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NCAA competition for the 2023-2024 academic calendar year has officially concluded...depending on whether or not you count the USA Olympic Trials.
Naturally, with an entire summer ahead of us and very few collegiate performances to talk about, many of our newest TSR readers may wonder, "Why would I even keep my subscription during the quietest time of the year for the NCAA?"
Well, believe it or not, the summer and fall months are actually the most exciting time of the year for The Stride Report. Not only is our traffic the highest during these months, but this is also the time where we publish our most entertaining and most exciting content.
"But how, Garrett? What content could you guys possibly produce during the summer that makes your traffic spike?"
Well, it's a combination of things.
People love to discuss transfers -- and there are always A LOT of them in the summer. This is an area that we lean into heavily and something that we pride ourselves on when it comes to content differentiation. Big names being on the move means that the competitive landscape within the NCAA could shift fairly dramatically -- especially for the upcoming cross country season.
If you have any transfer updates that we have not yet listed on our TRANSFERS page, then be sure to send us an email at contact@thestridereport.com and let us know! We know there are still a large handful of names that we have to update.
It's a similar story when it comes to coaching changes. A coach leaving one school for another could create a massive ripple effect, both in terms of the coaching carousel around the country and athletes transferring to follow their coaches.
Of course, transfers and coaching changes aren't the only pieces of content that carry us throughout the summer. In fact, it's our cross country summer rankings for individuals and teams that have allowed us to stand apart from other platforms.
I can say this with confidence: You will not find another outlet in this space who puts more research and analysis into their summer rankings than The Stride Report. Each NCAA team that is ranked will get an extensive, in-depth article written about them and every ranked individual will also get a few paragraphs of analysis as well.
And yes, we do this for Division One, Division Two and Division Three, albeit the number of teams and individuals ranked for those divisions will vary.
We will ALSO be providing summer rankings for NAIA this summer. However, our team of NAIA writers is still very small and our content for that area of coverage is still in development. As such, we may not have the same extensive detail for those rankings as we may for the NCAA divisions.
But have no fear, it will still be great content.
You can expect our NCAA summer preseason rankings (for cross country individuals) to begin in the latter-half of July. Our team rankings will then begin in early-ish August and then carry over to the first-half of September. In the meantime, our writers will be doing some deep research (and sending out emails to coaches) in preparation for our rankings.
Oh, and our Class of 2025 Top-50 Distance Recruits Rankings will also be coming at some point in August or September as well!
And again, we'll still have plenty of content on the site while that research is happening! For the most part, you should still expect original daily content over the next few months. We feel pretty confident that you're gonna like what we're able to produce.
Also, if you have any interest in contributing to The Stride Report, please read over our interested contributors page and then send us an email at contact@thestridereport.com. We're looking to add writers to our NAIA team and our high school/recruiting team.
Finally, I want to thank everyone who has supported our website, both recently and throughout the past. Thanks to your willingness to stay with us throughout our journey, we have been able to (very slowly) scale this operation.
Over the last year, we began sending freelancers out to meets for on-site photo coverage as well as recorded post-race interviews. We also have expanded our coverage offerings to NAIA and we added a new interview series called, "Lane Nine" (which is coming back shortly).
You will likely see one more fairly significant improvement to our site later this summer. Of course, all of this is just the tip of the iceberg for what I believe will be something much, much, MUCH more grand.
So stayed tuned, ladies and gents.
Our best content is still to come.
You loyal admin,
Garrett Zatlin
One Last Note: If you haven't already, go check out our YouTube channel! Our goal is to utilize that space more and more over time.