Greedy shoe company wrote:
Footlocker is to blame, because they have always had the national championships and still have them?
That is really stupid logic, and I don't believe that you don't work for nike.
A quick history primer:
--Footlocker ran an individual championship for about 25 years.
--Nike lost its soul in the 90's and tried to regain it in the early part of 2000.
--John Truax and Josh Rowe dream up the idea of national championship (based on the NCAA model) for high schools.
--Nike approaches Footlocker about an expanded championship with 8 regions and team qualifiers.
--Footlocker executives show their ass when they admit that they don't know how a cross country meet is scored. They follow this up by telling Nike to go to hell.
--Nike threatens to pull its support of the Footlocker meet.
--Footlocker threatens to pull every Nike shoe out of its stores.
--Nike folds to FL's bluff. A compromise is struck where the top finishers at NTN also qualify for Footlocker.
--Two years later--after a number of complaints about the lack of regional meets--Nike develops the regional qualifiers.
--Nike reaches out to FL again. No dice. FL and Nike part ways.
Footlocker, my friend, has always run an individual championship. They had a chance to be a part of a new combined team/individual championship and they refused. I understand why they refused but it was their decision. Time will tell if it pans out for them.
As for your second accusation, if I did work for Nike (which I never have), this thread alone
http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?board=1&id=2666978&thread=2666134would have gotten me fired.