[82lsju]

I was at a session with Howard Wolf recently where he shared (in response to a question I asked) that the Board of Trustees is spending $300M over the next 7-9 years to subsidize the Athletic Department. Condoleeza Rice told them that is what it will cost to balance the budget for AD activities in the ACC environment with Stanford refunding 70% of the Tier 1 media rights and they agreed. That says a lot to me about the commitment of the BoT to big time athletics.

Is that a good thing?  Could that $300 mm be spent on other activities more consistent with the university mission “to qualify its students for personal success, and direct usefulness in life” and its purpose “to promote the public welfare by exercising an influence on behalf of humanity and civilization."  Not saying that some degree of athletic investment is inconsistent with that mission, but I think there are probably better uses for that money.

BC

it's all relative, Stanford's 2023-24 budget is $8.9 billion

https://stanforddaily.com/2023/05/15/pro...20expenses.

$300m spent over 7 years is ~$45m/year or about 0.5% of the 2023-24 budget.

[82lsju]

I was at a session with Howard Wolf recently where he shared (in response to a question I asked) that the Board of Trustees is spending $300M over the next 7-9 years to subsidize the Athletic Department. Condoleeza Rice told them that is what it will cost to balance the budget for AD activities in the ACC environment with Stanford refunding 70% of the Tier 1 media rights and they agreed. That says a lot to me about the commitment of the BoT to big time athletics.

Is that a good thing?  Could that $300 mm be spent on other activities more consistent with the university mission “to qualify its students for personal success, and direct usefulness in life” and its purpose “to promote the public welfare by exercising an influence on behalf of humanity and civilization."  Not saying that some degree of athletic investment is inconsistent with that mission, but I think there are probably better uses for that money.

BC

it's all relative, Stanford's 2023-24 budget is $8.9 billion

https://stanforddaily.com/2023/05/15/pro...20expenses.

$300m spent over 7 years is ~$45m/year or about 0.5% of the 2023-24 budget.