[Goose]

Is there any good reason to think deciding whether to accept early enrollees or allow official visits before January was Shaw's alone to make? I can maybe believe he had the decider's pen on official visits, but my understanding was that the University as a whole has strongly opposed early enrollment and that this had to be negotiated as a limited and conditional exception for football recruits. For as long as I've been associated with Stanford, Stanford has never permitted early enrollment prior to summer session preceding one's frosh year (and again, even that was generally limited to athletes).

This is a good point on early enrollees, and I almost brought it up as a caveat, knowing someone would point it out. I didn't, because David Shaw runs the most important program to any athletic department and he should have been "jumping on the table" to address the issue with other programs and admin before experiencing the damage done by not addressing it.

First of all, as I am sure you are aware that in some meetings jumping on the table is strictly frowned upon. Second of all, you weren't in those meetings so you have no idea what Shaw said or did not say. Shaw is a measured individual, at least in public. He isn't going to throw the administration under the bus because he didn't get what he wanted immediately every time. He is also going to pick his battles, because some he can't win and it will just piss people off. I think that is probably a net positive.

David Shaw's history is to let the damage be done, then react, rather than foresee it and be proactive to stop it from happening, so he doesn't get the benefit of the doubt with me on the early enrollment matter, just like he doesn't on delaying early OVs.

I would suggest that it is more a case that since David Shaw doesn't always publicly agree that a certain problem exists and then doesn't unilaterally with his unrestrained power immediately adopt the solution you propose or bitch about not being able to do so in public he must not foresee those problems and is doing nothing to address the situation. There are some cases, like the "early" visits, where he clearly preferred the "old" way and was probably wrong, as evidenced by him eventually changing the approach. That is a legitimate gripe IMHO, but it doesn't mean he is always unaware of the problems.

[Goose]

Is there any good reason to think deciding whether to accept early enrollees or allow official visits before January was Shaw's alone to make? I can maybe believe he had the decider's pen on official visits, but my understanding was that the University as a whole has strongly opposed early enrollment and that this had to be negotiated as a limited and conditional exception for football recruits. For as long as I've been associated with Stanford, Stanford has never permitted early enrollment prior to summer session preceding one's frosh year (and again, even that was generally limited to athletes).

This is a good point on early enrollees, and I almost brought it up as a caveat, knowing someone would point it out. I didn't, because David Shaw runs the most important program to any athletic department and he should have been "jumping on the table" to address the issue with other programs and admin before experiencing the damage done by not addressing it.

First of all, as I am sure you are aware that in some meetings jumping on the table is strictly frowned upon. Second of all, you weren't in those meetings so you have no idea what Shaw said or did not say. Shaw is a measured individual, at least in public. He isn't going to throw the administration under the bus because he didn't get what he wanted immediately every time. He is also going to pick his battles, because some he can't win and it will just piss people off. I think that is probably a net positive.

David Shaw's history is to let the damage be done, then react, rather than foresee it and be proactive to stop it from happening, so he doesn't get the benefit of the doubt with me on the early enrollment matter, just like he doesn't on delaying early OVs.

I would suggest that it is more a case that since David Shaw doesn't always publicly agree that a certain problem exists and then doesn't unilaterally with his unrestrained power immediately adopt the solution you propose or bitch about not being able to do so in public he must not foresee those problems and is doing nothing to address the situation. There are some cases, like the "early" visits, where he clearly preferred the "old" way and was probably wrong, as evidenced by him eventually changing the approach. That is a legitimate gripe IMHO, but it doesn't mean he is always unaware of the problems.