There was a great article in Runner's World on line about what NCAA field sport coaches require their scholarship athletes to be able to do. They are expected to bust cross country runner times in the mile, half mile and 400 meters. They only get something like 30 seconds or a minute rest between each run and the times they are expected to hit are very tough. If they can't do it they have to take "running 101" every semester until they can. Guess what running 101 is. Pretty much cross country practice.
The article basically said, if their athletes didn't run cross country in high school they'd fail the test.
The interviews were with no one less than the Stanford Women's Soccer Coach (among many others). Stanford was the defending national champs in soccer when they did the article. It seemed that virtually every coach of every program had some version of this running endurance and fitness test.
So NCAA coaches don't seem to agree with these rec league and high school coaches. There's no science between what those amateur coaches say. It's stupidity and self-interest.