D1 Power 4 Conference recruit not being offered a scholarship

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What is the coach saying at this point?

I’ve heard so many conflicting things over the past few months that I don’t have a lot of confidence in anything I hear.

But my impression is that at least a few of the Big 10 xctf coaches think they have a relatively clear understanding of the future landscape and are acting/communicating with that in mind.

Obviously, they could be wrong. But their info is probably the best available right now.

Good luck and hopefully your athlete can still enjoy the spring track season.

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I have a son and a niece at a G5 school. Both of their teams are going to the new roster limit number. My niece is on the XC/TF team and expects cuts to happen.

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Status quo so far. They are bringing in 5 freshman, which seems like a lot. The coach has texted her a couple of times regarding indoor track etc. She signed up for athletic housing this week.

It’s even more brutal on the men’s side. Our school (Ivy) hosted several 25s late in the year who’d had their P4 offers pulled last minute. Many of the top swimmers in my son’s class (24) are finding themselves without a home and are scrambling to transfer. Even worse, schools like UT with massive roster cuts are committing new older transfers for next year.

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It is so brutal. I’m so glad that the Ivy conference opted out of the settlement so at least they aren’t cutting spots in your son’s program.

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Those seem like good signs. I’d be surprised if the coach isn’t planning appropriately at this point. 5 in a distance recruiting class wouldn’t worry me if it’s one of the distance oriented programs. Many of those don’t carry huge track rosters as it is.

Yeah I hope so. But it really wouldn’t surprise me if the spot got pulled. I would just hope that if it happens, it’s sooner rather than later because at this point, she could still go to school somewhere else, minus running.

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I’d take a look at the current track roster. If they’re under the future cap already, then there likely won’t be a numbers crunch. Keep in mind not every distance runner needs to be rostered in XC. Likely some mid-d athletes won’t be.

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The BiG has plenty of money so not expecting cuts this year. That said, a non-rev sport like XC may not be around by the time she’s a senior. (It also depends on which BiG school. tOSU is another revenue universe than Rutgers.)

I heard from a reliable source that even the National Champ LSU Tigers women’s gymnastics have been told to self-endow and face the potential chopping block.

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I am not surprised to hear that, but one can’t separate out the budgetary issues that LSU is facing to at least partially explain that communication, assuming it happened (I have no reason not to believe it!) The fiscal pressures that athletics, academics, and research at LSU are significant.

right but LSU is a football power in the SEC and will definitely receive an invite to the Super League in 5-6 years. So they will continue to roll in TV revenue. OTOH, Rutgers maybe on the outside looking in during the next go-around.

But what was really surprising was that LSU was whispering to cut a women’t sport, which has all kinds of T9 implication, forcing them into a different prong.

Time will tell how LSU deals with their budgetary issues.

IMO we will see lots of women’s sports take cuts. We can’t get political here but I don’t see Title 9 getting enforced.

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Why shouldn’t they contribute to the overall endowment like a top basketball, hockey, or football team? Title IX is to make education, including sports, more equal for men and women and the LSU gymnastics team has risen to the top. They have top facilities that they use to have community teams, camps, clinics ($$$$). Olivia Dunn is (was?) the top NIL woman’s athlete, so can’t she have a contract with LSU to use their facilities for filming commercials and thus bring in some money? They have 2 Olympians coming in the next two years. I think they’ll be fine.

I disagree. I think women’s sports have won some big points in the last few years. One example is women’s basketball teams fought and won for equal locker and work out rooms at their March Madness venues. Do I think it is totally equal? No way, but it is better than it was.

I do think schools will have to limit roster sizes on some sports, especially those that have doubled or tripled in size, and limit number of scholarships to comply with Title IX. Will schools really have tumbling teams with 50+ members on scholarship? I don’t think so but if they do yes, they may have to cut another sport (either men’s or women’s, depending on the tumbling team makeup.

I don’t think women’s XC is at risk of being cut at many of the Big 10 schools.

Maybe at a few without strong traditions like Rutgers or USC. But not at the programs like Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Washington, Oregon, etc.

Northwestern is adding Women’s track next year and a few big 10 schools have recently signed their coaches to extensions.

That doesn’t mean there won’t be numbers/resources challenges but these aren’t resource intensive programs and they have institutional advantages at many of these schools. Some of them do have independent revenue streams as well.

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Where is your daughter at in her recruiting process now? I’ve just found this website as I am embarking on a recruiting journey with my 2026 runner. The coaches we are talking to now still don’t know how the roster caps are going to play out.

It seems the judge is insisting on protections for current athletes (rightly so IMO) and I think there is a decent chance the entire thing will blow up and go to trial. Still, if they settle, 26s will likely be impacted by limits. Personally, if I were a legitimate P4 hopeful but not #1 I’d be doing everything i could to get an Ivy spot.

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I think it depends on the program though if roster caps are the concern. There are quite a few P4 Track programs that haven’t ever carried more than 45 athletes.

I do think the transfer portal and overall funding create pressures independent of the caps.

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