My gooodness. When did the NCAA start letting teams take pre-season altitude trips?

Ain’t sure

Is this a real question? Teams have been doing that for at least 20 years. I started college in 2007 and my team and other teams had been doing it for at least 10 years prior to that. We would spend anywhere from 2-4 weeks at Mammoth.

A lot of teams have "camp" before the season to get things going early. Some are on campus, others are off campus. I ran for two D1 schools, both had a week long camp before the official NCAA start of the season (one on campus, the other off campus at a camp in the woods 60 miles away). One year a number of the guys got together on their own and went and trained at 12,000' for two weeks prior to the camp. This was 20 years ago. Washington has the Rainsberger connection (her mom runs the Kokopelli running club in Colorado Springs and they put on camps in the summer up in Frisco at 9500', so there is probably a tie in there). It was probably elective and athletes might have had to pay, so it is tough to draw conclusions with limited knowledge of the facts.

I started college in 1998, and my team probably had been doing 10-14 days in Mammoth for about 5 years before that. There was some sort of rule that it could be done in connection with a preseason meet, so we would have a dual meet with another college team up there the last weekend of camp.

Doesn't Iowa state spend all fall in Flagstaff training and taking online courses?

sbeefyk2 wrote:

Is this a real question? Teams have been doing that for at least 20 years. I started college in 2007 and my team and other teams had been doing it for at least 10 years prior to that. We would spend anywhere from 2-4 weeks at Mammoth.

Same experience for me 20+ years ago in college. The whole team went for a week or so in late summer, but some of our all-americans lived and trained up there from June to September. The team bonding was great, but the actual physical benefits from the week were minimal. The guys who came off the mountain after all summer up there killed it the 1st few weeks of season, but after a month or so at sea level, things evened out.

Better question: When have pre-season altitude trips not been allowed?

NCAA requires teams to run races within 2 weeks of the first day of fall training.

So, some schools run a race right after getting together on campus (typically a race held the last Saturday of August), then head up to camp for 2-3 weeks. This works for schools on a quarter system where fall classes begin at the end of September.

If local late-August pre-camp races can't be found, then schools may choose to go to altitude camps first then run their races within 2 weeks just before starting school.

These "races" are frequently just tempo runs for the top runners.

In Sub 4:00, John Cook boasted about how he took his George Mason runners on altitude trips that violated NCAA rules. I'm not sure if those were preseason camps or if he scheduled the trips during the season.

You know when Rojo says “My goodness!” that he means business!!!

Ran for 2 Power 5 teams. The trips were OK as long as we didn't leave the state. We did them every fall.

The old rule was that (if no c;lasses were in session) you could go anywhere within your state, or, if out of state, within 100 miles of campus )for those schools near their state's border). If a competition was involved (i.e. you start school later such as quarter schools) you could travel anywhere within the US.

That rule was changed a few years ago presumably because schools in states like California or Texas would have significantly more options compared to schools in places like Iowa, Kansas, etc...

I would think now that many of these schools football programs are bringing in millions more than ever, that these trips are even more prevalent.

kmaclam wrote:

I would think now that many of these schools football programs are bringing in millions more than ever, that these trips are even more prevalent.

Why? The football revenue doesn't need to be re-invested in XC trips.

Wait until rojo hears that NCAA basketball teams frequently do tours OVERSEAS over the summer!!

2.5/10

Dumb premise for a troll post, but lots of bites.

I thought it was common, I live near the Northern Sierra Nevadas and a ton on California colleges and even some HS teams do running camps up here all the time.

College swim teams were coming to Colorado Springs for camps over Christmas in the late 90s. Stanford was regularly on complex. Georgia, Michigan, Arizona State and lots of others.

Even little D2 Adams state does extended stays at at altitude. And thats going way back to the 70s!

My goodness do you live under a rock?

From the Midwest I know several high school teams that head to altitude camps in Colorado in July and early August, not to mention some universities.