I'm going to circle back here one more time. As is always the case, people are both well intended in their opinions and comments. But, equally so, it is quite clear that some do not understand the unique world of NCAA skiing.
I do not want to insult anybody. I do not want to downplay anybody's college or professional athletic experience. However, suggesting that what applies to one sport simply translates to the ski world is wrong.
I have tried to explain that, in my experience, {which goes back at a pretty high level, for five decades}, the TINY size of the sport, the incredibly high talent level at the very top, and the fact that things are very complicated with how this fits in with a variety of national ski teams and their federations make this confusing.
I was curious to look into the world of college golf. 887 NCAA teams. Average team size for men of 10. That might not be entirely accurate. But it is bigger that Alpine skiing, which as I have previously posted has fewer than 20 teams, and more like 100 total male skiers competing.
So, this crap about participation trophies is nonsense. As well as somehow saving spots for non competitive skiers. At the better programs, no chance. And the best Euro's will not be headed to mediocre programs.
Secondly, the sport has been governed, driven, etc. in such a way, for years, that our best young skiers, who qualified for the USST system did not bypass that to attend college. Those who attended college did so off season, and never competed in college, or, went to school and competed after their USST careers ended.
There are frankly more ex USST women in NCAA college racing today than men. It has been somewhat fluid between genders over the past 20 years. The key point is that if you had the apparent talent to aspire to the top, the World Cup, you were never advised that the best route was the NCAA....if you were American.
Ligety, Bode, MS, LV....never gave college a look. And were not encouraged to. And the list is pretty long. Like almost everybody.
So right now our "best" are not in college. However, some of the best from other countries ARE here, skiing in the NCAA. Not every school in that tiny NCAA group offers athletic scholarships. Fewer that half of them do. The "full ride" is pretty rare, and they are very disproportionally being awarded to top European and Canadian skiers.
Does it make the NCAA ranks stronger? Yes. Would other NCAA skiers like to see quotas,etc.? I doubt it. Families and others, maybe.
One more time....here is the "issue." I can't go through every single country, but the issues are the same. This is an expensive sport. The amount of support and the expense per athlete at the national team level is huge. In our USST, we have about half of our athletes needing to pay a lot of their own way. That "funding gap" has been the top concern for at least 10 years, and the organization can't close it. Frustrating.
So let's look at one country. Let's assume that they have a WC team, a Europa Cup team, a "C" team where the guys race a mix of starts, and a traditional Development team. They do not have the sponsorship and funding to make it all work. They think this through, year after year. And then they take the bold step to cut way back on their C and D teams, support a small number who clearly can be another MS.....and actively work to help the others come to the USA to race in the NCAA. There were a number of NCAA racers scoring WC points this year, and i think one American.
The disconnect is that on our own country, our ski leadership still looks right down their noses and ignores, avoids, downplays this NCAA pipeline. Stupid. Leif Haugen is a better tech skier than anybody skiing all of last season in a US uniform. Four years at DU, and a lot of back and forth with the Norwegian WC team seems to have worked.
My frustration is not that the NCAA is full of foreign students. I do think there are very legitimate discussions to be had about how those state university programs are funded, though.
I have HEARD more than one European coach say that they decided to cut back on their programs, ship the skiers to the USA, and "let your government and states pay for the development of our future WC skiers." Their mouths to my ears.
I am not sure how anybody can not be a touch irritated with that. It does NOT cut both ways. I have been involved in trying to place some top level US skiers in the best European academies and they will not even consider it. Why would they help the competition? Nope.
Meanwhile, the best skiers are not in the NCAA, at the right time. Our skiers are not there. I am not going to get into athlete management in this thread. Other that to say for quite a few, college might be a great pipeline.
My wife and I have big families with many cousins and neices and nephews. A ton of former NCAA athletes, some national champions. A pretty good number of pro athletes. We have many other friends in this ski world.
I've posted it above. NCAA skiing is very different. The eligibility is a whole different issue. Gets very confusing. Most competitive skiers, including ours, are older as freshmen. Just how it works.
The dynamics are really unlike any other sport that I am aware of. And I KNOW that when the conversation takes place of saving these state university teams, the fewer American students and coaching staff, the harder the conversation.
These guys sure do not recruit locally, haha!
Sorry to sound like a broken drum. Over and out!
Hope UNM pulls off the save.
