Oregon Dodges Adams State by Refusing the team entry to the 2009 Dellinger Meet

If Adams state does well at Dellinger invite it could throw a monkey wrench into the whole season for Oregon, even if they don't beat Oregon but beat other top ranked teams.

Oregon has a plan which probably involves not needing to go to Pre nationals and to peak for NCAA's. Wheating is supposed to be racing late into the summer so he won't be ready to fire off come early fall and McNamara just ran a sub 4 mile so who knows when he's shutting it down but he may get a later start as well.

Fact is, if Adams state and their foreign ringers can mess up a season for Oregon, and it's Oregons home meet, why the hell would they risk it? Oregon can either start out at 80% but be strong enough to stay at the top tier all season they won't need to be bothered with anything other than conference, regionals and nationals. If you were the coach you'd be an idiot not to plan your season that way.

Oregon has to consider the big picture, NCAA XC, Indoors and Out track and being competitive at all three FAR MORE than a victory over a D11 school in september when a few of your likely scorers are not ready to race yet.

How would losing to Adams in September screw up the rest of Oregon's season? I don't understand that logic.

So, bottom line, what you're saying is that Oregon is indeed afraid to race Adams State because they believe that there is a real chance that they might lose to them and won't be considered the real national champions even if they win D1. I agree! It may be a logical move but it is also an incredibly cowardly move by the Ducks.

The New York Yankees refused to play the tee ball team I coach. Are they wussies too? Get real. Oregon doesn't have time for these minor league chumps, just like the Yankees don't have time for my tee ball team. Oregon is MAKING MOVES, Adams State is just waiting so they can take notes. HOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wyco Loco wrote:

How would losing to Adams in September screw up the rest of Oregon's season? I don't understand that logic.

I don't know for sure that it could, but it may affect the rankings, which could have an affect if it comes down to needing an at large bid. Let's not forget that Stanford is going to be damn good this season so winning regionals could be just as tough as winning NCAAs. If Oregon has a sick or hurt scorer at regionals they could be looking for an at large bid.

Oregon is obviously not going to be as strong as before without Rupp and Biwott so they need to make sure they get to NCAAs and with confidence.

blahblahblah wrote:

So, bottom line, what you're saying is that Oregon is indeed afraid to race Adams State because they believe that there is a real chance that they might lose to them and won't be considered the real national champions even if they win D1. I agree! It may be a logical move but it is also an incredibly cowardly move by the Ducks.

You're missing the point, and I don't think you'll get it because you're certainly on an agenda.

You were probably one of those guys who called Teg and Solinsky cowards for qualifying for worlds and not leading early and have a poster of Fam in your bedroom with some excerpt about "running reckless" on your desk.

Stratgy and game plan do not equal cowardice.

A master at the wheel wrote:

blahblahblah wrote:

So, bottom line, what you're saying is that Oregon is indeed afraid to race Adams State because they believe that there is a real chance that they might lose to them and won't be considered the real national champions even if they win D1. I agree! IT MAY BE A LOGICAL MOVE BUT IT IS ALSO AN INCREDIBLY COWARDLY MOVE by the Ducks.

You're missing the point, and I don't think you'll get it because you're certainly on an agenda.

You were probably one of those guys who called Teg and Solinsky cowards for qualifying for worlds and not leading early and have a poster of Fam in your bedroom with some excerpt about "running reckless" on your desk.

Stratgy and game plan do not equal cowardice.

How am I missing the point? I have agreed with others that it is a logical move from Oregon's perspective. It's also cowardly to duck (pun intended) your competition - at least when you won't have a chance to go head to head at a later date in a championship race for all the marbles. You are right that I do have an agenda though. I, along with most fans of distance running, would like to see the best teams and individuals from Division II and III go toe to toe with some of the best Division I teams. I realize that a race this early in the season will be fairly meaningless, but since they won't allow runners from other divisions to qualify for NCAA Div I championships, it's all I've got.

HA.... the same thing happens to ACU when they tried to enter into Arkansas's Tyson Invite last indoor season. Entry denied. ACU had been going to Tyson for a decade then all of a sudden their entry is denied. That's just plain "chicken".

oregon probably won't run a lot of their top kids at dellinger, so even if adams state did beat them, it wouldn't really mean anything

oregon also held multiple kids outdoors at their pepsi invite and lost, so i don't think they're afraid of losing early-season meets where they only run half their scorers

All of you that think that Oregon is the better team are the reason for excluding Adams State.

Nike/Oregon have created a false image that the best things in distance running are happening in Eugene. Those that believe this horse shit would have their hearts broken if Adams State ran in the meet. The powers at be are trying to save the image.

Smart Move.

mighty porn stache wrote:

It may not be Lananna's unwillingness to face AsU. I think OU would beat them anyway. It may be Lananna's unwillingness to have a D2 team come in and whoop up on many of the other contenders they have come in for that race. Those teams might not come back in successive years. Gotta keep the money flow coming in.

Also, with the way the at-large bids work now (all this head to head counting) having a D2 team in a big meet like that where so many nationals contenders are might make it difficult to count these things....i don't know.

I, for one, would like to see it happen. Just put the best runners against the other best runners.

This.

To those who think Oregon doesn't have anything to gain by racing Adams, you're wrong. If they beat them like they should, we'd all shut the eff up!

Lack of in-season quality XC meets (where strong schools compete with their best runners) is a primary reason why XC is not more popular with the running crowd. The only good meets, it seems, are Griak, Pre-Nats, Regionals, and Nationals, and many of the good teams/runners will skip some of these or not go head to head at Pre-Nats (like OSU and Fernandez, skipping both the major races).

as runners your not thinking whose d1 or d2, you want the best competition. why protect these boys against some d2 guy when u could run against them in the us trials or something life that...

A master at the wheel wrote:

Adams state and their foreign ringers

Adams' top 3 guys from last year's D2 meet were all U.S. kids, then a Frenchman and a Brit. Oregon had a Kenyan as their #2/3 guy -- was he a "ringer?" Adams last national championship team prior to last fall was entirely U.S. kids.

We have such an incredible, simple sport, yet we don't embrace competition. Do any of the pro meets in America not welcome a sprinter from a small country just in case he beats some of the American sprinters from the big, bad U.S. of A.?

Enough of the excuses (and I'm not claiming Adams would win by any means), but it's plain old chicken shit on Oregon's part.

I don't think it has been mentioned in this thread yet, but Adams has a long history of demolishing top DI teams when they have strong teams. Every 5 or so years ASU will have a team that would be top 3 to 5 at the DI meet. In some years they have had (without question) the top team in any division. I will cite 1992 when they smoked the full Arkansas squad (who later won the DI meet) and scored about 25 points at Griak crushing the second best DI team, Wisconsin.

A classic Nike move to orchestrate a home win for the Ducks...

this is also a completely unsubstantiated rumor

I don't think it has to do with Oregon ducking competition(no pun intended). I just think they want to control who runs in their meet. We are a Big West school and asked for an entry and were denied as well. We wanted to run an invitational on the West Regional course. We were told they were "not accepting entries" in May.

back when it was glassboro state and still d3 we had a javelin thrower win division 1 nationals and place at it all 3 other years. if you win d3 or d2 nationals you get an invite to d1 nationals im pretty sure, although this could mess up a peak for your season, wouldn't ASC get to race oregon at that point?