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November 22, 2014, was a magical day for Michigan State director of cross country and track and field, Walt Drenth.  His Spartan women, six of whom came from Michigan high schools, showed their superior depth and dominated the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships in Terre Haute, Ind., despite putting only one athlete --sophomore Rachele Schulist-- in the top-10.  They scored 85 points to Iowa State's 147, giving Michigan State their first and only women's national cross country title.

Clemson University announced on Thursday that it is cutting men’s indoor and outdoor track and field and cross country effective June 2021, becoming the first Power Five school to eliminate all three programs in 2020.

In a year in which the NCAA indoor, outdoor and cross country championships have been canceled due to COVID-19, it’s safe to say that a mid-October invitational cross country meet has never been more anticipated than Saturday’s OSU Invitational in Stillwater, Oklahoma. 

Abilene Christian XC Invitational (Abilene, TX)

The NCAA Division I Council has approved a proposal to hold the cross country national championships on March 15, 2021, although conflicts with indoor and outdoor track and field could still stymie the plan, the NCAA announced on Wednesday.

As men’s NCAA track and field programs have been cut en masse in 2020, alumni have consistently emerged as the most powerful voices of resistance against the institutions they once represented. 

Citing a projected revenue loss of $75 million, the University of Minnesota announced on Thursday that they will be cutting men’s indoor and outdoor track and field upon the conclusion of the 2020-2021 school year. A formal decision is pending approval by the Board of Regents, but the move is expected to be implemented.

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.

In the wake of the NCAA Cross Country Championships being canceled this fall due to the pandemic, a proposal has emerged to hold a shortened season from January to mid-March 2021, multiple sources told FloTrack.

The 2020 DI NCAA XC Championships, which were to be held this November in Stillwater, OK have officially been canceled by the NCAA. NCAA President Mark Emmert announced the cancellation was due to a majority (over 50%) of institutions canceling their fall seasons.

Two of the NCAA’s Power 5 conferences won’t be competing this fall. The Big Ten and the Pac-12 are suspending fall sports, including cross country, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Fall sports national championships for NCAA Division II and Division III have been canceled. 

Ever since the Ivy League announced the cancellation/potential postponing of fall sports slowly but surely other conferences have followed suit. Notably, most of the conferences to cancel their cross country seasons have a majority of their schools participate in the NCAA Mid-Atlantic or Northeast regionals.

Another ominous sign that the NCAA cross country season will not happen in 2020 occurred on Wednesday as the University of Wisconsin announced that the Nuttycombe Invitational has been canceled.