[Leftcoast]

Even if we accept your definition of the big 3 (and for me it's the big 5, I always follow Baseball and Women's volleyball which are down this year when judged against their historic standards) then I can't accept a year without a bowl win, a final four or an NC as our greatest. 

I believe what makes this topic hard is that seldom in Stanford history have both Men's Basketball and Football been ascendant at the same time.  They are inscribed at opposite sides of a wheel and when one reigns at the top the other is down in the dirt.  We're reduced to looking for those transitional periods where the wheel is turning to find a best fit for some weighted standard. 

And yet the transitional years don't satisfy.  As a fan stacking a bunch of near great but fell just short seasons will never match the high of a year where one sport truly excelled.  So give me our Orange Bowl year, our Final Four year, our Rose Bowl vs Wisconsin or the year Tyrone Willingham beat Michigan State.  Make sure we also beat Cal and had a great season in the other sports in my Big 5.  Those are the years that stick with me as a fan.

[Leftcoast]

Even if we accept your definition of the big 3 (and for me it's the big 5, I always follow Baseball and Women's volleyball which are down this year when judged against their historic standards) then I can't accept a year without a bowl win, a final four or an NC as our greatest. 

I believe what makes this topic hard is that seldom in Stanford history have both Men's Basketball and Football been ascendant at the same time.  They are inscribed at opposite sides of a wheel and when one reigns at the top the other is down in the dirt.  We're reduced to looking for those transitional periods where the wheel is turning to find a best fit for some weighted standard. 

And yet the transitional years don't satisfy.  As a fan stacking a bunch of near great but fell just short seasons will never match the high of a year where one sport truly excelled.  So give me our Orange Bowl year, our Final Four year, our Rose Bowl vs Wisconsin or the year Tyrone Willingham beat Michigan State.  Make sure we also beat Cal and had a great season in the other sports in my Big 5.  Those are the years that stick with me as a fan.