Change my view: almost anyone, regardless of talent, can run in college if they work hard enough

I agree! I think most people have a lot more potential than they realize. I think just about anyone willing to put in the time and the work can run a sub 5:00 mile or the female equivalent, which is good enough to run D2 and D3. I also think the % of those capable of running sub 4:30 is higher than we think too, and that can get you walk-ons at a good amount of D1s.

Agreed

Yes, provided youre willing to go to a bad enough school, which is what's being referenced in the very quote you're responding to.

Yes, if you mean running on you own, or joining a college or local club. No, if you mean performing well enough to be above average if the runner is near zero percentile in talent. Most of these discussions on 4:51 milers are talking about people roughly 50 percentile in talent, a huge difference from 0 percentile.

Disagree. Coaches have their favorites no matter your level of talent

Even the guys at the bottom rung of D3 running 35 minutes for 8K are better than the vast majority of people off the street on their campuses.

Nope. One of the problems we have if we want the sport to survive at the college level is to eliminate the "Run Club" mentality, especially with women who spend the college careers injured.

What was the original purpose of college sports?

everyone should run in college if they want to, but they should not compete/be on the team if they're slowing down meets while everyone waits for them to be stunning and brave as they finish their 30 minute 6K. sorry, but if you're that slow you should stick to casual runs and road races. that or they should enforce time cutoffs.

i went to a d3 school in a competitive conference where the top men routinely break 25 for 8K, but you also get some dogs finishing well over 30 minutes. there was a guy on my team who never ran in college, was obese freshman year, then went out for track and XC by junior year after losing a little weight. great guy, fun to hang out and party with, but IMO there was not much reason for him to be on the team other than a social thing. and yeah, yeah it's d3 and we were all hobbyjoggers. i get it. but i do think that this social mentality diluted the competitive aspect of the team, and our results spoke for themselves. the balance of guys who had competed in high school, trained seriously all year, and ran decent times was way off compared to the guys on the team for the social aspect. and it was even worse on the women's team.

I coached a girl who ran sub 22 5K in 9th grade. I then retired. She never improved (she was lazy, it wasn't the coaching).

She now runs Junior College and can't break 25.

no not really wrote:

Even the guys at the bottom rung of D3 running 35 minutes for 8K are better than the vast majority of people off the street on their campuses.

That's because they're untrained. 99.999% of able-bodied men in their 20s can be trained to run a 35:00 8K.

College sports are for the best of the best HS athletes and distance running being no-cut at some schools doesn't change that. It would be an embarrassing and miserable experience to compete with the kind of talent you've described. Running for a club would be a far better choice.

Why would anyone need to change your view? Anyone who's been to a track meet involving D3 teams can see this.

OozmaKappa wrote:

Yes, provided youre willing to go to a bad enough school, which is what's being referenced in the very quote you're responding to.

There are good schools (as far as academics go) with bad track teams. Caltech, for example, has a "B" 4x800 team that runs a 9:04:

SDSU Aztec wrote:

College sports are for the best of the best HS athletes and distance running being no-cut at some schools doesn't change that.

It's not just distance running. Some schools have an "A" 4x400 relay squad running 3:55:

Anyone can run college d3, being good or even mid-pack takes at least some baseline talent.

A mid-pack finish at any given XC meet in d3 is like 27-28mins.

OP,

Couple of things:

1) Yes, ANYONE who doesn't have a prohibitive medical condition can run in college for a D3 or NAIA team somewhere. That is absolutely true.

2) The thing is though...they don't even have to work hard. There are teams out there that don't even have enough bodies...they will take ANYONE.

a slow guy wrote:

SDSU Aztec wrote:

College sports are for the best of the best HS athletes and distance running being no-cut at some schools doesn't change that.

It's not just distance running. Some schools have an "A" 4x400 relay squad running 3:55:

https://www.tfrrs.org/results/53256/3310445/22nd_Rossi_Relays/4x400/

You're missing the point though. Yes anyone can run in college if it's their #1 priority to find a school that will let then on the team. But the vast majority are not ever going to be capable of running for the school that they will select to attend without running as a constraint. Caltech is extremely selective.