CuckTheFougars wrote:
It is a known fact that, largely on the basis of a religion most people in the US already have strong opinions about, BYU frequently skirts NCAA rules in terms of age and eligibility.
BYU also has a virtual lock on the lucrative recruiting pool that is the Mormon runners of Utah.
Despite having a relative wealth of resources as compared to the rest of their current conference, BYU remains a member of the WCC.
The NCAA altitude conversion chart allows BYU to send a lot of their athletes to the NCAA first round who definitely might not have gotten in had they only had access to sea level competitions.
BYU men’s XC/TF is generally considered to be a pretty boisterous program. Their athletes are known to talk a mean game on social media, and they frequently do things like flex after outkicking the entire western US while wearing trainers.
So in most cases you’re either pretty closely affiliated with BYU, or you don’t like ‘em at all.
And so when you take 4 spots at the NCAA championship (spots which alas they did earn, but were not at humble about) from a slew of talented and qualified athletes who most everyone else would’ve rather seen make it through (and then go on record saying you were just chillin’), people like myself are going to tune in expecting quite the show. And when you don’t deliver, I’m gonna go ahead and start talking that sh!t (for undergarment-wearing BYU affiliates, just replace sh!t with “crap” and you’ll get the idea).
I agree with some, but not all of this.
1) They follow the rules as currently in place. You can't complain, because anybody could do what they do if they wanted. There are plenty of schools that recruit older foreign athletes.
2) The Utah high school scene has been amazing the last 5 years, but BYU has been a top program for a lot longer than that. Having a 'Mormon Monopoly' certainly helps, but other schools like Stanford have similar advantages because of their academic reputations.
3) BYU is only in the WCC because nobody else will take them. They are subject to the demands of their Independent football team. Anybody who follows NCAA conferences understands this.
4) BYU uses those altitude conversions pretty rarely, maybe one or two guys per year take advantage of that. The conversion definitely helps, especially in the 1500/steeple, but any school who wants to can use those same conversions.
I do agree that the BYU team needs some humbling. Specifically Linkletter talks a big talk, and then he doesn't usually back it up when it counts. I have heard that he really butted heads with some of the upperclassmen when he first showed up at BYU because of his attitude. He is a major contrast from somebody like Jared Ward, who is as humble and easy going as they come.
Regardless, Eyestone has to change something. His teams have underperformed at so many national meets recently that nobody takes them seriously anymore.