Letter from Big Ten:
To Whom it May Concern,
We as a Big Ten Cross Country Coaching body are unanimously opposed to the current proposal of a five region qualification system to the NCAA Championships for 2022 and beyond. The purpose of the NCAA Championships is to assemble a field of the best teams from across the country to determine a national champion. We feel that this proposal will not take the best teams forward to the regional and/or the national championships. Given the immense lack of parity in the conferences when it comes to cross country, we believe that the proposed system unfairly penalizes the most competitive conferences in the NCAA.
Given what has been released of the current proposal, it sorely lacks detail on the most important facets; how at-large qualifications will work for the regional and national championships, specifics on how conferences will be grouped in the regions, exact field size of the regional and how that mirrors an NCAA championship field etc.
Furthermore, the current proposal will add cost for all participating institutions. Teams will have to travel farther and not be able to plan that travel in advance. Given the current budget climate across the country, we are concerned for the health of our sport if we impose a system that substantially escalates costs for participating institutions.
Finally, as a coaching body, we have a yearly convention to bring forward proposals, vet them and vote on them. Over the last 10 years, several similar proposals have come forward through convention and have been voted down by the coaching body and/or the cross country executive committee. Most recently in 2018, a similar five region proposal was brought to the executive committee (proposal DIXC18-09). The cross country executive committee voted down the proposal 0-7. It was brought to the floor and did not receive a single motion from
the body to be placed on the ballot. In order to determine what is best for our sport going forward, we feel strongly that any proposal that drastically alters our NCAA qualification needs to be submitted as a formal proposal and given the opportunity to be voted on by our entire coaching body.
Thank you,
Big Ten Head Cross Country Coaches
Mick Byrne, University of Wisconsin
Walt Drenth, Michigan State University
Norbert Elliott, Purdue University
John Gondak, Penn State University
Dave Harris, University of Nebraska
Randy Hasenbank, University of Iowa
Sarah Haveman, University of Illinois
Ron Helmer, Indiana University
Sarah Hopkins, University of Minnesota
Mike McGuire, University of Michigan
Jill Miller, Northwestern University
Mike Mulqueen, Rutgers University
Steve Plasencia, University of Minnesota
Khadevis Robinson, Ohio State University
Kevin Sullivan, University of Michigan
Andrew Valmon, University of Maryland
Sara Vergota, Ohio State University
Mackenzie Wartenberger, University of Wisconsin