05-18-2026, 07:59 PM
Yeah, I think the fact that all major sports (football, mens basketball, womens basketball, baseball) are all currently at or near their all-time lows speaks to maybe the changes in the environment around collegiate athletics having as much or more to do with David Shaw’s downfall than anything he did. To wit, his immediate successor never won more games than Shaw’s worst season.
NIL, the portal, and COVID upended Stanford’s value proposition. Perhaps a more dynamic coach would have recognized the shift earlier and found a way to cushion the blow, but I think saying that Shaw “coasted” on Harbaugh’s accomplishments (when he won the PAC-12 North 7 years after Harbaugh left) while neglecting everything else that was going seems unduly harsh. I don’t think that a school whose entire story revolved around the 40-year decision resonates in a day when scholar athletes are making a series of 1-year decisions. It’s been a problem (at the end of Shaw’s career, the last couple years of VanDerveer’s, and well pretty much every basketball coach since Montgomery). It will continue to be a problem at least until things settle out in college sports.
BC
NIL, the portal, and COVID upended Stanford’s value proposition. Perhaps a more dynamic coach would have recognized the shift earlier and found a way to cushion the blow, but I think saying that Shaw “coasted” on Harbaugh’s accomplishments (when he won the PAC-12 North 7 years after Harbaugh left) while neglecting everything else that was going seems unduly harsh. I don’t think that a school whose entire story revolved around the 40-year decision resonates in a day when scholar athletes are making a series of 1-year decisions. It’s been a problem (at the end of Shaw’s career, the last couple years of VanDerveer’s, and well pretty much every basketball coach since Montgomery). It will continue to be a problem at least until things settle out in college sports.
BC