On Wednesday, the Division I Competition Oversight Committee recommended that the NCAA Cross Country Championships take place on March 15, 2021, with field sizes of 255 per gender, according to a report from the committee.

The decision follows a vote last week from the sport’s executive committee in favor of conducting a cross country championship meet in 2021. 

After that vote, however, sources told FloTrack that momentum for a cross country championship in the winter had stalled, in part due to conflicts with the indoor season. 

But on Wednesday, the Oversight Committee included men's and women's cross country in its list of five other fall sports with dates for championships in 2021. 

The document does state that regional meets will not be used for qualification and that meets held in the fall can be part of the qualification system.

The proposal now moves to the Division I Council at their meeting on September 16th, but a final decision about cross country will likely come later.

"It was clear the cross country and track and field communities would prefer the committees remain nimble for another few weeks to allow for more discussion about winter and spring sport championships," the document says.

"In addition, the logistics for conducting those three championships are not as complicated as they are for other sports, which makes a delay more feasible in this case."