Moving to Madison

In case you haven't heard, the 2018 National Championships for cross country will be moving to Madison, Wisconsin this fall. Switching to a new course has happened plenty of times before, but shifting the meet to Wisconsin has a variety of implications on regular season meets.

The regular season Pre-Nationals meet is held annually at the location where the National Championship will be that year. Both Pre-Nats and the Wisconsin Invite are typically run on the second weekend in October. With Pre-Nats now moving to Madison, we would theoretically have two different races on the same day and on the same course, but with different teams. Clearly, that doesn't make sense.

 To remedy this problem, the Badgers have decided to push the Wisconsin Invite back to September 28th. This monumental change in the regular season schedule could have a large influence on qualifying scenarios as well as the competition level at certain meets.

With the Wisconsin Invite field already finalized and the Pre-National entries recently announced, we now have enough information to discuss the potential outcomes from these meets and others. Keep in mind that the Wisconsin Invite is no longer accepting entries while the Pre-National meet still is.
 

In most years, I've always been of the opinion that the Wisconsin Invite was slightly more competitive than Pre-Nats. Historically, there have been more teams capable of qualifying for Nationals at the Wisconsin Invite. However, 2018 will clearly favor Pre-Nats with entries like Furman, Stanford, Colorado State, NAU, Iowa State, Portland, UCLA, and many more. Those teams will finally get to battle the likes of Oregon, Colorado, Michigan, and Ole Miss during the regular season.

With nearly every national contender entered in the Pre-National meet, fans of the NCAA will be treated to an actual preview of what the National Championship could look like in 2018.

With the Wisconsin Invite now diluted and shifted to a different weekend, a heavy portion of this year's Kolas points will be decided at the Pre-National meet. When you think about it, this makes obvious sense. Pre-Nats doesn't have to compete with another large meet for team entries. Instead, it will host nearly every team in the NCAA looking to qualify for the National Championships.

Despite the Wisconsin Invite being moved to the weekend of September 28th, it is still set to be very competitive with teams like Northern Arizona, Colorado State, Iowa State, and Portland headlining the field. In fact, the Wisconsin Invite meet will probably distribute the second most Kolas points in the nation this year, behind only Pre-Nats.
 
 That's not to say that you can't qualify for Nationals if you race elsewhere, but your chances of earning more Kolas points drastically increase as long as you don't choke at Pre-Nats.
 

The Southeast and Great Lakes region are relatively wide-open this year in terms of who will finish within the top two of their region.

NC State, Furman, Virginia, Campbell, and (maybe) Virginia Tech will all be fighting for two of the automatic qualifying spots in the Southeast (and there doesn't appear to be a heavy favorite). Of those teams, NC State, Furman, and Campbell are entered for Pre-Nats. Defeating any of those three could (potentially) give you an extra Kolas point or two.

The same can be said for the Great Lakes region. Although Wisconsin will likely be the favorite to take the top spot in the region, the final automatic qualifying spot will be up for grabs between Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue. Indiana and Butler also have an outside chance as well.

As of right now, all of those teams (except Michigan State) are entered to race at Pre-Nats. It's still unclear as to who will take that second automatic qualifying spot, but defeating these teams will certainly give you an edge when it comes to Kolas points.

Despite the increase in Kolas opportunities, other teams who are known to give up points have not yet entered. Texas has not yet submitted an entry for Pre-Nats while Mid-Atlantic teams like Navy, Georgetown, and Princeton are also absent. Over the past few seasons, these teams have given up a decent amount of Kolas points. Not having these four teams in the field could lessen the amount of points available to other programs.

Three glaring misses right now are BYU, Arkansas, and Syracuse. None of those teams have entered the Wisconsin Invite or Pre-Nats. However, it’s probably safe to assume that they will submit an entry for Pre-Nats sometime soon. We can also assume that all three of these teams will finish in the top two of their region. Although having enough Kolas points is important, Syracuse, Arkansas, and BYU are good enough to get an automatic qualifier.

Aside from Texas and the Mid-Atlantic teams mentioned above, Michigan State, Virginia, Iona, and Virginia Tech are also interesting absences. Those four teams have the potential to give away plenty of Kolas points throughout this season.

For years now, Roy Griak, Paul Short, the Greater Louisville Classic (GLC), and Notre Dame Joe Piane Invite have been important regular season meets responsible for shaping the landscape of the NCAA qualifying picture. However, with the Wisconsin Invite now being run on the same weekend, almost every other meet will be left without their share of high-level entries. Here are the teams who will be racing at the Wisconsin Invite who ran at other meets in 2017…

Louisville

Northern Arizona

Boise State

Purdue

Illinois

Wisconsin

Notre Dame

Southern Utah

Colorado

Air Force

Michigan

Eastern Kentucky

Texas

Alabama

NC State

New Mexico

Washington State

Butler

Paul Short

Georgetown

Penn

Villanova

Tennessee

Roy Griak

Colorado State

Michigan State

San Francisco

For some fans of the sport, this concentration of team talent has to be frustrating. It isolates the sport to just a few weekends of competition and leaves other weeks without any results to review. It’s probably fair to say that other meet directors aren’t exactly thrilled with Wisconsin dominating the entire cross country season and collecting nearly all of the regular season entry fees.