NCAA School Rigs Last Chance Meet to Qualify for Nationals. Shameful if true.

$90K for MIT. Hard to ever overcome $360K headstart.

The program is who I referred to as “a bunch of slime balls”, buddy. Save me your pity party for trying to qualify by holding a “race” of just your team hours after everyone has left. It’s the opposite of “literally competing”. Hit your qualifying time in a meet like the rest of the world.

From a coaching perspective, no I wouldn’t ever do anything this cowardly in a million years. Why not run the 4x400m as a part of the actual meet? Dereliction of duty.

Not that the Mount union coach wasn't already the villian. But if middlebury doesn't get to run, the NCAA/Mount Union doesn't get to save any face, and Mount Union still screwed middlebury out of a spot, even if Mount Union isn't running.

Do you know what coward is? This is the opposite. It may be questionable but it is gutsy.

Middlebury is now on the accepted entry list, so hoping they just add them to a heat once everything gets ironed out.

I bet MU gets added too. Tricky part of that though is one heat would have 5 teams while the other 2 heats would have 4. Top 8 times advance regardless of place, but I would not want an extra team added to a heat I was in with how hectic indoors races/exchanges can be.

They ran fast enough to bump the teams that were listed. You can't come back after the meet and add a race. Maybe they could have run faster if they had known what marks were out there...

Don’t find it to be gutsy when Syd ducks competition as well?

The thread title is correct - this is shameful behavior. Some coaches they have there, sheesh.

If you jump 25 feet in practice, it doesn't get you into the nationals. If you run a sub-4 mile time trial in practice, it doesn't get you a spot in the nationals. This was a solo time trial, hours after the meet. Nice effort. Not a qualifying time.

Yes they got the approval. The snag was that there can only be, as you know, a 10 minute time period between races. So I hope the NCAA enforced the 10 minute rule this weekend.

So this is interesting to me. The NCAA gave them approval that they knew was against the rules? Or is it that the NCAA doesn't know their own rules in the first place?

Also, approval from whom? There's some liaison hotline at the NCAA available at all hours for track coaches to call? Has that person gone on record having approved it?

I would recommend that Mount Union run in a third heat without ant competition. They would prove all the skeptics that they belong there.

You're intentionally obfuscating and watering down what it means to "belong" in the competition.

Are they skilled enough to be considered one of the top teams? Yes.

Did their coach act unethically, at best? Also yes.

If I'm a NASCAR driver, and I qualify for a race but it turns out my crew cheated, I don't suddenly get to stay in the race just because I proved I was talented enough to be there. I get my ass DQed and there's no argument at all.

You are making the argument that it doesn't matter how someone proves that they are qualified -- even if they break the rules, the ends justify the means. And that is a terrible, ridiculous argument.

complete apples to oranges argument. Try again.

I'm good with that. Maybe they should run alone Friday night at 9pm so they know what time they need to run to qualify for finals.

I would recommend that they run a qualifying time in a race next year.

If you know anything about a business- which the NCAA is- not even a liaison would give approval without checking with the proper people. All employees know their autholevel before they must ask their supervisor. That’s Business 101.

LOL!

As was said above, I don't see how you could defend this unless you were affiliated with Mt. Union in some way. I just automatically assume that anyone who thinks it's all fine are parents of the athletes involved.

Lol that's funny. I'm sure that never in the history of the NCAA has a member EVER communicated anything without all of the proper chain of command discussions and approvals.