Nationals selection process

Something else to consider is how your race schedule is structured for the year and how you are already allocating club funds.  sending the fastest people on the team is probably less controversial if you've already provided ample opportunities for everyone to participate in several races and team events for the year (and even more so if you've given some kind of subsidy for several races).  You can even make the conference championship your big focus for most of the club members.  
Basically if you are going to have several team races, try and make one or two of those a big focus for the club and put it later in the season so people can BUILD up to it in terms of fitness and so you can hype it more.
Also, if you are going to send the fastest people you should try and lay out some criteria for what counts as fast.  Set up some periodic time trials and use races to judge progression and performance.  If you have a coach, trust their informed opinion.  Also, if someone is fast and is going to race for your team then it may be good for them to have some interaction with the team and be known.  Unless you think that person is going to go out and win nationals, then it would seem disadvantageous from a team moral POV for them to be selected having had zero interaction with the club.  This, however, seems unlikely in the first place.    
In sum, whatever criteria you use to decide who goes to nationals, try and have some foresight into how that decision will affect the overall team (both good and bad), how you can minimize the bad effects, and try and lay that criteria out well in advance (eg, early/middle of the fall).

Here at USAFA, it is always based on time trials predominantly, but also on the level of commitment someone has to the team.  we use a quantified selection process with points, where we track athletes race times throughout the year, as well as their time trial times from our time trials in January, and assign a point value to their participation.  Then we add the points and see who goes, based on who has the highest point values on the team.  So far I have heard very little criticism of this way of doing it.
On a related note, the USAT collegiate commission is currently debating whether to limit the size of nationals by limiting the number of schools each conference can send.  This will not affect Nats in 2010, however this will affect Nats in 2011 (which will likely be in Tuscaloosa again, don't quote me on this yet as this decision has not yet been made final).  The exact details of this plan have not been laid out yet, as the commission is still working on it.  However, it will probably be based on the number of schools in our region relative to other regions (i.e. the west coast would probably get more slots as they have upwards of 30 registered clubs, whereas we have 9).  I will keep you posted throughout this process.  I would like to hear any comments and criticisms because I would like to pass them up to USAT.  I expect that this will generate a good bit of controversy...don't shoot the messenger :)
Thanks guys
Dave

I think that it is a great idea to limit the number of spots per conference, that will make it more competitive which will in the long run be better for the sport.  I do think that it would be very wrong for USAT to limit the number of schools per conference while they are as disorganized as they are.  Currently there isn't even a published list of how many conferences there are, what they are called, or which schools are in them.  I also think that it would be wrong for them to limit the number of schools per conference if they aren't going to devote any resources to helping conferences organize championships or race series.  I feel like they have a long way to go, and a long to do list before they can just throw out that kind of mandate.  The normal collegiate athlete should have some idea of the direction of where things are going without having to be a member of the collegiate commission.

Sounds like USAFA has it down to me.  Would you care to give more details of how you score races/time trials? 

For time trials we had everyone interested in going to nationals swim a 1500 in the pool for time.  Then sometime during the next week, hopefully next day, or same day go to a 40k bike course and 10K run course with no traffic lights or stop signs and stagger everyone based on their swim times.  Best swimmers go first, then everyone is sent off on the time that they were slower than the person in front of them.  First person to the finish line wins, 7th person to the line is 7th and so on and so forth.

We do our time trials slightly differently, however it's the same basic idea.  These trials count for 50% of our decision, previous races for 40%, and team participation for 10% (if you are involved in team administration issues, etc).  I would be happy to share our team's bylaws for this with you, but they are kinda long and I don't want to gunk up the server if no one wants to read them.  Better yet, let me know if you are interested and I can email them out.

rather than limiting the number of schools per conference, why not limit the number of athletes per conference?  Each conferences could divide up the slots as they choose, but i think that something similar to the qualification process for Kona would work well to distribute slots...have a certain number of available slots at each of, say, three mctc races.  then give those slots to the fastest finishers in that race who don't already have a nationals slot (e.g. if first place in a race had already qualified, take the slot that would have gone to him, and roll it down to second place.)  Let athletes accept slots as they choose (so that if fast athlete X from podunk univ. doesn't have the money or desire to go to nats, he can pass his slot up), and this way no individual school gets screwed based on its size.  Plus, it rewards athletes for being fast, schools for having fast teams, and ensures that our conference has a strong representation at collegiate nationals.

That is a very interesting argument Brock, If USAT were to treat collegiate nationals like that I wonder how it would affect things.  I have always thought of Collegiate Nationals as a team race, which is what made it so fun.  Since nationals has become more about speed these days maybe they should start looking at it in the way you are suggesting.  

Yeah good point.  No final decision about how to limit the number at nats has been established, it is still in the works, and so any feedback is welcome.  I will definately submit Brock's idea, as well as any other ideas you all see fit for consideration.  Just post them here or email me. 

I love you Dave.

Wow, I bet no suggestion can top that.