What D1 teams can someone who runs the mile in 4:19 minutes join?

I suspect the OP curiousasker is david45 who recently posted as theoreticalasker in another D1 thread, plus it’s Sunday afternoon when David’s often itching for a big fat troll fap.

https://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=11018927

I'm leaning more towards 90%

That sucks. I vastly prefer athletes that make first contact. It's a guarantee that they actually like what our school and program has to offer.

V wrote:

That sucks. I vastly prefer athletes that make first contact. It's a guarantee that they actually like what our school and program has to offer.

This is very true… one thing to be mindful of is who the athlete sends an email to. Sometimes the email goes to the wrong coach and gets lost in the shuffle. Maybe they emailed a random grad assistant, the women’s coach not the men’s, sent it to the head coach but the assistant does all the recruiting. Or maybe they sent an email that said “I have always wanted to run a LSU” but you coach at Alabama (yes this happens all the time, I get probably 10+ emails per year that have my name copy or pasted wrong or references a school that is not my school or other big red flag that the kid obviously just emailed 100 other schools the same letter).

Also it’s ok to send a follow up email after a few weeks/month if you haven’t heard back worst case a coach who already ignored you still ignores you but best case a coach who missed your email or thought they replied is stoked to hear from you!

Just about any D1 school will take you. You won't get money at most of them though.

The better question is.

In which D1 universities does 4:19 make the all time list? For example, it would rank 27th on the University of Vermont all time indoor list…

I threw a metaphorical dart at my screen and came up with McNeese State in Louisiana (not an HBCU). I looked at a few of the guys on the xc roster who had 4:18-19 mile pr's in college. They were about 25 minute 8k guys in college, though one at least was a lot slower at first and developed well (going from high 33 10k to 31:38).

Scholar Expert wrote:

It happens often. I have had many guys fill out questionnaires or send emails only to be ignored or told that the program is not in need at the current time. Some of the guys have been as fast as 4:10. This is common. I talk to many HS coaches who have the same experience. Unless the kid is faster than nearly the entire team, the coaches are only interested if they make 1st contact.

That’s interesting. I had a former teammate with 1:58-15:45 range who had a handful of D1s reaching out to him, and it didn’t take me much effort to walk onto my universities team with PBS of 1:57 and 4:2x at the time. Not the worst school either, regularly conf champs or top 3.

Could attitude be part of it? Humility and drive can go a long ways.

Questionnaires are just filling in the blank info.

There are probably exceptions for the most elite of elite division one teams, but I think many times walking onto a team has more to do with personality and not being an ahole/distraction due to behavior/maturity issues than it does with your PRs. Sometimes coaches at all levels (whether division one or division three) will take a slower runner as a walk on because runner is hard worker, positive influence, has a very high GPA and will in turn bring up team GPA.

Also there are D1 schools that are god-awful and you could probably contribute and score for them if you broke 18 minutes for a 5K in high school…you probably just haven’t heard of any of them and there is a reason for that.

ncaa dude wrote:

No. Just the opposite. I had a 4:21 kid get turned down by every B10 school last year. He has great acdemics. We have one of the top programs in the state which makes me think caches check to see how much our kids improve in college.

There is no way this is true. At a school like Nebraska, Iowa, Rutgers, they usually only get 1 or 2 4:1x guys each year. If you look across the board, I bet every B1G school is taking 4:21 guys. Although at the better schools those kids probably have supporting times in longer events.

Scholar Expert wrote:

Questionnaires are just filling in the blank info.

Then why not have your athlete shoot the coach a more personal email? I was able to have a good conversation with my coach about what my journey has looked like and where I wanted it to go.

An athlete that ran 4:50 the year before they ran 4:30 is a lot more valuable than an athlete that ran 4:30 the year before they ran 4:30. If your athlete has a good improvement curve you need to make that known, and you usually can’t do that through a questionnaire.

We have had about 20 D1 distance runners over the past 20 years. We know the process well. Yes I sad earlier that most emails result in rejection or no response. I was merely answering the point about attitude factoring in. He was insinuating that athletes are unwanted due to attitude. But it usually has nothing to do with that because most of the time there is no contact. I will state it again. I can have a guy run 4:20/9:20 as a junior and have a few P5 coaches start recruiting him while he will get "rejected from" 20 others. I had a guy run as fast as 1:55/4:14 as a junior get contacted by a bunch of P5 schools that he wasn't interested in while being rejected at every one of his dream schools. The feedback that I have gotten from college coaches and other high school coaches and my athletes is that things change a lot each year. Some teams are only allowed to carry a certain number of guys and even though the website shows 16, only 12 are actually on the official roster. The others will not get to wear a uniform or travel. Title IX and even diversity are factors that impact recruiting. Compliance folks don't like when they are stretching the rules. So when they find themselves over their limit, they get their hand slapped and pretty much take no new guys for a year or two. The other feedback is that they don't look at questionnaires or emails unless they are at a point of really needing guys above what they are recruiting on their own which isn't many or often.

I think the poster who mentioned that the perception of D1 on this forum is way exaggerated. Decades ago, I was told if I did not run under 4:20 I would not be eligible for a scholarship at Nebraska, but could walk-on. even though their roster was made up of a couple 4:17-4:19 guys. Doesn't look like their roster is much different nearly thirty years later.

Scholarship -no. But walk-on. definitely. Maybe not at Oregon or NAU, but in the 250+ D1 programs in the NCAA, YES, and many would offer a scholarship.

My friend ran 4:20 in high school and is at an ivy now. He ran 1:53 for the 800 tho. But another friend who is also at an ivy ran slower for 1600 and near 9:30 for 3200

They both had pretty good grades in hs but a lot of ppl overestimate time standards. They matter but I know ppl who got money at d1 schools that ran in the 4:20s for hs. Their cross time’s weren’t that good either i think both barely broke 16 in hs for a 5k

Colleges want guys running 4:20 off of not running weekends, pushing trees over in the woods and no name school. If you’re running 4:20 at one of the best programs in the state you’re tapped out.

not a duck wrote:

V is right. Everyone is unique, but I’d say 8/10 p5 schools have standards of 4:20 and 9:20

And the majority of those p5 schools won't do anything with them.