Should the NCAA deincentivize foreign athlete in Track & XC

4:04 to get any real money? I don't know where you were looking, but there are about 2 schools I can think of that only give significant scholarship to 4:04 guys (Stanford and Oregon). I am going to a D1 school with a decent scholarship off of a 1:54 800 and some good cross times. My friend is getting a great scholarship at a top 10 distance track team off of a 4:11 1600 and some excellent (but not All-American level) cross times. 4:04 is more like a full ride to almost any school.

gahagand wrote:

4:04 to get any real money? I don't know where you were looking, but there are about 2 schools I can think of that only give significant scholarship to 4:04 guys (Stanford and Oregon). I am going to a D1 school with a decent scholarship off of a 1:54 800 and some good cross times. My friend is getting a great scholarship at a top 10 distance track team off of a 4:11 1600 and some excellent (but not All-American level) cross times. 4:04 is more like a full ride to almost any school.

OP failed to give any performances for his son. Eight-hundred metres is the longest event all world juniors race on a regular basis. Why would a college coach offer a kid a condo, new suv and a no show job if a kid can't race sub-1:55 800m? If OP's son were a h.s. sub-1:55 800m runner, OP would have stated. OP would say, "My son is a 1600m/3200m runner, why does my son's 800m performance matter?" If you have to ask, no athletic grant for your son.

What's your zip code wrote:

From a coach who has a lot of foreign and also American athletes, my perspective is this:

Sub 4:20 1600m runners turn my offers away for books and walk on spots on non nationally ranked Power 5 programs.

Foreign athletes who run sub 3:55 for 1500m actually sign with my program.

Now it is really hard for Americans to get money on my team. We are competitive enough that I don't offer 4:20 1600m runners anyrhing, but I still don't get very many 4:12-15 Americans interested so the money goes increasingly to foreign athletes.

I get this, but your experience is exactly why this is a problem. I know there's no money, etc., but throw more incentive at the 4:20 runners, and MUCH more at the 4:16 crowd, and you'd have a lot more Americans on your team. Then you'd get beat by all the teams with 3:55 1500m guys.

My son's times were just under 1:54 and 4:16 in the 1600M. I was involved in the discussion because I'm his dad and needed to understand what they were actually going to offer (and because I have to understand the economics of the situation). In the end, he said maybe books so we went in a different direction. I realize this coaches cutoff is different than some but as I said out of state tuition at good engineering schools made OOS unattractive. If it was only about running then we would have had more options, but his career post college was a larger factor than the running.

Change.My.Mind wrote:

NEWS FLASH: most distance studs are getting full skollies!

Change my mind.

Lol no

A sub 30 doesn't mean much now either