Geez, I thought folks might like to know I am an ancient former D1 runner from the ACC before Florida State, Miami, Boston College and all that. Not ancient enough to reach back to the days when South Carolina was a member (a mistake for them to leave in my opinion).
You posted the same threat about 7 months ago. Guess the volcano delayed your departure.
H.E. Pennypacker wrote:
There are so many bad D1 teams and runners that the term is meaningless. It does not give you some kind of life-long serious runner status. You're a hobby jogger, and "former d1" does not save you from hobby joggerville.
It is meaningful and only losers who couldn’t make a D1 team get worked up about it. Yup, you’re right, some D1 teams suck - but how many more D2 and D3 teams are terrible? And the worst D1 teams are still better than the worst D3 teams. Just like there are some Harvard grads who suck at what they do doesn’t mean it’s not impressive to be a Harvard grad. Sorry you were never a good runner.
Former D1 God wrote:
H.E. Pennypacker wrote:
There are so many bad D1 teams and runners that the term is meaningless. It does not give you some kind of life-long serious runner status. You're a hobby jogger, and "former d1" does not save you from hobby joggerville.
It is meaningful and only losers who couldn’t make a D1 team get worked up about it. Yup, you’re right, some D1 teams suck - but how many more D2 and D3 teams are terrible? And the worst D1 teams are still better than the worst D3 teams. Just like there are some Harvard grads who suck at what they do doesn’t mean it’s not impressive to be a Harvard grad. Sorry you were never a good runner.
State your PRs, please. Those prove your running achievements, not D1.
teenage wasteland the fake one wrote:
The worst college team I ever saw in my life was from a division 1 school. It looked like they pulled 5 random guys from campus and gave them uniforms. Seriously, all 5 of them ran 35+ minutes for 8k. But hey, for the rest of their lives, they can tell everyone they're former d1.
Lol, what team is this?
former D1 runner here, agree that OP is just salty he was D2 but knew 1 slow guy at a bad D1 school. therefore he doesn't want to hear about runners who ran against real competition. he probably still thinks he's great from that 14:50 duel meet win
The solution wrote:
This is why letsrun needs registered users. To sign up, you need your full name, which men's D1 program you ran at (no females here please, they get by on talent and not hard work) your PRs, your degree and major, your social security number, a signed copy of your transcript, the results of a recent VO2 max test, and the home phone number of your former D1 coach to verify your D1-ness. Everyone else can go to Runners World forums or Reddit.
Don’t forget wanker size.
Former D1 wrote:
well now wrote:
D2 teams beat D1 teams all the freakin' time.
Still doesn't make you former D1. Enjoy your finishers medal from Baby Nationals. About as impressive as your diploma from MIT.
Fixed!
Generally speaking, the more someone talks about what they did back in college, the less they've achieved since college.
H.E. Pennypacker wrote:
There are so many bad D1 teams and runners that the term is meaningless. It does not give you some kind of life-long serious runner status. You're a hobby jogger, and "former d1" does not save you from hobby joggerville.
Have you encountered large numbers of runners who do this? How big is your sample set? 1? 10?
This seems like a non-problem, though if you're a troll I'll have to give you at least a '2' since I responded.
I'm going to just throw this out there...I'm in my mid-thirties and I still include my undergrad GPA on job resumes. So, there's that.
J/K, I don't do that. And you shouldn't either. Don't. Just. Do. It.
To summarize the thread:
Former D1 really isn't a very useful term for describing your running ability, although it may have some relevance to your collegiate track experience generally in that it is some indicator that you would probably face a generally higher degree of competition at conference meets.
On the average D1 schools are going to have better track and cross country teams than D2 or D3 schools.
The better D2 and D3 teams are probably as good as or better than a middling D1 team, but are not in the same ball park as above average D1 teams.
The all time best D3 runners (the Lameres and the Dan Maiers of the world (Lamere before Lamere was Lamere), which are limited in number) would be competitive in conference meets at even the better D1 conference meets, and the D3 All America types would probably be able to make most D1 travel teams and some would score points at most, but not all, D1 conference meets. But as a general matter, the quality, and particularly the depth, on a D3 team is significantly inferior to the quality and depth of D1 teams. Same for the D2 guys.
If you want to use D1 as a descriptor of your running ability, it would be more useful if you also added something like "former scorer at my D1 conference meet" or "former D1 regionals qualifier" or "former D1 athletic scholarship runner" because absent a description of that nature, the D1 qualifier in and of itself is not meaningful.
Those who get worked up about guys who describe themselves as "former D1" may have a factual basis for that irritation, but may be expressing that irritation as a result of some sort of "little brother" complex.
Those who refer to "baby nats" or generally deride the lower divisions are more often than not going to be marginal D1 guys who are overcompensating for their mediocrity and need to try to degrade others to feel better about their mediocrity.
Did I miss anything?
Agree with OP. Referring to one's self as "former d1" takes away the credibility of runners from bonafide pro-level d1 teams like St. Bonaventure.
Former D1 Guy wrote:
H.E. Pennypacker wrote:
There are so many bad D1 teams and runners that the term is meaningless. It does not give you some kind of life-long serious runner status. You're a hobby jogger, and "former d1" does not save you from hobby joggerville.
I totally agree. It's like a guy claiming to be "a vet" right before he starts whining about NFL players kneeling for the National Anthem. (And then he undermines his credibility even further by identifying as a Trump supporter.) Right away, you know "the vet" never engaged in combat as he was "defending his country" and probably spent three years working as an army cook before being dishonorably discharged for rubbing one out in the sausage gravy.
So, yeah, I get your point. Why would I put my "former D1 status" on display when I never even broke 26:00 for an 8K cross country race.
Do you actually think you need to see combat to be considered a Vet?!
If not, you know nothing.
H.E. Pennypacker wrote:
There are so many bad D1 teams and runners that the term is meaningless. It does not give you some kind of life-long serious runner status. You're a hobby jogger, and "former d1" does not save you from hobby joggerville.
Cheesy...real cheesy.
Former D1 football players identify themselves with that term all the time. ?
It depends on the context of someone referring to themselves this way.
There are a lot of walk-on questions and people who were former D1 runners would have some perspective on that.
OP - why should us former D1 athletes listen to this nonsense? Let's go start our own thread!
The solution wrote:
This is why letsrun needs registered users.
Well, I agree this part.
The solution wrote:
This is why letsrun needs registered users. To sign up, you need your full name, which men's D1 program you ran at (no females here please, they get by on talent and not hard work) your PRs, your degree and major, your social security number, a signed copy of your transcript, the results of a recent VO2 max test, and the home phone number of your former D1 coach to verify your D1-ness. Everyone else can go to Runners World forums or Reddit.
What about the years that you attended the school and if you redshirted?
H.E. Pennypacker wrote:
There are so many bad D1 teams and runners that the term is meaningless. It does not give you some kind of life-long serious runner status. You're a hobby jogger, and "former d1" does not save you from hobby joggerville.
Pennypacker is right. It is especially unimpressive when the person making the claim isn't even a hobby jogger - he's an overweight ex-jock trying desperately to claim cool points from something he did in college years ago. That is truly pathetic. I'm looking at you, rojo!