The ONLY fair way to resolve a cross country tie

This is not the best idea because then you have increased risk of injury and a team with more and/or better milers is going to have the advantage.

It is funny that you mention football and soccer, because while yes, they have extra time, they also have TIES. Unresolved ties. They just say "hey, we gave you time to figure it out, we even gave you some extra time, when you couldn't figure it out, but since you still haven't figured out who is better, you tie....go home, no one wins"

Football has much higher risk of injury yet they play overtime. Distance runners can handle an extra 2k after 15 minutes of rest.

Not so sure the team with better milers would win, as they would be fatigued. If they did win, they deserve it for being tied in a 10k to begin with.

Not in a championship game. There must be a winner.

How about cumulative time?

It’s a team sport, there is no backup runner. If all the team are running cross country despite only the top 5 scoring then the next highest place runner counts if you don’t want to tie the event.

Not sure why you think this is wrong, if your team mates don’t turn up for a race that’s on the team. Maybe run a harder cross country course ran than glorified track and see who is stronger.

Maybe this is the answer???

I like this idea, but would change it a bit. Race a distance about 1/6th of the race length (let’s say 1k for 6k, 1.2k for 8k, 1600 for 10k) as a team and take the winner. It’s like the NFL but without the coin flip

I'd rather see them do it by combined 100m time. Show who is better all around nit just middle distance but sprinting speed.

Sorry, but every participant school, coach, and athlete agrees on the rules when they decide to be part of the NCAA. This method is indisputably fair merely because everyone has agreed to follow them. Fairness comes from transparency and agreement. Now, is this tiebreaker rule the most *effective* or accurate measurement of the best team? That seems somewhat subjective. I’m unconvinced that any other method would result in an outcome that is somehow more accurate at determining the best team.

I think scoring it as a 7 man dual meet is the best option, which in fact still gives NAU the win 26-29.

Interesting that since the new NCAA tie breaker rule went into effect, there were three championship races that needed to utilize the tie breaker this year. And in at least two of these ties, the previous system would have awarded the championship to the team that finished second (Utah women at PAC12 & OSU men yesterday.) New tie breaker system definitely went through a "trial by fire" first year.

Of course it’s a team sport, but that doesn’t mean the 6th men should be determining the outcome of a championship. Imagine a tied NCAA basketball championship final game being decided by which team’s 6th man scored more points. That would be ridiculous!

I agree cumulative time would be better than the current system, but I would still prefer to see extra running be used to determine the true winner. Ties should be settled on the field with extra running, not in a booth with extra calculating.

This tie breaker is not new....

Fair enough. Replace “fair” with “effective” or “sensible.” Look at the comment from retired OC coach. The outcome of the men’s race would have been different if they used 6th man as the tiebreaker instead of head to head. That tells me a new system is needed.

Just imagine how thrilling a relay race tiebreaker would be! It would be the most exciting and dramatic thing in our entire sport!

first - there should just be a tie. You couldn’t get the outright win on the day, you deserve only to be considered a co-champion, and not sole winning team.

6 man already had his chance to influence the score - try to get ahead of other teams scorers as a “pusher”

cumulative time isn’t ideal because sometimes timing systems malfunction.

There are many logical ways to break the tie, but i dont find it necessary. Ties aren’t all that common at this level, so why add more artificiality to the scoring.

It will never happen but I like your thinking 🤔

Sounds like you grew up in the “everybody gets a trophy” generation.