Old Man Winter wrote:
Events like Brooks PR are progressively drawing top runners away from NBN to run there. This is apparent when you consider each those that actually competed at Brooks PR, and by looking at the times that won individual events at each. With the softened NBN fields, one could say they're a "national champion" when multiple runners ran the same event, but much faster at Brooks PR (e.g. 8:42 won the 2-mile at Brooks PR with eight runners under 8:57, while NBN was won in 8:58). Some examples of top athletes that race instead at Brooks PR being, of course: Fisher, Hunter, Anna Rohrer, Donavan Brazier, Candace Hill, Christine Aragon. What's the future for NBN with more runners being drawn to Brooks PR? Will it soon be totally irrelevant?
Brooks only invites a handful of kids, and while those kids are often towards the top of their event, they won't always be ALL of the top kids. Further, Brooks has far fewer events available than NBN - they had the 4xMile last year, but no other relays and no relays this year; they don't do field events; they don't do as many "rare" events (Steeple, racewalking, 5k) or even a 200m or a long hurdles race.
NBN will still be a draw for MANY kids, and in some events it will be the only national championship (Dream Mile also only does a couple events: Mile and 100m; Pre only did the Mile, and this was the first time they did any).
Just like NXN/FLN, it's not a unified national championship (although it arguably never really was, as not all the top teams and athletes were guaranteed to be there), but is a great invitational where you get to face off for at least a disputed "national" title.