Dave Smith and Oklahoma St are to blame for this. They started this trend over years and years of frustration watching NAU win. Finally threw in the towel and just imported ready made East Africans. The rest of the NCAA followed their playbook a year later.
Glad to see BYU take them out and hope they do it again at nationals. I much prefer an all old Mormon team win over an old East African pro team. At least Eyestone DEVELOPED his runners and recruited them out of high school. Something that’s becoming more rare in NCAA cross country.
How many Americans are in college in East Africa? Do Kenya and Ethiopia recruit our lacrosse and baseball players by the hundreds?
It seems we do quite a bit for them - educate thousands of their nationals, host races for them to win and get large payouts - and they do... what exactly what for us in return?
Dave Smith and Oklahoma St are to blame for this. They started this trend over years and years of frustration watching NAU win. Finally threw in the towel and just imported ready made East Africans. The rest of the NCAA followed their playbook a year later.
Glad to see BYU take them out and hope they do it again at nationals. I much prefer an all old Mormon team win over an old East African pro team. At least Eyestone DEVELOPED his runners and recruited them out of high school. Something that’s becoming more rare in NCAA cross country.
Ready made East Africans?
What about ready made Europeans, Australian, Canadians…
…and what about ready made Americans who can run sub 4 out of HS?
Dave Smith and Oklahoma St are to blame for this. They started this trend over years and years of frustration watching NAU win. Finally threw in the towel and just imported ready made East Africans. The rest of the NCAA followed their playbook a year later.
Glad to see BYU take them out and hope they do it again at nationals. I much prefer an all old Mormon team win over an old East African pro team. At least Eyestone DEVELOPED his runners and recruited them out of high school. Something that’s becoming more rare in NCAA cross country.
Ready made East Africans?
…and what about ready made Americans who can run sub 4 out of HS?
The issue is EA’s that come in and compete at an age that is older than what is typical for a freshman, and some are already semi-pro.
Dave Smith and Oklahoma St are to blame for this. They started this trend over years and years of frustration watching NAU win. Finally threw in the towel and just imported ready made East Africans. The rest of the NCAA followed their playbook a year later.
Someone doesn't know the history of NCAA cross country.
Of the top 15 mens finishers, every single athlete was either a BYU athlete or an East African.
It's shameful how these teams have abandoned developing domestic talent. East Africans have been part of the NCAA for decades. But never like this.
Yo, who da fuk was going to go to Okie State and develop in lieu of their current roster members? You really think WSU in 1978 looked any different? Get outta here with this goofy "shameful" crap. There are 150+ D1 programs, there's no scarcity today nor anytime soon.
Dave Smith and Oklahoma St are to blame for this. They started this trend over years and years of frustration watching NAU win. Finally threw in the towel and just imported ready made East Africans. The rest of the NCAA followed their playbook a year later.
Glad to see BYU take them out and hope they do it again at nationals. I much prefer an all old Mormon team win over an old East African pro team. At least Eyestone DEVELOPED his runners and recruited them out of high school. Something that’s becoming more rare in NCAA cross country.
Ready made East Africans?
What about ready made Europeans, Australian, Canadians…
…and what about ready made Americans who can run sub 4 out of HS?
Who go to college being 18 not 24. That's the biggest problem.
Dave Smith and Oklahoma St are to blame for this. They started this trend over years and years of frustration watching NAU win. Finally threw in the towel and just imported ready made East Africans. The rest of the NCAA followed their playbook a year later.
Someone doesn't know the history of NCAA cross country.
It's never been this extreme. UTEP never recruited people who had peo careers. No sub 60 half runners who show up aged 28 with 4 years of eligibility.
. At least Eyestone DEVELOPED his runners and recruited them out of high school. Something that’s becoming more rare in NCAA cross country.
It's not really hard recruiting Mormons to BYU.
Given that there is almost no equivalent alternative for a top Mormon runner, it will be interesting now to see how they develop their club team.
Many top runners will still choose BYU even if they can't get a roster spot.
You'd be right until you remember that mormons are only 2% of the country's population. Absolutely NOBODY wants to even consider BYU as a school unless they fall in that small group. Think of all the substance abuse theyd miss out on!!!
It needs to be studied how LDS is such a small population and yet makes up so many top american distance runners.
2% of the U.S. population favoring only one University is actually a huge number. There is no other university who gets 2% of the the population. Imagine if there was one school who got all the Catholic recruits or all the Protestant recruits. Simply doesn’t exist. But Mormons in the USA comprise of over 10 million people. That is a huge number from which to chose from for a cross country team.
get used to it because it's gonna get worse. with NIL deals and universities literally able to pay athletes a salary every Kenyan runner looking to escape to a better life will be lining up.
in 5 years you'll be lucky to see one american runner place in the Top 50 in XC.
Given that there is almost no equivalent alternative for a top Mormon runner, it will be interesting now to see how they develop their club team.
Many top runners will still choose BYU even if they can't get a roster spot.
You'd be right until you remember that mormons are only 2% of the country's population. Absolutely NOBODY wants to even consider BYU as a school unless they fall in that small group. Think of all the substance abuse theyd miss out on!!!
It needs to be studied how LDS is such a small population and yet makes up so many top american distance runners.
It's rare but it does happen. Jenna Hutchins isn't mormon. I dont think Zariel Macchia is mormon. Is Berkeley Nance mormon? He is running this fall and not on a mission.
You'd be right until you remember that mormons are only 2% of the country's population. Absolutely NOBODY wants to even consider BYU as a school unless they fall in that small group. Think of all the substance abuse theyd miss out on!!!
It needs to be studied how LDS is such a small population and yet makes up so many top american distance runners.
That's pretty simple. The majority of Mormons live in Utah and the Southwest. Running is quite popular in these states, plus in many there is altitude. Also plenty of role models for both Mormons and everyone else.
Note Mormons play many sports from football to gymnastics at BYU.
So first, 2% of the population is LDS to begin with - and THEN you have to filter for elite runners. Its not minuscule but its certainly a disadvantage that most athletes seriously wont even give BYU a first look if they aren't mormon.
I believe its more common for women to choose BYU who aren't mormon just because of Diljeet Taylor. She herself isn't mormon and she advocates very highly of the school.
How many Americans are in college in East Africa? Do Kenya and Ethiopia recruit our lacrosse and baseball players by the hundreds?
It seems we do quite a bit for them - educate thousands of their nationals, host races for them to win and get large payouts - and they do... what exactly what for us in return?
You get Cobalt in return, so you can live your virtual life and drive electric cars 😉
