What kind of contract/group does a very good (but not great) guy end up with coming out of the NCAA?

Sponsors don't care about you or your running. They're businesses trying to make a profit and they only care about marketing themselves. So they are looking for runners who can help market the sponsors. In order to help market the sponsor, they look for 4 main things.

1. Titles won and records set. That gets you name recognition which helps with you marketing the sponsor.

2. Attractiveness - A sponsor would rather use attractive people in their marketing.

3. Personality - It's easier for someone with a great or unusual personality to attract attention to the sponsor.

4. Social media following. Someone with 40,000 followers can get their sponsor in front of 10 times more people than someone with only 4,000 followers.

Right now you are only average in those 4 categories. There are dozens of college runners just like you. Most of those runners won't get paid any kind of money by a sponsor.

You might be able to negotiate free clothes, free shoes, and travel expenses from a sponsor, and you just train on your own. Maybe they will even give you money for a coach. But as far as a sponsor wanting to pay you enough money to live on, that is extremely unlikely.

So as far as a contract/group goes, the most likely scenario for you right now is no contract and no group.

Improving numbers 1 and 2 is hard. So your best bet to get a sponsor is trying to improve numbers 3 and 4. Fake that you have an interesting personality and work hard on growing your social media followers.

For example, Allie Ostrander and The Athlete Special have done a good job with their personalities and their social media followings.

If you aren't willing to market yourself, then you aren't going to be able to market a sponsor.

On the other hand, lots of "pro" runners have part time or full time jobs and support themselves, and they make very little or no money from running. Unless you can significantly improve in one or more areas above, that is your most likely scenario.

Galen Rupp managed to make a nice salary off of #1 alone... but then again, he's Galen Rupp

Don't you mean Galen "MF" Rupp

Curious to know who this athlete is. I suppose they ran these times from 2000-2019 bc a 13:30 guy finishing 3rd at NCAA 5k / 9th in XC is pretty rare now !

It’s hard to gauge nowadays because times are much faster, but from people I know, an NCAA podium in track / top 10 in XC should get you about 40-50 base with incentives (ranging in difficulty of course) up to 100k.

without those NCAA placings, probably 20k ish as 13:30/28:06 are not that notables nowadays. You’d probably need to move up to the roads for more support.

According to World Athletics, there are no American men that could be him (based on birthdates of those with a 28:06 10000m). Maybe a couple of the times are rounded as well. No idea who this is.

Equipment deal with opportunity to make bonuses for high placing at national championship events.

Outside shot at a team like Hanson’s or ZAP. Potentially, being a workout pacer at a second tier squad.

The game has changed and the footwear industry is seeing stalled sales at the moment. There isn’t much money available and cuts will be made after the Olympics.

Shouldn’t this guy be a prime hansons guy? Dude is too slow to have a future on the track but is showing good endurance ratios. Load him up with mileage as see if he can run a 2:09 in 4 years. There aren’t that many 28:00k guys every year.

Running is a super top heavy sport. How much value do you think a guy like Henry Wynne or Izaic Yorks provide to brooks. Solid dudes but not running diamond league events or making US teams. Do you pay someone just to pace Kerr in workouts?

1. Are you a US Citizen?
2. Are you willing to move to the roads?

If yes to both, probably $50k plus from Hansons.

If foreign you need to run 10-15 seconds faster at 5k and 20-30 seconds faster at 10k for NAZ or Puma.

Rupp was not only successful because of his running but also his social media presence, outgoing personality, and being exceedingly handsome.

$50k plus as a yearly contract from Hanson's? Just asking, is that true or are you just making it up?

At best, similar money to whatever Hannah Steelman is getting from ON.

A runner of this caliber could potentially get no offers, but if a training group with a shoe sponsor were to take a chance on them I think they’d get an performance incentive-heavy offer between 30-50k for a couple years.

If they do well, they’d get re-signed at 70-80k; if they have no significant results they’d probably get dropped.

But if they go crazy and win some big races, they’ll get a renegotiated contract before their current one expires and easily hit 6 figures .

Nothing. No offer.

Make any U.S. teams? Place at USATF Championships?

Get a real job.

I hear Fleet Feet is hiring.

Alan

???? what a bitter scorned person you appear to be. lighten up Francis;)

This. Except if he had a pathway to citizenship in a different country, there’s no shot at all he could make a national team. If he truly values it, take an easy 40 hour / week job.

The guy who said $50k is making it up.

The OP isn't super fast and he has almost no name recognition. He will have to start with a "free shoes" kind of contract and prove that he is worth a real contract.

This is a lie. A laughable lie. There are so many groups - Puma, UA, Hansons, Zab, BAA, BTC, Hoka NAZ Elite,- I think this person would get a nice contract.

Hansons, Zap would be doing somersaults to get a top 10 NCAA xc guy.

Joe Klecker basically graduated with those stats - slighlty better - and the OAC built a multimillion dollar team around him. Klecker was 8th and 2nd at NCAA xc but his track pb was 13:34. (admittedly he didn't get to run spring track senior year which would have put hm in another category most likely).

Adding to this: the only person who was 9th at XC (in the past 2 seasons) was Parker Wolfe both times. He went out of state to UNC so this can't be him.