Purdue really is not bad. If they were in the Horizon Conference or Mid American Conference they would be 1st or 2nd every year. Unfortunately for Purdue they are in one of the deepest cross country conference in the country.
Purdue really is not bad. If they were in the Horizon Conference or Mid American Conference they would be 1st or 2nd every year. Unfortunately for Purdue they are in one of the deepest cross country conference in the country.
Well, the Pac-10/12 is pretty deep as well at times and now with the three big dogs of Stanford, Oregon, Colorado, it will be hard to make the top three. All of those teams have won multiple NCAA titles recently.
As for the Big Ten, many know I am a Wisconsin fan. However, I generally am not a fanboi and I appreciate good teams in both track and cross country.
There has been an under-appreciation of Indiana. Last year they ran a very good mid-season meet and guaranteed themselves entry into NCAAs. They could not beat a stronger Wisconsin team on its home course but was a solid second and did well at nationals, in part, by not going all-out for the Big Ten title -- smart move by them.
This year they probably do the same -- work hard for Big Tens, but keep it secondary to moving further up the difficult 2011 ladder at NCAAs, which are again in their own back yard.
Illinois is the real wildcard for third; not sure I would project them there, but they are my underdog special. The bubble teams will be faced with the question of strategy between Big Tens and Regionals. Can you pick up points at Big Tens and do well enough at Regionals to capitalize or do you put all your eggs into the Regionals basket and train through Big Tens?
You honestly think Indiana or any other team is not gonna go all out at Big Tens to save themselves for regionals? That isn't how college cross country works, the conference race is the most important race of the year, and anything at regionals and nationals is an extra bonus. Conference place is how athletic directors determine a season's success.
After today's results it really shows how wide open the Big Ten is this season.
Wisconsin absolutely dominated at Oregon, they are definitely the favorite at this point.
I thought IU ran decent at Ok St. They really need Bayer to come back though if they have any shot at beating Wisco.
Ohio St looked very under impressive at Notre Dame, although Gary usually gets them running when it matters.
Purdue ran very well today winning a meet at Louisville, they have a nice pack who all finish very close to eachother.
Any other results from around the Big 10 that I missed?
Youngin87 wrote:
I thought IU ran decent at Ok St. They really need Bayer to come back though if they have any shot at beating Wisco.
Agreed. Way to big of a drop-off to their 5th without Bayer. Their top four today looked good though.
Penn state didn't run too well at Notre Dame.
This week really exposed how big of a gap there is between the top 2 teams (IU & Wisco) and every other team in the Big 10. Third place could really go to any number of teams including Michigan, Penn State, Illinois, Ohio State,Minnoesoita or even Purdue at this point.
more will be known post-Wisconsin Invitational since I believe every single Big 10 team is running
1. WISCONSIN KILLS EVERYONE (AND GOES ON TO WIN NCAA)
2. INDIANA. BAYER OR NOT, THEY'RE 2ND AT BIG TENS. WITHOUT THOUGH AND THEY'LL BE LUCKY TO PLACE 15TH AT NATIONALS
3. MINNESOTA. ONLY TEAM WITH POTENTIAL LOW STICK (MEAD WILL WIN) AND THEN NEXT 15 SPOTS WILL BE PRETTY MUCH WISCONSIN AND INDIANA. THEY WILL BE 3RD AND LAST BIG TEN TEAM TO MAKE NATIONALS WHERE THEY WILL FINISH 20TH SOLELY WITH THE LOW STICK FROM MEAD.
4. MICHIGAN. FORYS COULD ACTUALLY JUMP INTO THAT LOW STICK, BUT NOT SURE HOW SOLID APRIL IS FOR THEM YET. AFTER THOSE 2, CAN'T BELIEVE THEY'VE ALL IMPROVED THAT MUCH SINCE LAST YEAR'S TERRIBLE TEAM.
5. ILLINOIS. NEW COACH, AT HOME, AND AS MUCH HIGH SCHOOL TALENT AS ANYONE BEHIND THEM
6. OHIO STATE. BEST OF REST BY DEFAULT REALLY
7. PENN STATE. VERY CLOSE TO PENN STATE AT ND
8. MICHIGAN STATE.
9. IOWA. AT LEAST THEY HAVE THODE.
10. PURDUE. KEEP HEARING ABOUT THE RESURGENT BOILERMAKERS, BUT UNTIL THEY'RE NOT BRINGING UP THE REAR, THEY GET A PASS ONLY AHEAD OF TERRIBLE NEBRASKA
11. NEBRASKA. WELCOME TO A DEEP, DECENT CONFERENCE, BUT ENJOY ALL THE TRACK TITLES YOU WILL BE WINNING EASILY IN THIS CONFERENCE.
