I’ve learned a ton about Ivy recruiting on this site, and from the Tier One book, site. Thanks to all who have participated in past conversations.
I’m curious how much support coaches at these schools can allocate within XC/TF.
As I understand it, Ivy coaches have a set number of slots they can support (usually but perhaps not always leading to a likely letter). Does anyone know what that number might be in XC/TF? Are we talking 2 or 3 per year across the entire men’s XC/TF program, or more like a dozen? And, for that matter, is XC treated as a branch of TF or does the XC coach get her/his own allocation of slots?
I understand this may vary a bit by institution and from year to year. I am just trying to get a sense of how scarce those slots are. I have distance kids in mind.
I think around a dozen per year supported recruits for men, and a dozen per year for women, for XC/TF combined, is a pretty good ballpark, with obviously variation from school to school and year to year.
You can look at team rosters to see the balance between XC/TF distance and TF-only sprinters, jumpers and throwers at a particular school.
Total roster sizes may be more than 4x this number, but not everyone on the rosters was a supported recruit (and if you dig into meet results, you will see some who are pretty obviously walk-ons).
Unfortunately there are almost too many variables to answer your question. All you can do is contact the coaches and express your interest, then apply to the school and hope for a great package. There are top D1 schools like Stanford (go Radcliff!) and smaller D1 schools. They all have different budgets for the programs.
@MassDaD68 sorry, should have mentioned that I’m pretty familiar with the non-Ivy D1 scholarship landscape. I agree with you that it’s all over the map.