[81alum]

I'm pretty sure the Stanford community would not accept the compromises that would be required.  And, without severe reductions in admission standards it would not be possible.

Agreed.

Before Harbaugh/Shaw, I was convinced that football at Stanford was essentially over for this reason.  A large part of the recovery of football may have had little to do with the coaching changes on which everyone is fixated, but the fact that Robin Mamlet left after the 2005 admissions season, replaced by Richard Shaw, and it took a few years for admissions to readjust its attitude toward student-athletes.  (Is Shaw still here?  He must be rivaling Fred Hargadon in longevity by now if he is.)

Harbaugh arrived in December 2006 just in the nick of time to take advantage of the newfound attitude in admissions.  I think it would be extremely hard to say that our sudden turnaround was due to superior coaching alone or even superior recruiting.  Buddy and Walt may have been awful coaches, but they could not possibly have recruited the kinds of players that Harbaugh was allowed to recruit even had they been wonderful coaches.  

But there is a limit to how far even a Richard Shaw is going to allow athletic recruiting to go.  A lot of us already are at least mildly concerned that while our football players meet higher academic standards than anyone else in the nation outside the Ivies, that they really don't meet the same academic standards as other Stanford students.  I know I know--making extracurriculars a major part of the admissions score theoretically equalizes these considerations, but how many admits who are NOT football recruits have been admitted with a "paltry" 3.65 gpa like Christian McCaffrey?  (Hint, the AVERAGE gpa for admits is 4.18.)

There isn't any chance at all that admissions standards will be relaxed even further, and unless this were done, there are going to be some years in which entire position groups simply lack any admissible elite athletes.  But the stars will align from time to time, too.  And unless admissions goes back to the Mamlet philosophy, football shouldn't be returning to the Buddy/Walt era either.

[81alum]

I'm pretty sure the Stanford community would not accept the compromises that would be required.  And, without severe reductions in admission standards it would not be possible.

Agreed.

Before Harbaugh/Shaw, I was convinced that football at Stanford was essentially over for this reason.  A large part of the recovery of football may have had little to do with the coaching changes on which everyone is fixated, but the fact that Robin Mamlet left after the 2005 admissions season, replaced by Richard Shaw, and it took a few years for admissions to readjust its attitude toward student-athletes.  (Is Shaw still here?  He must be rivaling Fred Hargadon in longevity by now if he is.)

Harbaugh arrived in December 2006 just in the nick of time to take advantage of the newfound attitude in admissions.  I think it would be extremely hard to say that our sudden turnaround was due to superior coaching alone or even superior recruiting.  Buddy and Walt may have been awful coaches, but they could not possibly have recruited the kinds of players that Harbaugh was allowed to recruit even had they been wonderful coaches.  

But there is a limit to how far even a Richard Shaw is going to allow athletic recruiting to go.  A lot of us already are at least mildly concerned that while our football players meet higher academic standards than anyone else in the nation outside the Ivies, that they really don't meet the same academic standards as other Stanford students.  I know I know--making extracurriculars a major part of the admissions score theoretically equalizes these considerations, but how many admits who are NOT football recruits have been admitted with a "paltry" 3.65 gpa like Christian McCaffrey?  (Hint, the AVERAGE gpa for admits is 4.18.)

There isn't any chance at all that admissions standards will be relaxed even further, and unless this were done, there are going to be some years in which entire position groups simply lack any admissible elite athletes.  But the stars will align from time to time, too.  And unless admissions goes back to the Mamlet philosophy, football shouldn't be returning to the Buddy/Walt era either.