I obviously agree with you Rojo that our sport is suffering from lack of viewer participation/ fans, but forcing athletes to compete in certain events will not solve the inherent problem of distance running. Also not by putting more emphasis on making Track and field /XC a team sport, which it really is not.
Starting with my second point, Football/ basketball/ baseball and soccer are so popular because you have in one game two teams playing against each other, front to front like in a battle field. There is something about "playing war" which cannot be mimicked in running.
This is entirely different then the US college concept of having 25+ teams of 7 persons running "against" each other over 10 k on some random field in Indiana. Sure, if there was not a team score maybe even less fans would watch cross country, but my point is that basic set up of running is inherently not a team event.
The ongoing loss of fans in T&F and running that come to meets to watch is due to the growth of media in our changing society. There is simply not enough ACTION and drama involved for the average person to see it as an incentive to travel to meets, watch and enjoy it. No "forcing" of athletes to face each other and no "team sport initiative" in an individual sport will fundamentally change that.
We can improve on making distance racing more attractive though. First of all, get rid of Pacemakers. in ALL MEETS worldwide. Again, the average person has no idea what it means to run a 5k in 12:45 , 13:45 or 14:45, nor do they care. They want to see people race each other. But that does not mean all the top guns have to race each other at least 5 times throughout a year (or whatever is suggested in this thread).
Now to Avery. Depth wise the NCAA is about the same level as the Euro champs in the mid-distance, if not stronger. However, being the Euopean champ is in my opinion worth more for an athlete than being the NCAA champ ( i know this sounds like I am contradicting myself, but it's simply because outside the US system most people have only a limited idea about what is going on in US college running). I am sure that in the UK Avery would get more press as the European indoor champion then being the NCAA champ (ok, none of this will happen this year, but that's on a different page.
As Iona is probably not competing for the team title at NCAA's I can understand her decision.