[BillBradley]

That leaves only a few sports where a quality conference schedule would be rather helpful.   Softball, baseball, M&W basketball and football. 

Looking just at the best landing spot for those 5 sports I think the best option would be MWC, especially if the MWC took all four remaining Pac-12.

Volleyball and soccer are important sports at Stanford. Those should be in the mix/discussion too. I know the WCC has had some great success nationally in women's soccer. Just don't know about men's soccer, baseball, volleyball, etc.  

Other than football, the Mountain West just doesn't feel right to me. The optics of Stanford's association, both athletically and academically, with Utah St., Fresno St, San Jose St, Nevada,...I don't think that's going to happen. And really tough to recruit for the non-football sports, trying to sell athletes on our great road trips to those schools. Ugh. 

The more I think about this, the more I think we fit way better with the WCC. From a branding perspective, it's better to be associated with the likes of Gonzaga, Santa Clara, St. Mary's, USF vs. the MWC schools. If Cal joined too, we could have 5 Bay Area schools - Stanford, Cal, Santa Clara, USF, St. Mary's in the same conference. Actually might be kind of cool - longer term it could create rivalries along the same lines as the Philadelphia Big 5 :> I realize this is all comes down to the TV money, so it's probably a stretch for football to go independent. But I've decided I don't want all our other sports to end up in the MWC.

[BillBradley]

That leaves only a few sports where a quality conference schedule would be rather helpful.   Softball, baseball, M&W basketball and football. 

Looking just at the best landing spot for those 5 sports I think the best option would be MWC, especially if the MWC took all four remaining Pac-12.

Volleyball and soccer are important sports at Stanford. Those should be in the mix/discussion too. I know the WCC has had some great success nationally in women's soccer. Just don't know about men's soccer, baseball, volleyball, etc.  

Other than football, the Mountain West just doesn't feel right to me. The optics of Stanford's association, both athletically and academically, with Utah St., Fresno St, San Jose St, Nevada,...I don't think that's going to happen. And really tough to recruit for the non-football sports, trying to sell athletes on our great road trips to those schools. Ugh. 

The more I think about this, the more I think we fit way better with the WCC. From a branding perspective, it's better to be associated with the likes of Gonzaga, Santa Clara, St. Mary's, USF vs. the MWC schools. If Cal joined too, we could have 5 Bay Area schools - Stanford, Cal, Santa Clara, USF, St. Mary's in the same conference. Actually might be kind of cool - longer term it could create rivalries along the same lines as the Philadelphia Big 5 :> I realize this is all comes down to the TV money, so it's probably a stretch for football to go independent. But I've decided I don't want all our other sports to end up in the MWC.