compared to the Big 10.

To me, no Power 4 conference school can be considered punching above their weight. They are at one of the top 60-70 most well funded athletic departments. They may have challenges but if they want to be good they can be.

In general, I think the small mid majors and small private schools are doing the most with the least. Then I would throw in the small mountain schools with no budget.

Huh? You made my point. Check how many of their top 7 are from Utah. Then check Arkansas or Wisconsin or Oregon or Stanford or the other schools in the meet. No others come close.

Has to be a non power 5 team that performs well despite having weaker recruits. This year those teams were Navy, Cornell, Utah State, and Wyoming. This is based on high school PRs alone to be objective.

BYU has great coaches that I think would be successful at any school.

However I don’t believe they are punching above their weight.

Both genders have won and multiple coaches have won national championships in XC at BYU. They have an unlimited travel budget (look up Marriot) and have the financial backing of the Mormon church.

They do have a unique recruiting pool but they kids they sign have very good high school credentials.

I think the results there are repeatable. Impressive but repeatable

and that makes them "punching above their weight" because they kept some of the best HS athletes in the country at home?

Yes.

CBU, EKU, Butler???

This is just a list of schools that keep passport control busy.

Has to be Wingate. A D2 school who can hang with top 20 D1 schools. Go Dogs!

Wingate would not meet the criteria because all of their good runners were already one of the greatest runners in their respective countries.

Wingate is the exact opposite of what this thread is about. The school has so much funding and extra scholarships as a private school to have 30 international guys on their roster.

They have the same scholarship limits as every other D2 school.

Think about it, right now and recently the answer is Oklahoma State (and we know why...)

With all respects to OSU and Oklahoma, the school is not very prestigious, not located in an ideal training environment, and historically OSU/ Oklahoma are not what come to mind as a historically significant hotbed of distance running culture.

I agree, but the other super obvious way to take the op is schools that are all but unknown and or small that run very well in xc or track. NAU is non existent, never heard of them in my life. But they win nattys in one sport D1 no less. That's hitting above your average/ punching above your weight to me. But I guess we could dissect the p.R's of every roster and try to figure out who's over achieving.

OSU has many of their own advantages and I would not say they are punching above their weight (they have won titles for crying out loud).

1. Extreme commitment to distance running. Multiple distance coaches, large rosters, world class XC course, lots of quality training locations, ability to recruit international (both budget and getting kids admitted). Large amount of scholarship dedicated to distance.

2. athletic department- golf, XC, wrestling have all won national titles. In general very competitive, well run athletic department. Some schools have never won a national title in anything.

They have to do things differently than BYU but that does not mean they are NOT overachieving.

NAU

You beat me to it. Watched them pick up a runner up trophy back around 87. Had never heard of them before. Yellow Jersey and blue shorts. Got to know coach Mann a little and been a fan since.

Some nice insight as to why the Moore sisters chose NAU & Flagstaff.