What are all the cut NCAA runners going to do?

You bring up Duke? Duke that just paid a qb $8 million for 2 years. Home of the 1 and done including Nobel laureate Zion Williamson. Surely a 3.25 at NAU is acceptable for the right transfer. I know you will be shocked with this, but many Arizona students from the general population who choose NAU as their 'home' state school go on to be doctors, lawyers etc. NAU is not to be confused with a top academic school, but it is a fully accredited university. Duke less discriminating on academics than Stanford, Northwestern, Vanderbilt and the Ivies.

You are way off. Here is an example. Iowa has been one of the very worst distance programs in the B10. They probably are not top 100 in the NCAA which is about 1/3. They have 5 guys indoor this season 8:05-8:17 in the 3k. Yet you think a 14:30 would be top 5 at 95% of schools?

Haha just stop already. This line of questioning is hilarious and I don't even think you understand what you're asking. Nobody said anyone was adding a "crappy transfer," you made that up just to get angry at something. Also, the fact that our roster is limited to 17 means we opted in, I thought that was common knowledge, oops. Someone else can respond to you from here on out.

For anyone who still wants to have a conversation about this topic and was interested in what a mid major D1 is doing I can answer questions.

For instance, "most" mid majors are not opting out of this settlement. I don't even know how many this poster believes are doing it, and there may be some, but I have not yet heard of many at all. Certainly not "most."

This is a weird time for all schools. A lot of coaches are scrambling to figure out what to do. Some schools are licking their chops and waiting for athletes to jump on the portal and others are cleaning up with high school athletes they wouldn't normally sign over bigger schools.

Revenue vs non-revenue. Yes, 1 and dones (or other basketball players) get exceptions, same with football. Other athletes / athlete transfers don't have to be as strong academically but can't be terrible either.

But of course it depends on how fast they are. If you'd run faster than their school records (which are far better than the average NCAA athlete but aren't 7:30 or 12:57 either - 7:58/13:47) I'm sure you have a lot of leeway. You'd barely be their 5th in xc? Nowhere near as much

Their 5th guy at regionals in xc ran 14:47. Sounds like track is going well for them right now?

Glad to hear that you aren't doing it. It was confusing because you said you were cutting guys but were taking transfers as walk-ons. I agree that is a bad policy.

Most mid majors are opting out. Your AD is likely aware of this. It will put you at a competitive disadvantage in XC within your conference to opt in.

Sorry for the confusion, I meant that athletes we would have offered scholarship out of hs we now wouldn't offer them anything.

I think a lot of those schools you mention are opting out are Ivy League schools.

I think we'll be fine with 17. It's sad to have to cut athletes because of this and I wish there was a two year window or something so we could take the time to reduce our rosters down through graduation instead.

We can now provide a better experience to the 17 that are here with more funding per athlete. I also feel like if you need more than 17 athletes and 3-4 scholarships to be good then you aren't a very good coach, you're just a personnel manager. Is this situation awesome? No, but I have no choice but to see a silver lining. A roster cap does kind of level the playing field doesn't it? Maybe in 2-3 years we'll be beating even more larger schools because they can't bring in 12 kids a year anymore.

He has 8:13 and 29:41. Your logic is like saying a college 3:50 miler can only run 1:55 in the 800 because that is his time in TFRRS from freshman year. This guy can obviously run 14:00 based on his 3k/10k. And this is about the 100th best team with a 5th man who can run 14:00. Yet you said the 15th best team would have a 5th man run 14:30. That is so far from true, it is silly.

I agree with everything you said, you'd think their #5 from the fall would be faster than 14:15-14:30 but upon further review he was not.

Michigan was 6th at regionals. They were probably a top 20% of teams. They have 7 guys at 8:10 or faster already. They will have at least 7 guys who can run 14 flat. By the way, Wartburg had 6 guys run 14:31 or faster outdoor last year. They are D3, not quit top 5% D1.

There is literally no proof that most mid-majors are opting out. Most schools are not announcing their decisions and quite honestly a lot of them will be forced to opt in by their conference if they want to stay a member. The vast majority will (stupidly) opt in. Here is why.

-Conferences opting in as a conference will force most schools to do it. That decision will be made by university presidents.

-Every school outsde of the P4 has the option to opt-in or out on a yearly basis. Most schools will test the waters this coming year and then reevaluate before the March 1st decision deadlinenext year.

-Even though it has not been said, I fully expect the NCAA to tell schools that if you opt-out then you forfeit your revenue share money. I would bet that those conversations are being had behind closed doors now.

-I also think that there is a 50-50 chance that the NCAA ties opting in to D1 membership. "Wanna opt-out and then drop down to D2 or D3."

The bottom line is that the P4's have all the power now. They do not consider most of the mid-majors as D1. IF they can force the mid majors out then they will absolutely do that.

I don't think most mid-majors are opting out. I also think most conferences are going to make everyone do the same thing (for instance, Big West, a mid-major conference... all opt in)

That is just an example but it could be an outlier I suppose.

That said, it's not entirely clear if a opt-in mid-major will be at a disadvantage vs a opt-out mid-major... we'll see how it plays out... some opt-in mid-majors may actually have revenue share money available which in theory allows them to recruit at a higher level.... and not all opt-out programs are going to be allowed to carry 35 on their XC roster... some maybe but not all.

We'll see how it plays out.

agree with this take

North Dakota State won the FCS national title. They opted out.

is your definition of mid-major FCS?

A lot of people are forgetting about basketball. That is another huge source of revenue and more important to mid-majors than football. Opting out means that you sacrifice revenue sharing from March Madness. A good example is Gonzaga. They don’t have football, but their men’s basketball team is elite. They will opt in because of that and, unfortunately, that means 10+ athletes in XC for both men and women are going to get cut.

Whats your point. They cannot afford to fund the money required to opt-in so they are not. They are risking not being in a conference and having to go independent. Opt out schools will more than likely not be able to join another conference. Opting in will likely not be decided by individual schools. Conferences will largely decide.