Since video footage of their competitions is readily available for public scrutiny, the NCAA would do itself a favor if they would consider being more transparent about situations like this so fans, coaches, student athletes and officials knew how perceived rule violations were handled. Having worked numerous NCAA Championships over the years, I'm curious about quite a few things (citing the relevant rule book entries for each):
Did any members of the NCAA Committee have any concerns about the possibility of this happening when they did their course walkthrough a few days prior to the meet or did they feel the taller grass + white line + periodic hay bales was sufficient to satisfy Rule 18 Section 3 of the rule book?
Were there umpires assigned to the area of the course where these perceived violations were taking place on every lap the runners came through? (Rule 20 Section 7 Article 1)
Were there no perceived rule violations observed by any umpires? If any umpire observed what we can all clearly see in the broadcast, did they write it up and submit to the head umpire? (Rule 20 Section 7 Article 2) According to the Runners World article, the NCAA's position is no reports were made to the referee by an official, so the referee (by Rule 21 Section 5) is unable to render a ruling.
Were there no protests filed by any coach/team on this issue? This is the other "trigger" that would allow the referee to render a ruling. It appears that there were no protests filed within the protest period so the referee also could not render any ruling via this pathway outlined in the rule book.
Over the years, I've seen the NCAA committee make efforts to make sure the timing crew is up to par, the starters are sufficient enough in number to see when/if a recall is needed, the course width/first turn is designed appropriately and most recently the clerking process is done in a way that is efficient and thorough....it now appears there needs to be a focus on ensuring umpires do the work the rule book prescribes for them. Yes - our sport has always been unregulated "out there on the course where no one can see what is happening" - but now we can all see the entire race via lead cart cameras, cameras on aerial lifts and most recently drone footage. And I'm hopeful that they learned their lesson that the utilization of fencing, flagging, ropes etc is necessary. Umpiring now needs to be taken more seriously and course setup needs to be buttoned up.
Neither of these improvements are ground breaking or new - in fact there are clues in the host operations manual that make it clear someone at some point already thought this through. Host operations manual you ask? Here ya go:
https://ncaaorg.s3.amazonaws.com/championships/sports/crosstrack/d1/crosscountry/2025-26D1XCC_HostOperationsManual.pdf
Maybe moving forward we won't consider umpires an afterthought that relegates them to being listed as "other officials" like they currently are down in Section 21? And perhaps stronger consideration will be given when selecting/placing these umpires to the note that "the most experienced" umpires should be assigned to major turns on the course....
And while no one ever pays much attention to the stuff buried in the appendices, Appendix A lists no fewer than FOUR different types of equipment that could be used as a barrier to keep athletes on course. Hay bales is not one of them.
Lastly - even thought it appears that no action was taken during the meet weekend, that doesn't mean that this is all over for these athletes/institutions. There is a process used for dealing with "Misconduct" that is outlined in numerous locations throughout NCAA documentation because it is part of the NCAA By Laws....and it we know it is important because they always copy/paste it into the participant manuals for each championship like they did for this meet:
https://ncaaorg.s3.amazonaws.com/championships/sports/crosstrack/d1/crosscountry/2025-26D1XCC_ParticipantManualMissouri.pdf
Bottom line - we all need to now watch to see if those in a position to make sure this doesn't happen again take the necessary steps to protect the integrity of our sport. For DI - they are listed here:
https://web1.ncaa.org/committees/#/reports/roster?committeeCode=1TRACKOC