Is Northern Arizona Cross Country the best dynasty in the modern NCAA?
In college sports everyone loves a great dynasty. The Florida Gators are the closest thing we have ever seen to this on the track, because their men’s team has won 5 national championships in the past 10 years, with the latest of which coming in 2023. But most casual sports fan are not paying attention to what is happening on the track. They are more concerned with how the Georgia Bulldogs went back to back as FBS football champions. This is why true greatness often goes unnoticed, especially if it’s not on a football field or basketball court. But the greatest dynasty right now in all of the NCAA for every single sport, actually runs cross country.
The truth is that Northern Arizona University in the Big Sky conference are the best program in all of college. They have won 6 of the last 7 NCAA titles, and they are ranked number 1 in the nation again right now. So here are the facts about what’s really going on out there in the NCAA, because there’s really only 1 legitimate dynasty throughout all of D1.
Who are the best college sports dynasties of the decade?
Cross country barely gets any television coverage and the reason for that is because it is incredibly hard to film a sport that is basically a bunch of athletes running through the woods. But the Northern Arizona University Lumberjacks, can run faster than just about anyone you can put in front of them, so much so that the race is practically always for second place. Since 2016 they have won every single NCAA championship, except 1. In that year they lost and finished second to BYU in 2019. They aren’t in a conference that is anything close to the Power 5, so nobody pays them much attention. Only real track fans know about them, and even still we literally don’t see or hear from them unless they attend a major invitational, or show up to the NCAAs themselves.
Six championships in 7 years with an active three peat in progress is better than any other team in Division 1 for any single sport. In FBS football the Georgia Bulldogs are back to back NCAA champions, but that’s the end of the line. Only Alabama has won 3 in the past 10 years, and that is basically as good as any program has ever been in recent memory. The UCONN women’s basketball team was almost as good, but that was a long time ago. They haven’t won anything since 2016. In men’s basketball only Villanova was a champion who won 2 titles in 3 years in that time frame. Literally the only teams that come close to dominating at the same level as the Lumberjacks in today’s NCAA are as follows: UNC field hockey has 4 titles since 2018 but they’re not on a streak right now. And Oklahoma Softball actually has 6 championships within the decade and is riding their own three peat. But it still isn’t 6 in 7 years. Only Penn State wrestling can come close winning 6 of the last 7 in that sport. But they are not riding a 3 peat and they compete in a sport with only 78 division 1 teams in the first place.
By the numbers Northern Arizona is the best, not just in their sport, but probably by a wider margin than anyone else, for a longer amount of time in any sport. Amongst their 6 national titles they only won by less than 25 points literally once, and that was in 2022. That year Oklahoma State finally ran with them, while they both destroyed the field by almost 50 points.
How is Northern Arizona XC so dominant?
Although they feel like it, NAU is not an underdog story. The only reason they feel like it is because they are the Northern Arizona University Lumberjacks. That school has not won an NCAA championship literally in any other sport. They don’t have a national tv deal, and they don’t even play football in the FBS. Their men’s basketball team has never even won a game in march madness ever. So when NAU cross country went out and became a national powerhouse, that was the last thing anyone could of expected. But they did what all great dynasties do by out recruit the entire nation.
On their team right now they have Nico Young who was the Gatorade cross country athlete of the year when he came out of high school. That is along with 2 other Gatorade state athletes of the year for both track and cross country! That is hard to do, to be the best athlete in your entire state regardless of your event. The worst runner in their top 7 was just a state champion. In fact, they were supposed to be even better. Hobbs Kessler was the best recruit they ever signed, the Gatorade track athlete of the year in 2021. But he was so good, he chose to skip college entirely to run professionally. Northern Arizona has essentially the same amount of talent in cross country that Georgia gets in football, and ironically they have done a whole lot more with it. Keep in mind that their worst runner at the NCAA regional meet, literally would have been the best runner on the entire team for 9 of the 17 teams who showed up. He also would have been top 5 for literally anyone else.
The 2023 NCAA championship meet will come and go, and it is unclear if this is the year that somebody finally beats them. But it should not really matter anymore. NAU has already proven they are the best in the NCAA, arguably in any sport you can think of. You can root for any other men’s team if you really want to. But history is riding with the Lumberjacks. True greatness doesn’t come around often, and if you are not careful you will miss it, especially when it’s happening in Flagstaff, Arizona.
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