d1 college coaches please respond (How are pre-ncaa fields picked?)

Well, then you have the problem of humans subjectively deciding who should be in each race. When that has been done in the past it has been a disaster.

The purpose of the PreNCAA meet is two-fold:

1. To allow teams to view the course, and run on the NCAA course.

2. To provide out of region competition that will allow at-large teams to be selected later in the season.

There is no other purpose that is as important as those two factors.

The coaches association wanted the national poll to be the benchmark used. So the teams that are entered are listed based on their national ranking. They are evenly divided between races. If there are any conflicts (all one regions teams falling into the same race) there is some switching based on taking a like-ranked team and making the switch. This happened two or three times.

After that, the regionally ranked teams not on the national ranking are separated so that there are an even number of regional teams in each race.

After that the non-regionally ranked teams entered in the meet are evenly divided between the two races.

No priority is given to conference affiliation, or who ran against who earlier in the year. To do so would be going back to the original issue, or a group of people subjectively saying who should race who. And we really don't want that.

The races are as evenly divided as possible but certainly not perfect. There is no perfect system.

I hope this helps.

It used to be that (reportedly) Joe Franklin and Robert Chapman worked together to seed the races for the NCAA. The story I always got is that they would take into account national ranking, regional ranking, and out-of-region matchups. The races in the past used to be pretty balanced. SOmeone will always complain, but it was about as fair as it could be.

With both of those guys no longer around, whoever did this year screwed the pooch.

Looking at the rankings it really is pretty even. The white race maybe a little better, but not much.

http://www.trackshark.com/blogs/TimGoldsack/2023/Pre-Nats%3B+Let%26%2339%3Bs+Get+It+ON%21.html

White Race

Wisconsin # 2 National

Iona # 4 National

Oklahoma State #6 National

Alabama # 8 National

Portland #13 National

Northern Arizona #15 National

Louisville # 17 National

UCLA #19 National

Villanova #22 National

Iowa State #23 National

Florida State # 25 National

Washington #27 National

Virginia #29 National

BYU #32 National

Tulsa # 33 National

Indiana #37 National

Columbia, #4 Northeast Region

Tennessee #5 South Region

Ohio State # 6 Great Lakes Region

Air Force # 6 Mountain Region

Iowa #6 Midwest Region

Michigan State #7 Great Lakes Region

California #8 in West Region

New Mexico #8 Mountain Region

Miami/Ohio #9 Great Lakes Region

Duquesne #9 Mid Atlantic Region

Nebraska #10 Midwest Region

Georgia #10 South Region

Dartmouth #11 Northeast Region

Montana State #11 Mountain Region

Cincinnati #12 in Great Lakes Region,

Clemson #12 in Southeast Region

Wyoming #13 Mountain Region

Arizona #14 West Region

Dayton Not ranked

IUPUI Not Ranked

Kent State Not Ranked

Morehead State Not Ranked

Mississippi Not Ranked

Blue Race

Colorado #3 National

Stanford # 5 National

Notre Dame #7 National

NC State #10 National

Providence #14 National

William & Mary #16 National

Michigan #18 National

Arizona State #20 National

UTEP #20 National

Minnesota #24 National

Weber State #26 National

Syracuse #28 National

Cal Poly #30 National

Florida #31 National

Princeton # 3 Mid Atlantic Region

Eastern Michigan #4 Great Lakes Region

Lamar #4 South Central Region

Belmont #4 Southeast

Penn #5 Mid Atlantic Region

Illinois # 5 Midwest Region

Eastern Kentucky #6 Southeast Region

Cornell #6 Northeast Region

Mississippi State #7 Southeast Region

Montana #7 Mountain Region

Liberty #8 Southeast Region

Indiana State #8 Great Lakes Region

Washington State #9 West Region

Kansas #9 Midwest Region

UC-Santa Barbara #10 West Region

Utah State #10 Mountain Region

Southern Illinois #11 Great Lakes Region

Yale #12 Northeast Region

Georgia Tech #12 Southeast Region

Ohio U. #13 Great Lakes Region

Southern Utah #13 Mountain Region

Coastal Carolina Not Ranked

Marquette Not Ranked

Oakland Not Ranked

Western Kentucky Not Ranked

Wisconsin-Milwaukee Not Ranked

God speaks crap

national rankings, regional rankings were exclusively used. Maybe you need to go back to school to find out what the word "balanced" means. There are always negative people on this board who bitch and complain no matter what. The races are about as balanced as they can be given the information available.

Try knowing what you are speaking about before making a fool out of yourself.