We begin our 2019 NCAA XC countdown by unveiling the back half of the LRC top 10 which includes some big names - #10 Ok State, #9 Portland,#8 Colorado, #7 Oregon, #6 Notre Dame.

On paper, the battle for the men's 2017 NCAA Cross Country team title looks like it could be epic. We break it down for you.

There are lots of things to pay attention to as the calendar has turned to October. #1 New Mexico will run at the Notre Dame Invite on Friday against three other ranked teams while CU opens the season at the Rocky Mountain Shootout on Saturday. Friday's Washington Invitational (Stanford and Oregon are both in the field) and Saturday's Greater Louisville Classic (Wisconsin, Iona, Michigan, Ole Miss, Iowa St.) highlight the rest of the weekend's action. How will stars like Molly Seidel and the Rosa brothers look in their first tests of 2015? How will super frosh Anna Rohrer, Ryen Frazier, Matthew Maton, Tanner Anderson and Jonah Koech do? *MB:  Official 10/2-10/3 Weekend NCAA XC Talk – Notre Dame, Paul Short, UW, Rocky Mountain, etc.

We break down Colorado's repeat and compare them to the 2001 CU, 2003 Stanford and 2005 Wisconsin NCAA all-time great championship teams.We look at the Oregon 1-2 punch, Stanford's improvement, and how tough it is for true frosh.

Notre Dame has an extremely deep men's field (10 of the top 25, led by #10 BYU), but the best race of the weekend is Saturday in Seattle, where half of the men's top 10 (#2 NAU, #5 Portland, #6 Stanford, #7 Indiana, #9 Villanova) will square off. The women's races aren't as strong, but #3 Oregon vs. #4 Stanford at Washington should be compelling, with a potential debut from Stanford's Aisling Cuffe. In other action, the #6 FSU women trek up to Paul Short to face #5 Georgetown while the #1 Colorado men race at the Rocky Mountain Shootout.
*Aisling Cuffe Out For Most (Or All) XC Season With A Stress Fracture According to this blog post by one of the Stanford men.

The Portland Pilots have six guys who have run under 29:30 for 10,000 on the track and thus have good reason to believe this is the best Portland team ever. Oklahoma State lost its top 2 from last year but Dave Smith hopes an increase in focus helps the Cowboys, who will be led by 13:27 man Kirubel Erassa, contend.