NTN MAKES A BIG CHANGE - ADDS A NY RACE

Why not a good move? Seems like a good idea to actually have a qualifying race vs. the selection of teams. If I'm not mistaken, NY fans were upset last fall about the selection process. Nike has now given teams the opportunity to earn their trip to NTN. The only downside that I can see is the conflict with FL regionals, which is huge for some kids, but I see NTN becoming the national championship race for teams and individuals sooner than later. I wonder if that's why they've already dropped the T from their NTN logo! Maybe it'll become the NCN -- Nike Cross Nationals?

The issue was until TODAY teams thought Feds would be the qualifier. While this opens the door for more teams to run the championship race, its a pretty big change and fairly late in the game. They find out a month beforehand that is no longer the case, and this forces people to choose between NTN and Footlocker. This will dilute the FL NE field further, and puts people like Hannah Davidson from 'Toga in a sticky spot.

And again, they announce this TODAY.

I think they should just combine the races- Team and Individual Nationals. I'm sure most states run a Championship with teams and individuals in it.

Combine the qualifying races so winning teams plus top individuals not on the teams make it. Or, qualify the teams the week before individual regionals and then team qualifiers won't have to run the regional individual qualifier.

One race, one champion and one team champion. Less travel and less time away from school.

there are no ny boys in the running for both ntn and fl

believe it or not...and i swear this is true, Nike dropped the "T" from the NTN logo because their legal dept feared that it was too similar to the Nine Inch Nails logo, and could bring about a lawsuit.

Same course as feds, but a week later. This isn't a good course especially if wet at all. Feds my senior year was terrible and, although I would have wanted to go back and rerun the race, it is a stupid idea. More power to section 1 I guess.

were going to have 5 hard weeks of running in a row. I run in the suburban council, section 2 and we have suburbans, then sectionals, then states, then feds, then NTN qualy then if we make it NTNS. All against state ranked teams. Thats a long peak if you ask me

My guess is that Nike just learned that the selection process in place for the NY region wasn't going to work. Considering that they announced the regional format months ago, we can assume that they thought selecting teams from NY and therefore not conflicting with FL regionals was in the best interest of NY teams and within the rules of the NY state high school governing body. Do you really think Nike wanted to make a late announcement???

To be fair I don't see how the process advertised on the NTN site (selected based on rankings)just last week is in conflict with any NY rules. It is the same process that has been used in the past so if it is illegal I'm sure the Burnt Hills and East Aurora coaches would like to know. I know the Burnt Hills coach would be quick to challenge the NY eligibility of the FM and Hilton girls who competed at NTN last year (and possibly the Saratoga girls who participated in 2005). NTN wants to take down Footlocker and sees this as a step to get there, no more no less.

What is Feds?

Feds is the overall New York State Championship. Its a single race for boys and girls that include all of the best schools regardless of classification (size) and whether they are public or private.

Basically a week earlier there is a New York State Public School Championship which has multiple classification levels based upon school size (AA,A,B,C,D) from big to small. There is also a state Catholic High School championship (NYSCHSAA) and a independent private school championship.

The NYS Federation championship just brings all of the top schools from the previous weeks state championships together for a single race to determine the overall state champion. Its actually done in other sports too like track and basketball.

Its been run for I think about 20 years, and has been at the same course for almost the same amount of time. Though I believe back in ?1987? is was somewhere up near Syracuse and they had a snowstorm if I believe during the middle of it.

Yep - and Feds also moved to Van Cortland in '99 just as an anniversary thing.

From what I've read it sounds like there was a sanctioning issue - you would THINK that would have been worked out months ago, though from what I understand Michigan still refuses to allow their teams to participate so who knows.

shep proudfoot wrote:

Not a good move, Nike:

http://www.dyestat.com//?pg=us2007NTNNew-York

This is great news. I've always felt these spots should be determined by head-to-head racing and not by some committee. Congratulations, Nike, on having the guts to do the right thing!

Where have you been, coach? that's not the problem...teams were told there WAS a head to head race for the title...on Nov 17th.

now, a couple months later, they discover its Nov 24th, forcing top teams to hold a peak for 5 weeks (Sections, NYSPHSSA, Feds, NTN regionals THEN NTN, similar to the past but still - Feds was supposed to be the qualifier) and forcing athletes to make a call between FL NE and NY.

Teams in the rest of the northeast KNEW they had this, NY kids didn't. Not much of an issue for the guys, but with the girls this could prevent Hannah Davidson for going for the 4 peat finalist slot and potentially hurt a few others as well (Roecker, Lane, etc. F-M skips FL so not an issue)

The big issues have been raised - how fair is it to have teams race on the same course a week after Feds AND after its been torn up by all of the other races? (Bowdoin is a tough one, and it doesn't hold up well) And why weren't potential sanctioning issues thought out in advance? California uses a merge to determine their top two, why not do the same in NY as it seems to defeat the entire purpose of making NY its own region!

missing the point.... wrote:

Where have you been, coach? that's not the problem...teams were told there WAS a head to head race for the title...on Nov 17th.

The letter from Nike: "Initially we had planned to have teams from New York be chosen by committee selection but have since determined it is possible to hold a separate race consisting of New York teams only.

Who's right?

Wouldn't it just be easiest to say the top two teams at feds goes to NTN? Why hold basically the same race at the same course a week later?

This doesn't make sense to me either.

You have a Federation race the week before with all the top teams. Now you are doing the exact same thing the week before. It seems to me Nike is just trying to diminish Footlocker's.

But the top individuals often aren't on top teams so it shouldn't have much of a dent.

Technically it was a committee decision, but odds are - the top two teams at Feds were going to be the ones going as that is what has cemented it for the top teams the past two years.

Color me confused wrote:

missing the point.... wrote:

Where have you been, coach? that's not the problem...teams were told there WAS a head to head race for the title...on Nov 17th.

The letter from Nike: "Initially we had planned to have teams from New York be chosen by committee selection but have since determined it is possible to hold a separate race consisting of New York teams only.

Who's right?