Pros and Cons DIII

Pro: considerably easier to qualify for Nationals, which I have found is a tremendous *educational* (not just sporting) experience.

Con: no athletic scholarships available.

John Zupanc at UW Oshkosh and Brian Diemer at Calvin, great coaches at any level.

lease wrote:

Pro: considerably easier to qualify for Nationals, which I have found is a tremendous *educational* (not just sporting) experience.

Con: no athletic scholarships available.

I think that is about the long and the short of the generalizations possible. Beyond that it would really vary team to team--so you'd have to give a better idea of what kinds of D3 schools.

From my perspective, having gone to a school with a great D3 and having friends that were on mediocre-to-bad D1 teams, you're much, much better off being at a top D3 school than a second or third tier school in D1: better coaching, more committed teammates, and, in my experience, better develpment.

Pros:

-If you aren't elite, it gives you a chance to develop and compete in championship races, and I think our sport is all about competition in races that matter to us.

-If you want to go to a small liberal arts college, which can provide a great college experience (if that is what you are after), most of these are DIII.

-There are some great coaches in DIII as far as developing runners (there are in all divisions, DIII included)

-Less pressure to be good right away, more of a chance to have a life outside of school and running.

Cons:

-The competition isn't as good

-No athletic scholarships

-Some DIII athletes are simply not all that committed, and if you are but your team isn't, it can suck.

-The resources and facilities at the other levels are often better (especially the athletic department resources).

-Some DIII programs and coaches simply suck (you'll find this at all levels, also, but in general, the worst DIII coaches and programs are worse than the worst DI programs).

There are lots of other reasons, I think the biggest thing is to just find a school that has what you want as far as academics, social life, location, good running program, etc and go there regardless of what division it is.

Pros: 1) Depending on the program, you can be competitve, and travel as a freshman. 2) The experience (team comradery, competition, goal setting, etc.) is similar to D1 3) The facilities, both indoor and out, are still very good (see WIAC schools, Rose Hulman, Denison, Ohio Northern)

Cons: 1) No scholarship $$ 2) Not as much coverage

My experience running at a D3 school in the late 80's/early 90's was very positive. I improved as a runner (4:33 1600 in high school to 4:23 mile, and from 17:00 5K XC in high shchool to 15:11 5K Track in college) Also, 20 years later I still speak to my coach a couple times a month to talk about his current runners and their training, my current training, and old times.

Good Luck!!

One characteristic of DIII running that is hardly ever mentioned is that of the make-up of the team.

DI- is generally serious runners, life revolves around running. The team generally consist of really only an handful of guys/girls and their is a distinct difference between the "team" and the others.

DII- is generally some successful runners with long resumes, but many are just blue-collar runners who had limited success in high school and are likely has alittle more going on than just running.

DIII- has some very successful runners, some blue-collar, but also had many more "tag-along" runners than DII. Tag-alongs are people that are running for fun and are involved in alot of activities besides running. These are the people who are likely to quit because Pep Band is taking too much time. DIII teams have a larger % of these people that wouldn't rank running in their top 3 on a priority list while at college.

This can be good or bad. Your team will be very diversified, expose you to alot of different things, but it can also seem a bit like high school in that everyone gets to be a part, regardless of how hard you worked in the summer. (For me, I didn't have time for the "tag-alongs", I wanted a more professional atmosphere were every team member had a single purpose, but for others the diversity and less focused atmosphere might be what you need.)

Thus it is both a postitive and negative.

I would not say that life revolves around running at D1 schools. I think it plays much more of a role but most guys at D1 are just like anyone else. They may do more mileage but it is not as if they talk about running any less than D3 guys. In my experience at a top D1 school our lives revolved around school more so than running. Alot of guys worked jobs, had girlfriends, studied (on occassion) and liked to party.

At my school I had a job, had a girlfriend, did ok in school, and partied a good ammount. I also competed at 4 xc national championships where we finished well.

Just because someone is committed doesn't mean their life "revolves" around the sport.