Academics are good at BYU. Long distance runners are more academically-minded than your average college athlete. My anecdotal evidence of this are the majors of current BYU runners: Chemical Engineering, Computer Science, Economics, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Microbiology, and Molecular Biology.
Hard evidence of this is last year’s BYU cross-country team had an average GPA of 3.42. In comparison the BYU football team had an average GPA of 2.58 several years ago.
As high schoolers many of these guys have to choose between walking on at BYU or getting a partial scholarship at a lesser academic school. The colleges BYU is regularly competing against within recruiting include Boise State, Colorado, Colorado State, Northern Arizona, Portland, Southern Utah, Stanford, Utah State, and Weber State. With the exception of Stanford none of these are considered academic powerhouses. Many recruits will, and do, choose the better academics of BYU because academics are important to them.
BYU will continue to be strong academically, and this will help them attract good long distance running recruits.
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