College Question

Usually the patriot league is some of the easier d1 teams to join because they're smaller schools.

I would think there are some mid-level D1s that would let him walk on. Start email or calling around.

Don't underestimate how good the top level of D3 is. He can probably get more money for academic scholarships than he would for DI. My daughter was a state champion in 1500 and loves D3. She is at a school with a strong distance program. More balance, academics come first, but still a chance to really develop as a runner.

He is a 10:00 2 miler his junior year.

What is his fascination with D1? At an average D1 school, he will receive no athletic scholarship money. The coach will barely know his name. If he comes to practice great, if not, the coach will not notice. He might get to run a home meet unattached. He may even get to call out splits for the other runners at other meets if he is lucky. 2 years of this he will quit and be a student at that D1 school. That is his reality most likely. BW, I am at a non D1 school and we can beat 75% of the D1 schools in Cross.

If he would liked to be coached, be a valuable part of a team and have 4 years of memorable college running, he should look into a D2, D3 or NAIA University.

If he really wants D1, but doesn't want to sacrifice anything academically, a school like Colgate is probably ideal. Although it's technically D1, the program is much more akin to a D3 vibe. That being said the coach there is a solid guy and takes his job seriously, and although they lack depth they always seem to have a handful guys at the top of their roster preforming decently (~high14s for 5k). I think the problem is he doesn't have scholarships or admissions preference so most of the athletic recruits can't get in because it's pretty academically selective. Besides the squad being pretty thin there aren't really any barriers to athletic success there, as far as I know, he'd probably rise to the top quickly and get a lot of attention if he turns out to be serious.

Source: was close friends w/ a bunch of 'gate guys a few years back

I am not familiar enough with track recruiting rules from the NCAA, but he could reach out to college coaches. Has he visited any campuses? He might be thinking D1 and then visit a smaller school and fall in love with the campus and the community.

Sometimes small school kids just want a big college experience (me!--400 people in my HS); others will feel overwhelmed. I had a friend in college whose graduating class was around 50 people. His first class had more than than it.

Link wrote:

I've got a hs kid I'm coaching who is interested in running D1. He's a 4:40/10:00 guy as a junior. (yes, I know....). Good academically. Probably valedictorian of his class, I think 90th percentile on SAT. I think he's got some room for improvement still; he should have a very good XC season -probably top 3 in the state (it's a small high school). Obviously, athletic scholarships are likely not in the offing, but his academics should get him some money, I'd think.

I know that the canonical advice here is that he go to an academically strong D3, but he wants to run D1 and I'd like to help him find a place that he can do that if I can. Suggestions?

Unfortunately I think the small school thing that puts him in the top 3 in the state is very misleading for him. 10:00 for a junior is just nothing these days. 1000 HS junior boys ran 9:51.33 or faster this past year (milesplit doesn't show more than 1000). That is 20 per state, and we're not even up to 10:00 yet.

D2 or NAIA is where he wants to go if he has any dream of getting any money.

If he REALLY must run D1, then he needs to look at poor programs where they would actually want a 10:00 3200 runner.

I suggest looking here at a list of all the college conferences -

Find the smaller conferences in D1 and then look at their rosters. If you have a milesplit account, look up the runners there so that you can click on them and see how they did in high school. There will be some runners on bad teams slower than 10:00 for 3200 in high school. Some of them even ran those PRs as seniors, and your athlete still can run a faster time as a senior.

The vast majority of D1 coaches will not give this kid the time of day even if they let him on their team.

Don't consider Colgate. The fact that you would even compare it to D3 is offensive.

Coach, your athlete must run also run in a non competitive state as well with the times and place value. With his class rank and test scores he could probably get some decent money at a local state school. If his heart is set on D1 he could get academic scholarships for a lower tier no name school in the middle of nowhere and run on their team. He wouldn't get the full D1 experience of a power 5 type school but could say "I ran D1" to girls at a party or his future co-workers - hoping to impress them.

One thing you should impress upon him is the overall cost of college. An in-state U would probably be the most cost effective. Out of state private or public universities can still be very costly for those on partial academic and need based aid. As another poster mentioned a top ranked private liberal arts D3 college would be an ideal academic, athletic, and financial situation for your athlete. Out of pocket costs can be on par or even cheaper than the state u.

You nailed it.

In this day and age, D1 or D3 does not matter to future employers.

In this day and age, D1 needs 4:20 and 9:30 to even get a glance.

Was D1, would have done D3 if I'd known what I was in for.