[Goose]

I'm thankful that this matters greatly to them and that JH squared  (John Hennessy and Jim Harbaugh) showed us all, including the faculty naysayers, that Stanford can be great both academically and athletically.

While it would be a comforting thought, IMO it isn't accurate. JH squared showed us that 15 years ago it was possible to build such a program at Stanford. This was accomplished with available funds and without any major changes to University policies.
 
Clearly, college football today requires much greater financial support in both absolute and relative terms than it did in 2010. Equally clearly Stanford has already made much larger policy changes already than were required for Harbaugh to "succeed". Whether these policy changes are "bad" is clearly arguable, but there is no doubt they have occurred. It is also yet to be demonstrated that these changes are sufficient. Bigger ones may be required. They may be too big for many Stanford "stake-holders" and therefore not be possible.
 
I think we all would agree we are not "there yet" in being great athletically as far as football is concerned. Unfortunately it is also not (yet) clear we are on a path that may reach the desired success in football. There may indeed be factors in this "brave new world" that render reaching that goal impossible at Stanford. It also may be true it is possible but would require changes that would affect the academic program in ways unacceptable to the University. We don't know yet. It is good that we are attempting to reach this goal without running into these financial/policy constraints. IMO it is still quite unknown that this task can be accomplished, and if so, how.

[Goose]

I'm thankful that this matters greatly to them and that JH squared  (John Hennessy and Jim Harbaugh) showed us all, including the faculty naysayers, that Stanford can be great both academically and athletically.

While it would be a comforting thought, IMO it isn't accurate. JH squared showed us that 15 years ago it was possible to build such a program at Stanford. This was accomplished with available funds and without any major changes to University policies.
 
Clearly, college football today requires much greater financial support in both absolute and relative terms than it did in 2010. Equally clearly Stanford has already made much larger policy changes already than were required for Harbaugh to "succeed". Whether these policy changes are "bad" is clearly arguable, but there is no doubt they have occurred. It is also yet to be demonstrated that these changes are sufficient. Bigger ones may be required. They may be too big for many Stanford "stake-holders" and therefore not be possible.
 
I think we all would agree we are not "there yet" in being great athletically as far as football is concerned. Unfortunately it is also not (yet) clear we are on a path that may reach the desired success in football. There may indeed be factors in this "brave new world" that render reaching that goal impossible at Stanford. It also may be true it is possible but would require changes that would affect the academic program in ways unacceptable to the University. We don't know yet. It is good that we are attempting to reach this goal without running into these financial/policy constraints. IMO it is still quite unknown that this task can be accomplished, and if so, how.