What are all the cut NCAA runners going to do?

Transfer, run NIRCA, go to the roads/unattached, quit are the options I can think of. They can play football if they really want to be D1 athletes. Football has 150 man rosters compared to 10 for xc. Distance runners probably won't be good football players, but half of the team never sees game time anyways.

Their NCAA carers will probably be over. They will just become regular, full-time students. Maybe start working part time to help finance their studies.

Hoping to pick up 14-flat and 8-flat guys who want full ride and guaranteed roster spot. Schools in SE like Belmont, Charlotte, Furman, etc?

Football has to cut more than any sport. They go to 100 next fall.

Supply and demand means those guys will be willing to come for books.

The irony is that on an different thread, someone said:

"Why don't the colleges start up clubs? The clubs can have competitions to see which schools are best. They could be organized sort of by size and region. Only actual students (no pros or grown-ups) are allowed to join, just college age kids who are in good academic standing."

I was thinking, yes, that is what the literal NCAA was 100 years ago. We just need to recreate the thing we used to have before everything changed.

Spending millions of dollars to coach and fly a team of 27 year old Kenyans with a 2.0 GPA to Ohio from the west coast as part of the "Big 10" is insane way to run college sports.

Do it for the love

Or do it for the nookie,

I'm sure somewhat similar now, but that's what I experienced going to Scotland for a Semester abroad in 1994. The University had a club team and an elite team. The club team was good, but coached itself and practices optional, so performance was down because no 100% regiment. The elite team was more like a states college team with coach and 100% attendance. I think the government also supported them somewhat as Olympic development. The end result the club was a lot of fun, but no way to be really competitive in that environment. Honestly, it is probably healthier for 75% of college athletes, but High Schools train harder than what a College Club would.

The exception to this might be like the Arizona State triathlon club? If you have a coach and some level of scholarships or NIL, then possible to have a serious club team. It is hard though.

Some of my former high school charges are caught up in this. Here is what they are doing.

Sophomore girl is moving to a D2 school and getting more money as a result. She will be a national qualifier in track and XC at that level.

Freshman girl is leaving the sport but staying at the university. To the institution’s credit, they found her grant money to replace what she had as getting in athletic aid.

Freshman boy is not sure what to do. He entered the portal and is getting contacts from good D3 squads. I suspect that he may quit altogether because being a D1 athlete was a huge point of pride.

Grad student girl giving up her two remaining years of eligibility to focus on the med school admissions process.

I have one athlete that went to a big time track school because of family traditions. He wasn’t talented enough to walk on. He ran club for a couple of years and the club was run by a former head coach. He said that it was more socially driven despite good coaching and outside of doing the school’s home XC meet and a few local road events, there just isn’t any motivation and most lived for the pizza and beer after practices.

Here's is a pretty good article from Track & Field News. It's sort of long and tested my limited attention span but even a dumb guy like me understands it.

trackandfieldnews.com

NCAA Track & Field: Is The Sky Falling? - Track & Field News

Jeff Hollobaugh

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING? Or is it the end of NCAA track & field as we know it? The coming... Read More

Open link

There have been a lot of dumb ideas on this site but suggesting that distance runners become football players has got to be one of the dumbest ideas ever.

They can also focus on academics, or join a club related to their major, or get an internship

They are going to be hitting the clubs, frat parties, or just more video games / tiktok videos if they aren't the social type.

Geez that's harsh, they may have to go down to 4 strings.

Most kids will be fine. The one's getting cut probably don't travel anyway. We're talking about 17 runners for 7 spots.... the 18th kid wasn't flying to Wisco to rep NAU

I've thought that for a long time. The problem is at large xc bids require running the biggest meets, so Stanford can't compete at Cal Berkeley - maybe once a season. UVA can't compete at William & Mary, etc.

For indoor, the issue is that all the fast times are run at just a handful of tracks - Washington, BU, the Armory, maybe a couple others. 358 at Florida or 1333 at Notre Dame doesn't cut it.

Actually every indoor qualifying performance above 800 will have been run at just 4 tracks - Bu, Washington, Arkansas, and the Armory . Another BU meet could possibly knock some of those Arkansas and Washington times off the list too.

Outdoors is a little better - a lot of teams race in California but there is usually someone who runs fast at Princeton, Penn, Haverford, or somewhere else in the nation. Still, getting in the California meets is a requirement to make nationals besides for the very fastest handful.

The NCAA selection process would have to change to stop the crazy travel, but then you might penalize the fastest athletes.

I was being facetious. Its obvious that football does not need 100 man rosters and paying 100 football players like minor league pros is killing so many other sports. Few distance runners expected to be pro athletes in college. If you asked the 30th(ish) place guy at NCAA xc if he should be paid like a pro, he'd probably say no. Most college athletes are happy with a walk on spot and a partial scholarship would make them ecstatic. Yet the country insisted the NCAA treat itself like a series of pro sports leagues for the sake of some student athletes who care little about the student part.

I think a lot of runners will transfer to D3 if they get cut and can get in a top academic school and a lot will run NIRCA - it will be about half and half. Where the student run NIRCA club (they range from serious teams to social clubs) isn't great, guys will move to racing on the roads.

Its tough to train and race on your own in college. Track access may be limited, you can't see the trainers, absences from class and alternate test and assignment due dates can be arranged for NCAA athletes but probably not clubs - and a lot of college meets are on Fridays/other weekdays. And you probably have the resources to race within driving distance, not fly to Boston.

The fast kids will be fine. I used to coach at a mid major and honestly 3/4ths of that team would have been happy to be cut. They didn’t want to be there in the first place. The current NCAA system is all about being mediocre.

most kids won’t even hobby jog without a fully funded team to keep them accountable.

As for the person talking about qualifying for nationals. Those kids will be fine. Do you realize how fast you need to be to qualify these days?