Interesting idea. I really don't care about high school team competition, but I do pay attention to match-ups of the top individuals, and it's disappointing when some of the very best are absent from Footlocker. Even extending invitations to the top three NXN finishers might be enough to renew Footlocker's credibility as the unofficial national high school championship. I don't know if Footlocker has any concerns about implicitly acknowledging the quality of the top finishers at NXN, but at this point, I'd probably be more concerned about losing the war altogether. Footlocker can always decide to yank the NXN invitations in later years.
suis non wrote:
Footlocker should extend individual invitations to the top 10 or so NXN finishers, though.
You mad bro?
Al Iverson........ wrote:
The NXN west regional finished on a FuKKing TRACK!! A Track. Can you believe that. I mean its supposed to be CROSS COUNTRY and they are finishing on a TRACK? Are you serious? A TRACK? I mean it's a track. You can't finish on a TRACK when you are running XC.
The problem is- if a great individual is on a great team he/she will run Nike.
suis non wrote:
Keep them separate. One team championship race, one individual championship race. Footlocker should extend individual invitations to the top 10 or so NXN finishers, though. No reason you couldn't increase the FL field from 40 to 50 or 60.
Simply not factually correct. Not saying that FL hasn't been a little deeper on the guys traditionally, but not all of the top boys do FL. And on the girls, it's certainly in NXN's favor in recent years.
notbroke wrote:
Why would Footlocker extend an invitation to the top NXN guys when the top guys in the country are at Footlocker and everyone recognizes that it has always been the way? If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
defiantly cheaper- 80 vs 360 people, heck yeah, its basically a normal race but they pay for hotels and flights and stuff for the kids, probably not more than 3k per kid, thats only 240k, for such a big company
mkng1 wrote:
I like the idea of extending invites to top individuals, particularly in the west. It would make it so top individuals wouldn't have to decide between FL qualifying or racing NXN. I'd like to keep them separate. However, I'm not sure how much longer FL will keep up the race. I'd be shocked if it did anything material for their brand. I watch every year and can't remember if the last time I went in one of their stores. They should probably try to find a shoe company to partner with. It's likely much cheaper to put on the NXN due to the lower # of individuals and no teams.
I watch the NXN team races, primarily for the individuals at the front, but don't like the team concept, and much prefer the way Footlocker does their races. Even so, extending invitations to the top three at NXN would only increase the fields from 40 to 43. I think they had a similar agreement right after splitting, but it didn't work out.
Avocado's Number wrote:
I really don't care about high school team competition, but I do pay attention to match-ups of the top individuals, and it's disappointing when some of the very best are absent from Footlocker. Even extending invitations to the top three NXN finishers might be enough to {enhance] Footlocker's credibility as the unofficial national high school championship.
Right now they are with New Balance, they were with Asics for a good number of years, and they might have been with saucony at one point too. Have you even paid attention???
mkng1 wrote:
They should probably try to find a shoe company to partner with.