Sean Carlson Cuts HALF of the Colorado Roster

It’s the nature of the sport. They were 25th last year. That isn’t up to their standard.

Scholarship athletes can't be cut.

Scholarship athletes can't be cut.

Scholarship athletes CAN be cut but they cannot lose their scholarship. There is an exemption for new head coaches where if they choose to cut athletes, the athlete's scholarship will be honored but will not count towards the coaches (currently 12.6) XCTF scholarship limit. All of Coach Prime's athletes that were cut and chose not to transfer still have their scholarships but are not on the roster.

Great Post!

No one wants to coach anymore. I've been saying it for a few years now. It's all about "How much are you going to pay me"? I've always said that ANYONE can a take an established foreign runner and throw out some workouts and enjoy the results. It's way too difficult to recruit young American talent and develop them for 4 years. I'm not saying to ignore foreign talent, but you can limit the number of roster spots, say 80% American- 20% Foreign, etc... It's not that difficult, IF you know what you're doing and love what you do. There's WAY TOO MUCH job hopping around to find the perfect situation. I thought Carlson had the dream gig at UT? What if he bombs out at CU? If he's as good as advertised, he should CRUSH at CU with all of the home-grown altitude ready talent in Colorado.

Bump because this is factually accurate and many people on here who aren’t coaches are unaware of this clause.

How exactly was MW “done dirty by the school?” Wasn’t he allowed to exit gracefully at the end of his contract instead of summarily firing him at the conclusion of the investigation?

Going forward, message to HSers if you want a D1 scholarship you better get on the sauce early & shine. Business in the USA.

Their contractually guaranteed aid can not be taken, provided they are enrolled and in good standing with the University. But, scholarship athletes can certainly be cut from a team and be paid not to compete.

We don't know the inner workings of CU. It is unlikely he cut any major scholarship athletes, but not impossible.

I am surprised he did not put athletes on 6 month or one year notice and at least see who might respond well to what he does in training, but it's his program.

For all we know the admin could want the the down to 17 sooner rather than later. Makes more sense to overhaul the roster with the coaching change.

Oh my goshhhhhh, a D1 college team is cutting poorly-performing atttttthletes!

As a non-American, it's funny to me that Americans will go on and on about "meritocracy" and "no free rides!" But when anyone is subject to, um, an actual meritocracy, we get a 10-page thread about how harrrrrrrd it is.

Ooooh, those mean old coaches!

Maybe Carlson was the only one who was willing to come in, be the bad guy and dismiss/cut all recreational runners on the mens and women’s roster who shouldn’t be there to begin with?

I would have been cut. Then raged at D3, but that’s beyond the point.

Hi peaky -- you the girl Carlson asked to marry him on Saturday? Or is that the coffee chat girl?

I heard Carlson give a talk about his training philosophy and history. He definitely was clear that his philosophy is not similar to Al Carius… His style is much more “realistic” and less positive than Al’s. He went out of his way to emphasize how he treated athletes differently than Al Carius.

Totally agree. As a life-long Coloradan, it has always been very easy to root for CU. Wetmore did a lot of recruiting in-state and was willing to take flyers on guys who weren't as naturally talented. Combined with a high-mileage, mountain running approach to training that wasn't exactly typical for many other schools; it was just a classic blue-collar program (despite having their fair share of blue-chip recruits as well). And it was incredibly successful.

Cutting a bunch of Colorado-grown runners out of nowhere right before the season starts to make room for some preferred recruits is a dick move and very bad look. There's no dressing it up. And this fake tough-guy notion that being a cutthroat jerk is necessary in order to have success is ridiculous. In the 10 seasons leading up to 2023, CU men finished, on average, in 5th/6th place at nationals. They were outside the top ten just one time. On average, the women also finished in 5th/6th and were outside the top ten just one time. No evidence yet that Carlson's approach leads to that kind of sustained, consistent success. He'll be lucky to achieve a fraction of it.

Exactly. Interesting part is that CU athletic department announces non-renewal of Wetmore, and then waits nearly 30 days to name replacement (2 weeks before XC season starts). The cuts were formally made on Monday, so the guys had less than 5-6 hours to make a decision to stay (and not be part of the team) or enter portal and give up scholarship. That second choice is not so easy for the guys that don't have rich parents with just three weeks before tuition is due.

I know everyone says college sports is a business (football maybe, but the other sports can hardly be thought of as a business). The trouble is, CU signed contracts giving guys a scholarship and spot on the team. They then put in place a situation that forces guys to make a very quick decision without having time to consider options (they can't even contact other coaches to see if roster spots are available until after they've made the decision to enter portal).

This has gotten the attention of some reporters from a national media outlet. I know they are interviewing people to understand how NCAA rules impact athletes, especially when they were literally given just a few hours to make a major life decision. We'll see where this goes, but Cory Hilliard has some tough questions to answer (along with Rick George).

Regardless of where you come down on these particular athletes, it is a problem that the CU athletic department (and many others) show such little regard for athletes that they signed contracts with.

Just like Deion!

With one major exception -- Deion was hired in December. Those players had more than 5-6 hours to make a decision, and the season didn't start for a few months.