I guess I was wrong. I have no idea why the committee chose Tufts over Wilmington, since Wilmington was clearly better throughout the season. It's a relief for the bottom third of the field at nationals though - Tufts has no chance of beating anyone except maybe Calvin, while Wilmington would have finished in the low 20s.
I suppose I didn't account for the tradition of giving east coast teams participation trophies. Makes sense - those schools are full of rich kids and you don't want to get sued when precious Walter with his 4:27 mile doesn't make the cut.
Sorry you're a racist Midwest POS.
Wilmington dug their own grave by absolutely falling flat on their faces at regionals.
You can do the math on their score - they can't get more than about 450 points from their bottom 2 and their top 3 is very strong. They could very easily score under 600 points, and that'll be good for at least top 25.
I guess I was wrong. I have no idea why the committee chose Tufts over Wilmington, since Wilmington was clearly better throughout the season. It's a relief for the bottom third of the field at nationals though - Tufts has no chance of beating anyone except maybe Calvin, while Wilmington would have finished in the low 20s.
I think where you’re wrong is your understanding of how selections work. First of all USTFCCCA rankings don’t mean Jack. Last I heard some regions vote, some regions have 1 coach make up region rankings and region rankings drive national rankings so they aren’t even looked at by the NCAA. Just like every other sport the sport committees have their own rankings published or unpublished, rest assured it isn’t based on the coaches rankings. So don’t let those influence how good you think a team is.
Now, since Calvin and Wilmington lost to Mount Union they wouldn’t even be discussed until Mount is in the meet. If Mount and Tufts are up (along with 8 other schools) they will look at head to head and common opponents. Since Tufts beat Mount @ Connecticut they either go together or Tufts goes first. So Wilmington and Tufts or Calvin and Tufts for that matter are never compared because they aren’t on the table at the same time. Also, why all the Tufts specific hate??? Not like they snuck into the NCAA scribbled over Wilmington and wrote their name in. Did Tufts athletes or coaches hurt you???
Bottom line is Wilmington got absolutely rocked at regionals and unless something crazy happened at the meet what do you expect? My guess is they weren’t even talked about because they were too far down in selection and at regionals they were 150 behind Mount Union, 100pts back from Calvin and 2pts ahead of Hope. Unfortunately with that you guys were never getting in bro. Wilmington was trending backward, Mount got better, Calvin and Tufts held steady so they got in.
I understand why Tufts got in according to the rules - I didn't account for them getting in ahead of Mt Union, but that makes perfect sense. I don't think Wilmington has actually been getting worse, they just look worse when they race against weaker teams because their 4 and 5 are so bad.
I have no affiliation with Wilmington, I just don't like how they aren't going when they would beat a lot of teams that are going, I don't like how Tufts seemed to get into the national meet solely because a different team peaked at the right time, and I don't like how consistently the bottom teams and individuals in the national meet are from the east coast.
Sorry but I think the NCAA is doing this wrong. The beauty of XC and track is that the clock doesn’t lie. You want it, go earn it. No judging or referees involved, no bad calls to ruin your game, etc. If you are going to have wild cards, you have a few, so that a team that has a shot at the podium that has a bad regional (injury, someone falls, etc) can be passed through. The way it’s run now with only one automatic bid per region, you might as well not even run regionals. All the hand wringing about who beat who by how many points at some early season invitational to merit being the fifth team in from their region is silly, and not fair to some of these second place teams that did everything they could ON THE COURSE to make a statement. Ten regions, two automatic bids each, twelve at large teams is PLENTY. No team that comes in fifth in a region is going to podium at Nats.
I understand why Tufts got in according to the rules - I didn't account for them getting in ahead of Mt Union, but that makes perfect sense. I don't think Wilmington has actually been getting worse, they just look worse when they race against weaker teams because their 4 and 5 are so bad.
I have no affiliation with Wilmington, I just don't like how they aren't going when they would beat a lot of teams that are going, I don't like how Tufts seemed to get into the national meet solely because a different team peaked at the right time, and I don't like how consistently the bottom teams and individuals in the national meet are from the east coast.
I'd rather Team A(1) peaking for Regionals (with NCAAs the following week) get in over Team A(2) that peaks for conferences three weeks out from NCAAs. Most competitive teams will be the ones looking to perform at NCAAs, not running on fumes hoping to qualify.
