[jacket3ree]

My feeling is that if losing a Bear Bachmeier is a real problem, we're kinda ******. I'm mostly interested to see if the self-interested market will eat itself, but maybe those 24 mega teams will be cool calling themselves national champions when there are fewer and fewer teams to play because those teams have exited the market. I mean MLB calls it a World Series, so sure, of course.

BC is right. Stanford doesn't need to be a part of this, but I wonder what not being a part of this looks like.  Leaving the ACC costs a lot of money and what happens to the Home of Champions when they wind up running a glorified intramural program?  DIII has NIL too. Interesting that there is no portal for them. I guess they transfer the old fashioned way.

Stanford does all sorts of things barely related to an academic mission. I'm not so worried about that as long as this is college sports. Once it becomes some sort of weird sponsored side gig (and maybe we're already there), I'm out. Unless there is an entertaining game on the tube and I have nothing better to do. 

As fans, this is easy. Just stop caring. I still care, but not to the point of dragging my butt down El Camino to attend games. The next Stanford game I intend to attend in person, I think the first since I found old T-shirts and six tickets for the Midshipmen that were sleeping on our floor when Stanford blew Cal's doors off and into the sixth dimension, will be in Virginia of all places. And that is mostly because we planned to go back in the fall anyway to catch a game, and that weekend works well with a wedding we are attending in Arkansas. A bit of disappointment that we won't be going to a full-house game at Scott against the 'Noles.

I will say this though. Without sports, Stanford becomes mostly a place I lived for nine months 40 years ago with a shopping center I never visit. Without sports, I'm not hauling my butt down El Camino past protestors and a packed Farm with (gotta say it) lazy parking attendants, to beach the car in the dirt and duff so my wife's replaced knee got a workout to hang at Sunken Diamond behind the third base dugout with new Bay Area friends who share nothing more in common than having some GT or ATL paraphernalia (all engineers though) and will root for the Jackets hell or high water. And run into an old Stanford buddy to boot. Really nice day. But only there because of sports.

[jacket3ree]

My feeling is that if losing a Bear Bachmeier is a real problem, we're kinda ******. I'm mostly interested to see if the self-interested market will eat itself, but maybe those 24 mega teams will be cool calling themselves national champions when there are fewer and fewer teams to play because those teams have exited the market. I mean MLB calls it a World Series, so sure, of course.

BC is right. Stanford doesn't need to be a part of this, but I wonder what not being a part of this looks like.  Leaving the ACC costs a lot of money and what happens to the Home of Champions when they wind up running a glorified intramural program?  DIII has NIL too. Interesting that there is no portal for them. I guess they transfer the old fashioned way.

Stanford does all sorts of things barely related to an academic mission. I'm not so worried about that as long as this is college sports. Once it becomes some sort of weird sponsored side gig (and maybe we're already there), I'm out. Unless there is an entertaining game on the tube and I have nothing better to do. 

As fans, this is easy. Just stop caring. I still care, but not to the point of dragging my butt down El Camino to attend games. The next Stanford game I intend to attend in person, I think the first since I found old T-shirts and six tickets for the Midshipmen that were sleeping on our floor when Stanford blew Cal's doors off and into the sixth dimension, will be in Virginia of all places. And that is mostly because we planned to go back in the fall anyway to catch a game, and that weekend works well with a wedding we are attending in Arkansas. A bit of disappointment that we won't be going to a full-house game at Scott against the 'Noles.

I will say this though. Without sports, Stanford becomes mostly a place I lived for nine months 40 years ago with a shopping center I never visit. Without sports, I'm not hauling my butt down El Camino past protestors and a packed Farm with (gotta say it) lazy parking attendants, to beach the car in the dirt and duff so my wife's replaced knee got a workout to hang at Sunken Diamond behind the third base dugout with new Bay Area friends who share nothing more in common than having some GT or ATL paraphernalia (all engineers though) and will root for the Jackets hell or high water. And run into an old Stanford buddy to boot. Really nice day. But only there because of sports.