[Leftcoast]

Among the attributes I admire at Stanford is the broad range of excellence across all sports programs and the support these programs get from the Stanford  fan base. 

Let other other fans myopically focus on football and men's basketball.  Let other programs carry the bare minimum of women's sports required by Title 9 and do so grudgingly and without full athletic department support.  At Stanford we care about Women's basketball, we care about Crew, fans follow Women's Volleyball and Men's Golf.  And we WIN national championships on a yearly basis in at least one of our sports.

Other schools foster a "Football only" attitude among administrators, boosters, athletes and fans.  It's as if people really believe that winning in, say, men's swimming comes at the expense of critical football resources and at a place where only football really matters.  Teams don't support other sports and football boosters pointedly shrug at non-football program accomplishments.  Thank God that's not the prevailing attitude at Stanford.  (To be fair there are currents of this attitude among a minority of fans.)

Winning the Directors Cup is a source of pride not because I have a thing for large crystal cups but because that cup is emblematic of an athletic department that is not only well run but arguably the best within the NCAA.

[Leftcoast]

Among the attributes I admire at Stanford is the broad range of excellence across all sports programs and the support these programs get from the Stanford  fan base. 

Let other other fans myopically focus on football and men's basketball.  Let other programs carry the bare minimum of women's sports required by Title 9 and do so grudgingly and without full athletic department support.  At Stanford we care about Women's basketball, we care about Crew, fans follow Women's Volleyball and Men's Golf.  And we WIN national championships on a yearly basis in at least one of our sports.

Other schools foster a "Football only" attitude among administrators, boosters, athletes and fans.  It's as if people really believe that winning in, say, men's swimming comes at the expense of critical football resources and at a place where only football really matters.  Teams don't support other sports and football boosters pointedly shrug at non-football program accomplishments.  Thank God that's not the prevailing attitude at Stanford.  (To be fair there are currents of this attitude among a minority of fans.)

Winning the Directors Cup is a source of pride not because I have a thing for large crystal cups but because that cup is emblematic of an athletic department that is not only well run but arguably the best within the NCAA.