10-07-2015, 11:00 AM
Rooting for ND is particularly foolish since:
1) they are a primary competitor for recruits. Insofar as N.D. appears to be waking up the echoes, recruits will more frequently prefer N.D. to Stanford. Indeed, even though 2011-2015 has been boom times for Stanford and enh-ish times for N.D., more recruits on N.D.'s roster have a Stanford offer than vice versa.
2) When they do win recruits, they don't really beat up on the rest of the conference. For instance, a mitigating factor to UCLA (say) beating Stanford for a recruit is at least that guy can beat the rest of the conference. No such luck with a recruit who spurns Stanford for sunny Indiana.
As Stanford fans, we want N.D. to be egregiously bad.
1) they are a primary competitor for recruits. Insofar as N.D. appears to be waking up the echoes, recruits will more frequently prefer N.D. to Stanford. Indeed, even though 2011-2015 has been boom times for Stanford and enh-ish times for N.D., more recruits on N.D.'s roster have a Stanford offer than vice versa.
2) When they do win recruits, they don't really beat up on the rest of the conference. For instance, a mitigating factor to UCLA (say) beating Stanford for a recruit is at least that guy can beat the rest of the conference. No such luck with a recruit who spurns Stanford for sunny Indiana.
As Stanford fans, we want N.D. to be egregiously bad.