[jacket3ree]

Some thoughts on the thread:

1. Smith is a very solid hire. This is probably the best outcome to date of the move to the ACC and the unfortunate situations in Pullman and Corvallis. (I would love to see the Cougs or Beavs wreak havoc in the WCC though.) I would have been fine taking a flyer on a relative unknown who does nothing but win, but still wouldn't be comfortable that winner could win at Stanford.

2. Stanford shouldn't be about doing more with less. It should be about doing more with more.  (Easy for me to say.)

3. Stanford could bury the rest of college sports with cash if they really wanted to do that. You think it is bad now? Try being bad and poor.

4. There is nothing untoward or corrupt about NIL. Not after Alston. Stanford can't stop it legally. They should be helping athletes navigate the landscape as best they can as the law allows.  I realize that may be just staying out of the way while it happens.  I still don't understand how School X can be behind or against NIL.  Making an unnecessary principled stand while getting ACC sand kicked in its face will make me drop all interest in Stanford sports faster than anything else.

5. What do you call it when you are going to make some grand statement like "I'd take .500 in the ACC", do some research, and recognize it is a stupid take? Well I did the research, so there is no point in recycling it without sharing. I was ready to say something like teams go from barely .500 ACC records to the final four all the time. No. No they don't. I looked at the Final Four since expansion to 64 teams in 1985. It's all Duke and Carolina.  The exceptions are 1990 with Duke at 9-5 and Georgia Tech at 8-6; 2002 with Maryland at 10-6 (that is definitely better than .500), and 2004 with Duke at 13-3 (Duke year) and Georgia Tech at 9-7.  Virginia is the only other team not listed in this paragraph with a Final Four appearance (while in the ACC) and they were 16-2 in conference the year they won.

6. I often do not appreciate that coaches are people with families and lives beyond entertaining me and my couch potato ass for a couple hours every week or so. The Athletic has a nice piece on Coach Smith, his wife Katie (she's originally from Chelan and I spent many summers holed up in that vicinity while my dad helped build Grand Coulee's Third Power Plant), and their three sons. The middle son, Bo, has special needs and reading about their struggles is heartbreaking. I wish them well while they are in Palo Alto and beyond.

[jacket3ree]

Some thoughts on the thread:

1. Smith is a very solid hire. This is probably the best outcome to date of the move to the ACC and the unfortunate situations in Pullman and Corvallis. (I would love to see the Cougs or Beavs wreak havoc in the WCC though.) I would have been fine taking a flyer on a relative unknown who does nothing but win, but still wouldn't be comfortable that winner could win at Stanford.

2. Stanford shouldn't be about doing more with less. It should be about doing more with more.  (Easy for me to say.)

3. Stanford could bury the rest of college sports with cash if they really wanted to do that. You think it is bad now? Try being bad and poor.

4. There is nothing untoward or corrupt about NIL. Not after Alston. Stanford can't stop it legally. They should be helping athletes navigate the landscape as best they can as the law allows.  I realize that may be just staying out of the way while it happens.  I still don't understand how School X can be behind or against NIL.  Making an unnecessary principled stand while getting ACC sand kicked in its face will make me drop all interest in Stanford sports faster than anything else.

5. What do you call it when you are going to make some grand statement like "I'd take .500 in the ACC", do some research, and recognize it is a stupid take? Well I did the research, so there is no point in recycling it without sharing. I was ready to say something like teams go from barely .500 ACC records to the final four all the time. No. No they don't. I looked at the Final Four since expansion to 64 teams in 1985. It's all Duke and Carolina.  The exceptions are 1990 with Duke at 9-5 and Georgia Tech at 8-6; 2002 with Maryland at 10-6 (that is definitely better than .500), and 2004 with Duke at 13-3 (Duke year) and Georgia Tech at 9-7.  Virginia is the only other team not listed in this paragraph with a Final Four appearance (while in the ACC) and they were 16-2 in conference the year they won.

6. I often do not appreciate that coaches are people with families and lives beyond entertaining me and my couch potato ass for a couple hours every week or so. The Athletic has a nice piece on Coach Smith, his wife Katie (she's originally from Chelan and I spent many summers holed up in that vicinity while my dad helped build Grand Coulee's Third Power Plant), and their three sons. The middle son, Bo, has special needs and reading about their struggles is heartbreaking. I wish them well while they are in Palo Alto and beyond.