Originally Posted by
topflightpro
To be fair, a lot of collegiate team ranking is determined by the number of riders who participate, not just race results.
Participating is a race result. It is just a different set of rules with different measurements. Like popular vote vs electoral college. The outcome is different. I think it is good. I know you know this based on your spouse. My reply is more about the overall program outcome I see as a result.
The rules give points 20+ deep and 1st may be worth one more point (5%) more than 2nd. So the game is not so much beating the person next to you, or by how much, but did you show up and put numbers on the board.
I think this may have a slightly different mental result, kinda like a fondo, than normal category racing where you have the podium, pay only so deep and everyone is pack fodder. Why show up if you can't at least get paid? I know some think that way, even if not many. This environment is less competitive and more friendly and I see some attitudes change. Junior chose the TTT over the ITT (turned out to be the wrong calculation) as he thought it would put more school points on the board. This time last year he was making sure there were working bikes for the female recruits to the track. The won track nats because they got Nicki (female) on the tea to ride.