Damn. Good thing we left some sinking ships in the old Pac-12, as the NIL money has dried up at Cal, and thus why the mass exodus of their best players out earlier this year.

But Stanford announced a $140 Million Budget Shortfall, and has eliminated 363 campus positions. (At Oregon, we gotta count our blessings!)

The average home attendance for the Cardinal last fall was only 26,035?

Good gosh, even Beavis at least averaged 35,799 in Corvallis!

Way to go...'Furd.

$40 Billion endowment, these are all choices being made.

You'd think with Stanford's rich football history that it would have more support from the school...

1 hour ago, kirklandduck said:

You'd think with Stanford's rich football history that it would have more support from the school...

I think playing a bunch of ACC teams that have no connection to Stanford (and Cal for that matter) was difficult to get people to the games. Especially since neither team is good.

I've said it a million times at this point but one more for good measure. Stanford is perhaps the biggest loser in the transfer portal and NIL era.

Their academic standards make it that an athlete must qualify for for masters programs and be accepted for those programs effectively independent of football. So they feed the portal and don't draw from it.

Sure they can kinda target some undergrads but there is a reason David Shaw left when he did... He couldn't retain or recruit effectively anymore. Players come and go and Stanford can't compete.

My mother, Stanford class ‘34, would have agreed that other than the Big Game against Cal, football tipped the enthusiasm scales in Palo Alto about even with other sports; and, maybe a bit less than Olympic specific ones.

Looks like there tepid support for the gridiron has finally caught up with them.

27 minutes ago, Washington Waddler said:

My mother, Stanford class ‘34, would have agreed that other than the Big Game against Cal, football tipped the enthusiasm scales in Palo Alto about even with other sports; and, maybe a bit less than Olympic specific ones.

Looks like there tepid support for the gridiron has finally caught up with them.

When you are not supported from the top of the administration on down, and your AD can make terrible hires and not be removed, when it's not cool (or whatever today's word is) for students to attend football games, you will not have a winning program.

Today's students are tomorrow's boosters. If they are not fans today, the money needed to sustain excellence will not be there.

5 hours ago, Jon Joseph said:

When you are not supported from the top of the administration on down, and your AD can make terrible hires and not be removed, when it's not cool (or whatever today's word is) for students to attend football games, you will not have a winning program.

For the vast majority of universities, that “from the top” is absolutely essential simply because football is so expensive and it’s importances to the overall health of other sports programs does not allow that support to lack focus.

Stanford’s endowment makes them to the exception, allowing them, it appears, to support non-revenue programs without suffering the consequences most other schools would feel.