The Future of NCAA Skiing and Athlete Development

By Published On: March 17th, 2023Comments Off on The Future of NCAA Skiing and Athlete Development

Photo: Axe Tang/Utah Athletics

If you aren’t convinced that NCAA skiing is a legitimate pathway for developing the highest level of international athletes, please read the many excellent articles by Edie Morgan, Dan Leever, myself, and others in Ski Racing and on Racerex.com. The list of NCAA champions who have scored World Cup points and participated in World Championships and the Olympics is often reported.  

As an NCAA alpine skiing coach for the past 33 years, I greatly respect tradition. Now that I have retired and am no longer bound to represent the views of my past team, academic institution, conference, or region, it is time for me to put forth some ideas for some significant changes to keep NCAA skiing moving forward.

2023 NCAA NATIONAL COLLEGIATE SKIING CHAMPIONSHIPS. Photo: Stephen Cloutier

When the NCAA held its first skiing championship in 1954, only men competed in slalom, downhill, cross-country, and jumping disciplines. Some skiers competed in all four events for the Skimeister award, last awarded in 1970. Downhill was dropped in 1975 and giant slalom was added in 1976. Jumping was dropped in 1980. The championship became co-ed in 1983. Freestyle cross-country was introduced in 1989. Now it is again time to make some changes.

It is important to note that in meets and championships, NCAA skiing includes NCAA Division I, II and III. Many commonly refer to NCAA skiing as “D1” skiing when in reality all NCAA divisions compete together.

Here are three proposals:

  1. Separate alpine and cross-country structures, awards, and schedules.
  2. Eliminate the NCAA age eligibility exception for skiing.
  3. Create A and B divisions in the EISA Alpine Conference  

Separate Alpine and Cross-Country

Provide separate NCAA Championship and meet awards for alpine and cross-country. Allow different scheduling of alpine and cross-country events and meets. We have come a long way since 1954, when skiers competed and trained in all events. Today, the only similarity between alpine and cross-country is that they slide on snow with skis that turn up at the tip.  Training physiology is entirely different and venues are separate; competition calendars do not match.

The alpine and cross-country events of the traditional Eastern Carnivals and Western Invitationals are seldom held in the same week or at the same locations. While the Carnivals, Invitationals and Championships can still be held as combined events and overall trophies awarded, alpine and cross-country should be allowed to optimize their competition schedules and be awarded separately.

March 12, 2022, Salt Lake City, UT: The University of Utah Utes Ski team competes in the Ski NCAA Championships in Park City, Utah (Photo by Nick Grace/University of Utah)

Alpine and Cross-Country Skiing, not Men’s and Women’s Skiing

  • As part of this change, the NCAA should change its structure of recognizing men’s and women’s skiing and instead recognize skiing as co-ed alpine and cross-country.

Equal NCAA Championship Allocations for Alpine and Cross- Country

  • Most people would like to see the field size of the NCAA Skiing Championships increased. This has been a difficult challenge within the NCAA, and I will leave that for another discussion. Currently, equal numbers are allocated for men and women for the championships, 148 spots for men and 148 places for women. However, the allocations between alpine and cross-country are not equal, but the should be. There are 26 NCAA alpine and 26 NCAA cross-country member institutions across NCAA Divisions I, II and III.

Alpine and Cross-County Events

  • Cross-country sprint racing is an established event. Parallel racing in alpine does not have a specified format and is not consistently included in international calendars at this time. Separating the alpine and cross-country events at the NCAA Championships will allow cross-country to include sprint events without requiring alpine to add a third parallel event.

Eliminate the NCAA Age Exception for Skiing

The rules for determining the age and length of NCAA eligibility are complicated, with many exceptions. Skiing (and hockey) are the only NCAA sports with additional exceptions to these rules, allowing them to delay the start of their eligibility clock by as much as 3-4 years after high school and allowing skiers to be eligible for up to 26 years of age in Division I. There are no age restrictions in Division III. Eliminating this exception for skiing will have the dramatically positive effect of making collegiate skiing a much more seamless option for developing skiing athletes. This will also allow a much more seamless academic progression into higher education.

In the NCAA structure, Divisions I, II and III have their own eligibility rules and processes. Skiing is one of the only NCAA sports that compete across divisions. Suppose the NCAA cannot find a way through its bureaucracy to standardize the age eligibility rules in skiing. In that case, the NCAA skiing institutions or conferences should be able to reach a consensus on a common practice. To make the rules very clear and straightforward, I suggest using the accepted FIS terminology and setting the age limit at U25.

Sara Rask. Photo: Bob Eastaugh

Create A and B divisions in the EISA Alpine system

We need to increase the number of institutions competing in NCAA skiing and increase the opportunities for skiers to compete collegiately at this level. The challenge in alpine is that there is a limit on the field size that can be managed in a ski race. Most agree that a total field size of about 100 participants is ideal for an alpine competition. With 13 alpine teams in the EISA and six skiers per team, plus national and foreign entries required by FIS rules, we see combined men’s and women’s field sizes of up to 190 competitors per day.

One approach to solve this problem is to create additional conferences. There are currently two conferences in alpine: the EISA is the Eastern NCAA region and the RMISA is the Western NCAA region. However, creating other conferences would require the transfer of NCAA allocations from the current conferences, reducing the NCAA Championship spots currently allocated to each region and weakening the quality of the championship field.

EISA Alpine’s solution is to return to a structure that existed up to 1993. At that time, the EISA consisted of A and B Divisions. The A Division would be composed of, at most, 10 alpine teams. With six entries per team, this would produce a total combined race day field size of about 140 athletes.

To create the B Division, the three lowest-ranked teams from the current EISA would join with new teams looking to move to NCAA competition. Five teams would be sufficient to create the new B Division. Each season the 1 or 2 teams finishing the season at the bottom of the A Division would be relegated to the B Division and the top 1-2 teams from the B Division would be promoted. This would create great competition at all levels of both leagues. The NCAA Championship allocations would be assigned to the A Division as they are in the EISA today. The top 15 individuals for the B Division would be able to enter the NCAA Eastern Regional Qualifier to compete for spots in the NCAA Championships.



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About the Author: Peter Dodge

Peter Dodge is the men’s alpine coach at Dartmouth College. He has been a long time member of the Eastern Alpine Competition Committee, National Sport Committee, and is a former chairman of the National Development Committee.