[Mick]

The 7 football recruits who were actually admitted to Stanford and decided to go elsewhere are the latest flag.

This sounds like an "oh sxxt" moment.  I remember years ago, when I was young and running sales for a large firm.  We missed out on a large prototype machine shop that was, quite literally, the perfect client for us.  There wasn't a single firm in the valley that knew that business like we did.  And the CFO said to me, the words that no one likes to hear "Well, we just switched firms, so we're not about to do so again."  What he said next was most instructive "well, don't worry, our specifications were quite exact.  We had to have a local firm, we didn't want a national shop.  We needed one with at least 25 accountants, so some size.  And they had to have a specialty in prototype machine shops."  I rattled off the names of a dozen clients.  There was a stunned silence.  He said "well, I don't know how we missed you.  We looked at six separate firms."  I then rattled off the names of the six competing firms, and he confirmed that those were the six that bid on the work.

We spoke for another 1/2 hour.  I learned more about my firm and its perceived value than I had during any other single conversation, and it was very unnerving.  We ended revamping much of the way we went to market, how we networked, how we served clients, etc.  Top to bottom changes.  And it all started with that one canary in the coal mine.

Seven admits that turns down Stanford.  Man.  If that isn't screaming "problems," I don't know what does.  If I were the AD, I would reach out to each of the parents, the student and the football coach and do a very, very substantial debrief.  Candidly, I'd probably hire someone outside the University to do it.  Because something is going drastically wrong when admits are turning down Stanford.

[Mick]

The 7 football recruits who were actually admitted to Stanford and decided to go elsewhere are the latest flag.

This sounds like an "oh sxxt" moment.  I remember years ago, when I was young and running sales for a large firm.  We missed out on a large prototype machine shop that was, quite literally, the perfect client for us.  There wasn't a single firm in the valley that knew that business like we did.  And the CFO said to me, the words that no one likes to hear "Well, we just switched firms, so we're not about to do so again."  What he said next was most instructive "well, don't worry, our specifications were quite exact.  We had to have a local firm, we didn't want a national shop.  We needed one with at least 25 accountants, so some size.  And they had to have a specialty in prototype machine shops."  I rattled off the names of a dozen clients.  There was a stunned silence.  He said "well, I don't know how we missed you.  We looked at six separate firms."  I then rattled off the names of the six competing firms, and he confirmed that those were the six that bid on the work.

We spoke for another 1/2 hour.  I learned more about my firm and its perceived value than I had during any other single conversation, and it was very unnerving.  We ended revamping much of the way we went to market, how we networked, how we served clients, etc.  Top to bottom changes.  And it all started with that one canary in the coal mine.

Seven admits that turns down Stanford.  Man.  If that isn't screaming "problems," I don't know what does.  If I were the AD, I would reach out to each of the parents, the student and the football coach and do a very, very substantial debrief.  Candidly, I'd probably hire someone outside the University to do it.  Because something is going drastically wrong when admits are turning down Stanford.