I think there's a lot of overthinking and naval gazing going on here. The same reason why everyone seems to clutch their pearls at the thought of associating with Stanford in public is the same reason why we're never going to have 100,000 yocals descend on Stanford stadium for football games. Think about it: no one working the College Station Krogers checkout would give a flying flip if someone wore a Texas A&M shirt - if anything, they'd experience allegiance. Yet here we are cautioning against any kind of public affiliation with our alma mater for fear of coming off as "too good for the masses elites."
And that's fundamentally why trying to be A&M will never work: Stanford is known for, excels at, and probably attracted all of us to it precisely because it is prestigious, selective, and elite. We aren't a public land grant, and let's be honest, most (all?) of us wouldn't have gone here if we were (especially at non-land-grant prices!). Most folks in the state of Oregon root for Oregon (I know, I grew up there). Most (non-UCLA) LA-area folks root for USC (I know, I lived there). The entire state of Louisiana is behind LSU (res ipsa loquitur). Yet Stanford can't even find hometown allegiance across the Dumbarton Bridge (Cal), 20 miles south in San Jose (SJS), or up the 280 in San Francisco (USF). Freebies, pandering, and relationship building aren't going to do it either - most Stanford fans are too rich for the former and too busy to engage with the latter.
Ultimately, I think we win the same way we won during the Luck/Ledecky/Ogwumikex2 era: the Nerd Nation combination of excellence in the classroom and on the field/court/pool, which optimally attracts those who aspire to and achieve greatness. Maybe sometimes we need to shill out to buy that, other times we strike gold and find it, and over time, institutional memory continues to support it. By definition, that's never going to be the largest number, but we don't need the largest number to be great - we just need to be great to be great. So let's focus on that, and stop worrying about how to be somebody else.
And that's fundamentally why trying to be A&M will never work: Stanford is known for, excels at, and probably attracted all of us to it precisely because it is prestigious, selective, and elite. We aren't a public land grant, and let's be honest, most (all?) of us wouldn't have gone here if we were (especially at non-land-grant prices!). Most folks in the state of Oregon root for Oregon (I know, I grew up there). Most (non-UCLA) LA-area folks root for USC (I know, I lived there). The entire state of Louisiana is behind LSU (res ipsa loquitur). Yet Stanford can't even find hometown allegiance across the Dumbarton Bridge (Cal), 20 miles south in San Jose (SJS), or up the 280 in San Francisco (USF). Freebies, pandering, and relationship building aren't going to do it either - most Stanford fans are too rich for the former and too busy to engage with the latter.
Ultimately, I think we win the same way we won during the Luck/Ledecky/Ogwumikex2 era: the Nerd Nation combination of excellence in the classroom and on the field/court/pool, which optimally attracts those who aspire to and achieve greatness. Maybe sometimes we need to shill out to buy that, other times we strike gold and find it, and over time, institutional memory continues to support it. By definition, that's never going to be the largest number, but we don't need the largest number to be great - we just need to be great to be great. So let's focus on that, and stop worrying about how to be somebody else.