Sorry but I think the NCAA is doing this wrong. The beauty of XC and track is that the clock doesn’t lie. You want it, go earn it. No judging or referees involved, no bad calls to ruin your game, etc. If you are going to have wild cards, you have a few, so that a team that has a shot at the podium that has a bad regional (injury, someone falls, etc) can be passed through. The way it’s run now with only one automatic bid per region, you might as well not even run regionals. All the hand wringing about who beat who by how many points at some early season invitational to merit being the fifth team in from their region is silly, and not fair to some of these second place teams that did everything they could ON THE COURSE to make a statement. Ten regions, two automatic bids each, twelve at large teams is PLENTY. No team that comes in fifth in a region is going to podium at Nats.
If moving to a one team autoqualifier keeps teams out that would regularly get into the meet because of a horrible region, I'm all for it. It's absolutely not perfect but there have been years where some regions 5-7th best team would auto qualify in others.
Wilmington scored 242 points at regionals. you will never be selected with a point total like that, and rightly so because its terrible. End of conversation who cares about these crappy teams.
Wilmington scored 242 points at regionals. you will never be selected with a point total like that, and rightly so because its terrible. End of conversation who cares about these crappy teams.
Over/under 6.5 all americans for the Sagehens?
I think PP are a lock for 5 all Americans and a point total better than last year’s 80. They could have 8 all Americans if they were allowed to run their alternate.
Sorry but I think the NCAA is doing this wrong. The beauty of XC and track is that the clock doesn’t lie. You want it, go earn it. No judging or referees involved, no bad calls to ruin your game, etc. If you are going to have wild cards, you have a few, so that a team that has a shot at the podium that has a bad regional (injury, someone falls, etc) can be passed through. The way it’s run now with only one automatic bid per region, you might as well not even run regionals. All the hand wringing about who beat who by how many points at some early season invitational to merit being the fifth team in from their region is silly, and not fair to some of these second place teams that did everything they could ON THE COURSE to make a statement. Ten regions, two automatic bids each, twelve at large teams is PLENTY. No team that comes in fifth in a region is going to podium at Nats.
If moving to a one team autoqualifier keeps teams out that would regularly get into the meet because of a horrible region, I'm all for it. It's absolutely not perfect but there have been years where some regions 5-7th best team would auto qualify in others.
A) show me a Nationals result where a fifth-team-in beat a regional champion.
B) I ran at nationals D3 in the 90s. You go once, and you get the confidence that you can compete there AND a hunger to go back. I think some of these “horrible regions” are going to be artificially kept horrible if they don’t get a shot at the big dance.
C) I guess on some level it’s a difference in philosophy. Even if you are right, I’d let the second team from a bad conference in over the fifth team from a good conference. Let them sort it out at Nationals.
If moving to a one team autoqualifier keeps teams out that would regularly get into the meet because of a horrible region, I'm all for it. It's absolutely not perfect but there have been years where some regions 5-7th best team would auto qualify in others.
A) show me a Nationals result where a fifth-team-in beat a regional champion.
B) I ran at nationals D3 in the 90s. You go once, and you get the confidence that you can compete there AND a hunger to go back. I think some of these “horrible regions” are going to be artificially kept horrible if they don’t get a shot at the big dance.
C) I guess on some level it’s a difference in philosophy. Even if you are right, I’d let the second team from a bad conference in over the fifth team from a good conference. Let them sort it out at Nationals.
A) The point is that North/midwest #5 is better than multiple regions #2 (which is who would go if auto's got increased). Additionally, I don't think its that unthinkable that Wash U (Midwest #5) beats Suny Geneseo (a regional champ).
A) show me a Nationals result where a fifth-team-in beat a regional champion.
B) I ran at nationals D3 in the 90s. You go once, and you get the confidence that you can compete there AND a hunger to go back. I think some of these “horrible regions” are going to be artificially kept horrible if they don’t get a shot at the big dance.
C) I guess on some level it’s a difference in philosophy. Even if you are right, I’d let the second team from a bad conference in over the fifth team from a good conference. Let them sort it out at Nationals.
A) The point is that North/midwest #5 is better than multiple regions #2 (which is who would go if auto's got increased). Additionally, I don't think it’s that unthinkable that Wash U (Midwest #5) beats Suny Geneseo (a regional champ).
My point is that those two hypothetical teams are going to come in 18th and 24th or something like that. it’s not going to affect the podium. So give the weaker regions a second team and give them a chance to start building. Let more be decided on the course, not less. Using Brockport as an example, they came within 30 points of a team that went top 10 last year. I may very well eat my words but I don’t think so. if Geneseo has a strong showing, Brockport should have been in.