I am a brit at Uni in the states, and I know a lot of the Brits at UNM. We have this discussion a lot.
An interesting point ‘Sandy’ made was that:
“… give the scholarship to the local 18 year old kid who ran as fast in high school as did the import when he/she was 18 years old.”
Yet I do not see this as being true in any of the cases of the foreign roster in UNM, a quick internet search yeilds:
Ross Millington came to UNM as a true freshman, having ran 3:45.13 as a senior in high school. This would have not only made him the top recruit in NM but one of the most sought after recruits in the nation with his XC pedigree too.
Sam Evans came to UNM as a true freshman, having ran 1:50.05 in the 800m. The 17 year old NM State record is 1:51.73, so Evans would have been the best 800m runner in New Mexico HS history.
Lee Emanuel graduated HS in 2003, as a junior in HS he ran 3:50 on more than one occasion. The NM state record for 1600m (which has now stood for 14 years) is Matt Twiest’s 4:11.2 which is the equivalent of around 3:54.
David Bishop ran 8:37 for 3000m indoors (200m track) as a high school sophomore, and 3:51 for 1500m in his freshman year of college. Rory Fraser ran 8:38 for 2nd place in the English High School nationals as a sophomore and ran 3:56 for 1500 as a junior and 3:49 as a freshman. Both would be top of the NM recruiting class for their year.
Keith Gerrard had ran 14:54 for 5000m before he graduated HS and had ran at both the World and European Cross for Great Britain’s junior teams.
The point is, had these guys come as freshman they would still be better than the current crop of New Mexican distance runners, let alone be the greatest of all time. Matt Tebo ran a state record 9:07 3200m as a Senior, and he didn’t come to UNM, no doubt due to the low reputation of the program. Had these guys been there, he might have thought otherwise. If the coach can’t get the local kids, they look elsewhere in the US, if the coach cant get the US kids, he has to go elsewhere. You don’t just go down the pecking order until you are giving 4:20+ milers full rides… if you want a successful program, you look further for the real deal, like abroad. Franklin has said this a few times in his interviews, look on flotrack.