NAU Dominance

it is unfortunate football players by and large at the P5 level no longer compete in track. The cost and expense of football drives some very narrow decisions.

I don't understand the negatives over NAU's academics. Sure it is not Stanford, but NAU is a good match for a number of student athletes. And Stanford only works out for those willing to really grind and compete academically there - doable for those with a great academic background - not so much for those without.

I went to a school similar to Stanford and found that the benefit of going to such a school was to be habituated to some fairly intense and intelligent people. An intangible. It was a good choice for me (I was under prepared and behind when admitted) because it gave me the confidence to do well in graduate school, because nothing was as difficult as stepping up to really being in the game in college. But had I taken public school offers, I suspect I might have been better off in a way. Certainly the public schools had significantly more majors than my school that could lead to employment outcomes. As a poor kid, avoiding the opportunity cost and direct expense of grad school would have been welcome. No regrets - but just an observation.

Get the most out of wherever you attend, and have a plan to do so.

Agreed. Very humble team, all seem very grateful. NAU womens team as well is getting there.

Sahlman and Nyoak will step up, if I had to take a guess. Both will be AA next year. It remains to be seen whether that will be enough to win, but NAU will certainly be competitive next year again.

I don't care one way or another but very clearly NAU is a low-ranked university (education wise) who takes nearly everyone who applied. US News and World Report college ranking- Northern Arizona University is ranked #317 out of 443 National Universities

Just for fun (because I am OFF this week). Here is the academics ranking for the 10 top schools at NCAA

1.) NAU - 317

2.) Oakie State- 182

3.) BYU-89

4.) Stanford-3

5.) Wake Forest-29

6.) Wisconson-38

7.) Air Force (not ranked as a national university because it is very selective) but 18 in liberal arts colleges

8.) Colorado -97

9.) Tulsa-137

10.) NC State.

Looks I believe that just going to college is great for most people. You can apply yourself and use it as a springboard to a great life. I am also not an NAU leg-humper or a "hater". I love Mike Smith and his program is awesome for this athletes and college XC in general. I am the kind of person that left my first college because I felt it was too easy (Got my degree from Rice). If I was good enough to go to NAU, I would also be good enough to go to a better school. Then again, I' was never afraid of a challenge because.....

objectively, NAU is a terrible school.

NAU is a terrible academic school, but they're a top running school. That's the most important criteria on LetsRun! You can post these rankings on LetsSchool.

If you think we only post about running, you must be new here. Welcome to LR!