Introducing the NXL

As much as I love running, I have to admit that I've been enjoying the shenanigans of the NBA offseason quite some bit. And I'm a fan of the hopelessly irrelevant Sixers so you know that's saying something.

There is just something beautiful about trades, free agent signings and the draft in a league where a variety of cities have their own team. It's a really cool idea that makes the sport nationally relevant.

So you can see where I'm going with this: why can't we do this with track or cross country?

The simple answer is that no one really cares enough. No money, no sponsors, the costs outweigh the gains. But beyond that there are also a variety of financial incentives for athletes to focus their efforts on nailing a really fast time or being at their best for just one or two meets a year. Nobody is going to be willing to cut into their training and risk a chance at a big PR in Europe in exchange for whatever salary the ATL could offer. Or at least any top tier runner.

You would definitely be more likely to draw in some mid tier guys (which the US currently has a slew of might I add) who are training more for love of the game than anything else.

I also think you would be more likely to have an ACCL (American Cross Country League) considering the fall is just a base training period for a lot of guys anyway. Sure XC isn't as fan/spectator friendly as the sport of track and field, but I think the die hard sports fans, the guys who favorite season all through high school and college was the fall, would be pumped to see some national caliber XC squads.

So look let's put all the financial questions aside for now. Pretend with me that we have a 12 team national cross league, an NXL of sorts. What would that look like?

I'd imagine we are it up like football, one day a week competition, probably Saturday or Sunday, and have something like a 8-10 week season. You split the 12 teams into two divisions of 6, an east and a west of sorts. You run 5 dual meets within your division, two tri meets with a random grouping of teams and three dual meets out of your division. Something like that could be a reasonable 10 week schedule in my eyes. You score everything classic XC dual meet style and everybody finishes with a win loss record out of 10.

For the postseason, each loss is worth 3 points at the division title race at the end of the year, top team from each division advances at the division title race to a national championship race. There is also a third wild card team that gains entrance to the championship for scoring the least points at the division title match but doesn't win. Then you have a three team race for the title.

You could give teams their own home course, vary the distance of each race and get creative with scheduling and length of season. You get team jerseys with athlete'a names on the back and see if you can sell those to the public. I'd definitely go out an buy a Philadelphia Flying V Galen Rupp jersey or even a Chris Derrick California Chrome singlet (I'm learning very quickly team names would take some serious thought, California Chrome is probably not my best work). You could even bring in sponsors to be the namesake of a squad. The New York Redbulls do it for Soccer so throw in the Brooklyn Power Bars and we are set.

A typical team would have something like a 10 man roster and everybody races, only 7 count and 5 score, keep it classic. Then you have a bunch of free agents who teams can pick up if their squad gets struck with injury during the season. You can even sign players to your practice squad and have them train with you in case of emergency.

Coaching would be tricky. People get very attached to their coaches and consistent training is mammothly important (and I don't use that word lightly). I don't think the journeyman of the NXL would be a big fan of switching coaches every year. Free Agency would be pretty exclusively about coaching. So you may have to let everybody train on their own and meet up for the meets (unintentional I swear).

Let's face it, there's plenty of reasons this will never happen, but for a brief moment I do enjoy thinking of a world where the American professional running scene is a bit less boring ....