[chrisk]

Well, the cost of institutional support isn't really being recouped.  For example, even if MVB is eliminated, what is Stanford going to do, sell Burnham Pavilion?  Sure they can get back the cost of coaching salaries and maybe a trainer plus academic liaison between a couple of sports...but that's pennies on the dollar compared to the athletic dept structural deficit.  I'm hearing from one side that this is all budget-driven, and yet the savings isn't that much compared to the long-term effect of closing off these sports for future Stanford students (as well as wounding the legacies of hundreds of alumni/ae).

If you need to cut $15-$20M/year, and you don't think it makes sense to cut that deeply across the board, the question is where do you start? They are eliminating 11 sports entirely so that the cuts across the surviving sports (however allocated) will be half as deep as if these 11 sports were not eliminated.

You can argue for across the board cuts, but the fact is that Muir, Drell, and MTL decided not to go that route.
Although those 11 sports are very unhappy with the decision, football, basketball and the other 23 remaining sports are probably supportive of the decision, given the alternative.

[chrisk]

Well, the cost of institutional support isn't really being recouped.  For example, even if MVB is eliminated, what is Stanford going to do, sell Burnham Pavilion?  Sure they can get back the cost of coaching salaries and maybe a trainer plus academic liaison between a couple of sports...but that's pennies on the dollar compared to the athletic dept structural deficit.  I'm hearing from one side that this is all budget-driven, and yet the savings isn't that much compared to the long-term effect of closing off these sports for future Stanford students (as well as wounding the legacies of hundreds of alumni/ae).

If you need to cut $15-$20M/year, and you don't think it makes sense to cut that deeply across the board, the question is where do you start? They are eliminating 11 sports entirely so that the cuts across the surviving sports (however allocated) will be half as deep as if these 11 sports were not eliminated.

You can argue for across the board cuts, but the fact is that Muir, Drell, and MTL decided not to go that route.
Although those 11 sports are very unhappy with the decision, football, basketball and the other 23 remaining sports are probably supportive of the decision, given the alternative.