Wisconsin Men at NCAA

Pascal wrote:

Ultimately, Wisco and other similar programs need to counter Mike Smith and NAU. What could've another program offered Nico Young to bypass NAU? I don't know the answer. If there is no answer, then NAU will keep recruting the "Nico Young" or "Brady Hostey" of that year's top recruits.

Smith can coach and he can recruit. If I were choosing for myself or my child, I would hesitate simply because of the academic reputation of NAU. From my own perspective as a successful professional, I would be inclined to hedge by choosing a good program at a school with a better academic reputation.. That is something that (in no particular order) schools like Michigan, Wisconsin, University of California, Notre Dame, Georgetown, and Duke can provide.

I suppose if you are considered a potential generational talent, like Young, the analysis may be different. But even with a Nico, one can't predict the effect of injuries or simply unexpected failure to improve.

yessirskiii wrote:

Wisconsin is a great school with great history but we’re starting to see a shift away from the traditional running powerhouses as more schools are competitive nowadays. I know these championships didn’t have the normal selection process, but can you imagine UNC Charlotte, Gonzaga, Furman, Duke, Butler, Ole miss, Utah state, SUU, or Tulsa making NCAAs 20 years ago?

The fields are so much deeper than before and while some schools like nau, Stanford, Colorado will always be able to draw amazing recruits, it leaves a gap to the “middle class” teams. The rich get richer, the poor get richer, the mid teams don’t really get much.

Maybe nitpicking, but Joe Franklin Coached Butler to a podium finish in Men's Cross Country in 2004, and they qualified for the first time in 1998, and I believe qualified almost every year after that, until he was hired at UNM.

Southern Utah University was an NAIA School, and then a DII school, before moving up to D1 (28 years ago).

1963–1985: National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics

1986–1992: NCAA Division II

1993–present: NCAA Division I-AA/FCS

Wisconsin used to be a really good school and the Republican legislature cut funding under the previous governor and instituted harmful policies that have seen it drop in quality and attractiveness as a job.

elite academics or altitude wrote:

It seems the best way to be a consistent top 5 program is to be elite academically or located at altitude. Wisconsin is a good school but not elite.

The only consistent top 5 school with elite academics is Stanford.

I wouldn't put Wisconsin as elite, but in terms of academic prowess, of "consistent" qualifiers over the last 20 years, it's basically Stanford, Michigan, Wisconsin, Duke, Texas, Washington, Georgetown, ND, NOVA and maybe Syracuse. We can quibble a lot down the line but Wisconsin is probably the 3rd or 4th best academic school of any regular qualifier. No one regularly near the podium except Stanford is better.

Of current NCAA distance coaches, the list of guys with a better career resume are pretty short:

According to his Wisconsin bio, Bryne has coached eight podium XC teams (including a national champ) and nearly 70 All Americans.

Who coaching today has accomplished more?

Mike Smith

Mark Wetmore

Andy Powell

Chris Miltenberg

Dave Smith

Ed Eyestone's not quite there (5 podium teams, 27 All Americans according to BYU's site)

Ben Thomas is headed that direction.

Sean Carlson and Ryan Vanhoy have had some short term success, but they'll need to sustain it for years to come.

Schools like wisconsin can be consistent top 10 and maybe dabble top 5 once in a while

ND has a better chance from here on out. Stanford, colorado, nau are way more likely consistent top 5 in this day and age. Others like wisconsin will be able to dabble in there once in a while just like tulsa and arkansas. - maybe. Oregon is more likely these days. Washington is the same as wisconsin. BYU is more likely (i think they are at altitude). Plus byu gets the older guys.

Fair. My point is in this age people have access to more colleges than your 1 or 2 state schools or a couple private schools that are near you. There’s lots more kids traveling out of state and across the country for a college degree.

So for a kid growing up in Wisconsin, the availability of going somewhere like Michigan, ND, Indiana, etc is a lot higher. The same can be said for every school, so technically it should balance out but the schools that already get a lot of attention (Colorado) are still getting the in state kids, but also the out of state kids. The smaller lesser known schools are getting more out of state kids too.

Pascal wrote:

Ultimately, Wisco and other similar programs need to counter Mike Smith and NAU. What could've another program offered Nico Young to bypass NAU? I don't know the answer. If there is no answer, then NAU will keep recruting the "Nico Young" or "Brady Hostey" of that year's top recruits.

clearly you've never had fried cheese curds

Pascal - go back to flipping burgers and keep your culture BS out of here. You’re an old fart and creeping on young women is not cool. Loser

Get ready for the next Aussie on the Wisconsin assembly line...someone who just ran a 3:39 1500m (at age 19 or maybe just turned 20) is heading to Madison later this year.

Olin Hacker, a homegrown guy just did okay.