California has one of the best state cross country meets in the country. Not too many other states can match the depth of talent that cruises over the Woodward Park course on post Thanksgiving Saturday. Since 1996, California has fielded 10 total races divided equally between boys and girls in 5 divisional races each. Aside from the qualification from previous sections, not much as changed in the state meet format. Does that mean that we have a perfect system? Perhaps, not.
There are several issues/gripes that come up every year following the meet. One is the breakdown of divisions. During 2011, it was determined that the Southern Section fielded 581 teams that served 230 cities and 10 counties. It is by far the largest section in California. The section also fields many of the larger schools in California. During the 2014 season, the SS fielded 38 schools that enrolled over 3000 students. By comparison, the Central Coast Section had 3 schools over 3000 students. The North Coast Section also had 3 schools with an enrollment great than 3000 students. The SS deemed schools over 2511 as Division I schools. The corresponding number for NCS is 2061 and in CCS, it's 1919. As a result, a school like Agoura in the SS with an enrollment of 2100 can compete in Division III against much smaller schools.
Just by sheer numbers alone, the SS teams have a huge advantage over other sections in every division. The greater pool of talent at most SS schools give those teams an edge in the possibility of finding 7 runners that can win a state championship or at the very least finish in the top 10 in their respective division. There is no denying that larger schools run faster team times. To make matters worse, the Central Section uses a "competitive equality" system which has forced schools like McFarland, a school of 860 students, to compete in Division I.
The second, more controversial issue concerns the Nike Cross Nationals (NXN) race. Due to the length of the California XC season, the CA state meet is the defacto qualifying meet for NXN. Other regions have their own qualifying races making it very clear who are the automatic qualifiers for the national team championship race. There is more subjectivity as to who qualifies as an at-large team but that is a topic for another day. Following the CA state meet, a merge of the top teams and individuals helps determine the four automatic teams from CA (2 boys and 2 girls). It all seems fair as all the teams run on the same course on the same date but with 5 divisional races for each sex, you do have the weather factor which is a huge advantage to the teams that race in the morning.
As a result of the above two concerns, several coaches have proposed format changes to perhaps level the playing field in each division as well as solve the NXN qualifying issue. Unfortunately, most are shot down at ground section level. The truth of the matter is that most sections believe they have equitable competition at their own level and what happens at the state meet is not a concern to them. Others also refuse to acknowledge the NXN factor because it only concerns few teams and the CA state meet format will not be changed to appease those affected teams and individuals.
The idea of a sweepstakes race has come up before and both Basketball and Football have an open division that determines the best team in the state in their respective sport. Other sports that determine state champions like Wrestling and Track and Field do not require such a division as their best competitors face each other in their respective weight class or event. To gauge the temperature of the addition of sweepstakes races, I reached out to several coaches to get thoughts on this matter. I will separate their responses by pros and cons without any editorial comments.
The Pros
Increased competition for a true State Champion.
A clear set of NXN qualifiers.
Very few questions at the end of the day.
All the teams vying for spots in the NXN run together.
The spectators getting to see all the powerful teams line up together in one race.
It eliminates the excuses of "well your team ran faster because they ran in the morning".
You will get great competition and a fantastic race, one that should push to some remarkable team time marks.
More teams make it to State and better competition across the board.
Makes scoring more accurate.
The best run against the best!
The Cons
Losing the opportunity for some of those schools to win their divisional state championship.
How would the division titles be determined?
XC coaches aren't as zealous as hoop coaches and many would prefer to stay in their division.
This still doesn't fix the problem at the section level with proper divisional alignment.
Harder to win a state title.
Small schools run against higher divisions with higher populations.
How do you determine who races in the super division?
What happens if a team not in sweepstakes race throws down jaw dropping effort? Still considered for NXN?
I do not believe we should decide our state meet on anything having to do with NXN or Footlocker.
I believe we are ways from this addition actually taking place but it's a worthy conversation. There are also other potential changes such as shortening the season to potentially contest the NXN qualifying race the following weekend. If you have other thoughts on this subject, please feel free to chime in the comment section below. Other pros and cons?