How would DIII UW-La Crosse fare against DI schools?

not me trying to be a jerk but I really don’t know how to say it more plainly then look at their season schedule and your question would be answered…

I will say after talking to several guys who ran at Wiacc this weekend. The course was perfect and elevation was essentially non existent so times were just ridiculously fast. They definitely ran well tho excited to see dual meet at nationals between them and wartburg.

It's getting ridiculous. They should be D2.

Compare Wisconsin to a state like Ohio or Pennsylvania. All of the equivalent schools in those states are D2. There is absolutely no reason for UW-L to be D3 other than they like to beat up on smaller, less resourced schools.

It's pretty well known that the top of d2 and D3 can beat the bottom half of D1 in xc.

Many D1 schools are there just for football or basketball and do not invest in recruiting or coaching for runners.

This really should not surprise anyone.

Doing the scoring math, factors aside. UW LaX would’ve taken fourth or fifth at B1G Ten XC based off their performances from WIAC

Here’s a Lacctic simulation against some D1 teams.

Here’s a Big 10 vs WIAC meet

11th according to Lacctic. Lacctic is usually way better than any human at predicting these things.

They got 6th at (a historically weak iteration of) the Notre Dame Joe Piane meet.

Beaten by D1 Notre Dame, Boise State, Wyoming, and Purdue, and D2 Grand Valley.

Of these, only Notre Dame is ranked in D1.

They would not make nationals. They would be competitive in their region, but not qualifiers.

It’s well known in D3 that the Oshkosh course is short. Dudes that can’t break 15 min in track a 5k are consistently out there running 24:00

They would not win a single D1 conference.

Is this another short course topic from the middle of no-where, central Wisconsin like in the high school thread?

Why do these meet directors in this region blatantly cheat the integrity of course measurement? They only cheat themselves and their participants.

Admittedly my career was in the mid-2000s, but that combo of times was a massive exaggeration at that time. I don't know if the course has changed but I was someone who just barely broke 15:00 for the 5k once, and ran in the 24:40s at UWO a few months later. I also was able to do around 25:10 or so on what I'd call a fair course with a normal amount of hills at nationals that year. I'm going to assume any nationals course is the correct distance.

It 100% is not short. Actually it was 80m long for the UW Oshkosh Open. I know because I was someone who had to remeasure it lol. This is a brand new facility that is built for speed.

Last year's DIII Champion transferred to North Carolina (6th in the ACC, I believe) and was not in the varsity for the conference meet. I don't know if he was injured.

I'd go a bit further as to say there are LOADS of D1 XC teams that are absolutely terrible. Too many kids focus on going "D1" when many of those programs exist just for compliance and roster reasons and get no support or attention from their athletic departments. Meanwhile, there are probably 2-6 DII XC teams that could qualify for DI Nationals any given year and would beat the absolute crap out of most well-resourced P4 programs.

No. They wouldn't beat any P4 teams who are resourced. D2 gets the same number of scholarships and some choose to resource cross country. The P4 teams who they would beat are not resourcing XC.

Please share your methodology, very curious

Can't speak to Wyoming's history but the rest of these schools have, overall, very good programs.

I'll pick on Purdue first actually. This traditional big ten school has access to world renowned engineering and standard athletic facilities to succeed. UW-La crosse should be and is in Purdue's shadow. These schools do not compare at all academically. Notre Dame is basically an older version of Northwestern, with a bigger student body and better athletic program. The degree carries Stanford-Duke-like weight in interview rooms.

Boise State is an anomaly like NAU. A great coach went in there and took advantage of the training environment well, turning it into a college destination for runners.

D2 GVSU vs D3 La Crosse, now we are comparing apples to apples. Ritz started his coaching career at GVSU. GVSU has better facilities and bigger student body but La Crosse is like a semi-public version of D3 liberal arts schools found in the northeast also with a history of being rather selective academically.

Theres plenty just not the ones you think of right away. MAC, Horizon, SWAC, A10 (maybe), Big South, OVC, Sunbelt, MVC etc…