Looking ahead to the Region...what will the region course at Toledo be like for Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue and Ohio State? and how will that potentially effect things?
A poster above state, "Purdue really is not bad. If they were in the Horizon Conference or Mid American Conference they would be 1st or 2nd every year. Unfortunately for Purdue they are in one of the deepest cross country conference in the country"
This is patently untrue but a biased opinion from a Big 10 groupie.
Since 1998 Purdue has only finished ahead of all MAC teams ONCE, 2010. Other than that they have finished behind
1998 - 3 MAC teams at regionals ahead of Purdon't
2001 - 2 MAC teams at regionals ahead of Purcan't
2003 - 2 MAC teams at regionals ahead of Purwill never
2004 - 2 MAC teams
2005 - 3 MAC teams
2006 - 4 MAC teams
2007 - 3 MAC teams
2008 - 2 MAC teams
2009 - 4 MAC teams
As I reviewed the results, Eastern Michigan and Miami have owned Purdue at regionals.
Purdue is a horrible program because of the arrogance of the head coach and his micro-managing everything within the program.
I think he may have been referring to the current Purdue squad. Before 2010 Purdue was not a good team and would not beat alot of MAC schools, but the last two years Purdue, while still bringing up the rear in the Big 10, still is able to beat up on Mid Major schools ( see regionals last year when they beat all MAC schools i believe and Indiana Intercollegiates when they beat the Horizon League champion, Indiana State, badly).
There does seem to be a legitimate hatred of Purdue in the Big 10 and through out the great lakes region in which other teams simply refuse to give Purdue any credit for any kind of success, kinda weird since Purdue has been so horrible in the past, they should be more a figure of sympathy.
Yeah but at the most RECENT Regional meet like you said Purdue beat all MAC teams. This year looks like it'll be the same way, quit living in the past.
Not living in the past, just replying to the post with facts, something most folks can't handle. Great that Purdon't beat all the MAC schools last year. But historically they have sucked and could not as the original poster stated win the Mid american Conference or finish second. With all the resources they have to not be able to win the MAC just shows exactly what the program is, and what it isn't. So once in the last dozen years or so they were better than the MAC programs. Geez, thats something to be proud of.
Obviously you have a sore spot in relation to the MAC, but what about the Horizon League? You conviently ignored that section of the sentence you quoted. Besides Butler, who had some good treams who qualified for NCAAs recently, Purdue would beat every other team.
The measure of any team is how well you do in your conference. You at least have to show an ability to be competitive with schools in your conference. For the most part, schools are in conferences with other schools that have similar academics, similar athletic budgets, similar athletic facilites, etc..
For a Big 10 school to consistently be at the bottom of the their own conference is the real issue. No Big 10 school should be losing to a MAC school in any sports. Not a knock on the MAC because they are different types of schools with a fraction of the athletic budgets and name recognition and facilities.
^^^ how much funding does a xc team need? you need shoes, motivation, and a coach to set you in the *right* direction.
wall-e wrote:
^^^ how much funding does a xc team need? you need shoes, motivation, and a coach to set you in the *right* direction.
$cholar$hip$
"no MAC team should beat any Big 10 team in any sport"
Is this also true for whatever shitty conference Iona is in? If so there are alot of top 10 college XC teams doing shitty.
6-10 years ago: Purdue was terrible with a terrible coach and athletes who didn't care. Coach gone
1-5 years ago: Purdue gets a new coach who gets rid of all the bad athletes, recruits all new kids, and improves the squad but still at the back of the big ten. Coach gone
This year: Purdue gets a new, young coach from Lamar, talented kids who underperformed for the last coach, new coach takes talent and trains them right, and now they are running well.
The program looks to be on the up. The people who talk about the last 10 years are right, purdue was very bad. But this Purdue squad has nothing in common with those years' squads.
The perennial purdue haters have had plenty of hate for the last decade, maybe cut these new boilers a break. It is obvious that being bottom dwellers of the conference is not ok with Purdue's athletic director and coach so they are making changes to get better. I guess we'll get some insight at wisco and see for real in Illinois in a few weeks.
Much will be settled after Friday's race. Every Big 10 school is running except for Penn State and Ohio State beat them a couple weeks ago at Notre Dame.
Predictions on how they'll all do at Wisco for this Big 10 Preview meet of sorts?