NAIA XC/TF 2024-25

Nobody thinks SCAD Atlanta is in or even close at this point.

I also think Montreat is quite a bit better than Lewis-Clark.

Wouldn’t the three spots go to Olivet, Corban and Rocky Mountain?

What am I missing here? Seems pretty straightforward.

There’s only 2 spots, not 3.

This is what I have

21 conferences with 1 bid (21 automatics)

Then 2 conferences that have 2 auto bids and a second team in the top 30 (there’s 23)

So 13 at larges

In no order

1. IWU

2. Taylor

3. Grace

4. Marian

5. Rio

6. IU east

7. Embry riddle

8. doane

9. Campbellsville

10. Lewis clark

11. Eastern Oregon

Those are the ones that obviously get in (there’s 34)

That leaves 2 more spots which should go to ONU and RMC

What about the women's side? It looks like Doane and Evangel had poor days. It seems like the last two at large bids should go to Goshen, who beat MVNU at their conference meet (and Aquinas twice, and OCU) and then MVNU who came on strong at the end. Doane, Evangel, RMC, all should drop

I think the hard part is comparing time differences.

Corban finished 6 minutes and 22 seconds behind College of Idaho at the Cascade championship.

6 minutes and 22 seconds behind College of Idaho at the blazing tiger meet would be behind St. Xavier and Bellevue who will not be going to Nationals.

so while yes the cascade is annually one of the best conferences in the NAIA, maybe the rest of the NAIA is just really fast this year and maybe LC State is over ranked too? LC state will make Nationals but maybe they are more a 20th ranked team and not an 11th ranked team.

College of Idaho also had by far their best race of the year at CCC's, so that's not really a good measurement to use. They ran out of their minds.

Also, not sure how Grace gets an at large bid over ONU, CU and RMC? They're 67 seconds behind #16 Marian, after being 16 seconds behind them at the least meet.

On the back end yes, but on the front end they ran better at blazing tiger. Even though it wouldn’t affect points much, Bostrom and Everist being a little off up front still affects team time.

I think Corban is a little bit better than St. Xavier but not good enough to unseat ONU or Rocky Mountain for one of those two spots.

I think the conversation on the women’s side is much more interesting

No doubt Grace had a better Great Lakes meet than they a conference meet, but they beat both RMC and ONU head to head at GL. I think that matters when you’re discussing who gets in, it’s not all about just the conference meet it’s about the collective season.

RMC also beat Carroll and then lost to them at conference, so you could use that same logic against them.

I don’t think those guys were off at all. All of them except maybe Bostrom were at their best yesterday.

Pretty normal end of season spacing out among the best runners. Butler’s just really good. Look at last year…he was way way ahead of them. I’m sure he’ll finish 2nd at Nationals to Silva.

Yeah, not an unfair assessment, although I think if you score CU and RMU head to head to head Corban would win. CU’s #3 (Lee) would still probably beat RMU’s #2…their best case is probably both of their top 2 at the National meet being well ahead of Svec. Not sure how things will shake out.

I don’t see Butler beating Asslouj and Woodall at nationals.

Final ratings are posted on Tuesday. I assume at larges will be announced after that point.

The qualifiers are announced today (per the naia manual), maybe the final season ratings come out tomorrow.

If this was rage bait you did a fantastic job

There’s always some subjectivity in the last couple spots but this year seemed pretty clear cut and the raters got it right. All of the teams that just missed (Cornerstone, Concordia, Cumberland, Corban) had ample opportunity to prove themselves against national caliber teams in their last 2 meets of the year and failed to do so. You could’ve argued that Cornerstone deserved a spot after their Great Lakes performance but their atrocious WHAC meet rightly costed them that spot. I’m sure we’ll have some complaints on this thread per usual but I don’t think any of these teams can say that they deserved to be in the field.