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In what sport will Stanford win its first 2025-26 NCAA championship? - Papa John - 08-25-2025

Stanford has won at least one NCAA team championship for 49 consecutive years, a streak that began with the 1976–77 academic year and continued through the 2024–25 season. This year we go for a nifty 50!

In this poll, you are asked to predict Stanford's first, streak-extending 2025-26 NCAA team championship.

Because I can only include 10 items in the poll, I've listed the top 9 scoring sports from the 2024-25 Directors' Cup and an "other" option. All upcoming championship dates are listed below, in case you choose to list what "other" sport will produce Stanford's first champion this academic year:

Nov. 22: Men's Cross Country
Nov. 22: Women's Cross Country
Nov. 23: Field Hockey
Dec. 7: Men’s Water Polo
Dec. 8: Women's Soccer
Dec. 15: Men's Soccer
Dec. 20: Women's Volleyball
Jan. 5: Football
Mar. 14: Men's Indoor Track & Field
Mar. 14: Women's Indoor Track & Field
Mar. 21: Wrestling
Mar. 21: Women's Swimming & Diving
Mar. 28: Men's Swimming & Diving
Apr. 5: Women's Basketball
Apr. 6: Men's Basketball
Apr. 18: Men's Gymnastics
Apr. 18: Women's Gymnastics
May 3: Beach Volleyball
May 11: Men's Volleyball
May 17: Men's Tennis
May 17: Women's Tennis
May 24: Women's Lacrosse
May 26: Women's Water Polo
May 27: Women's Golf
May 31: Men's Rowing
May 31: Women's Rowing
June 3: Men's Golf
June 6: Softball
June 14: Men's Outdoor Track & Field
June 14: Women's Outdoor Track & Field
June 23: Baseball

RE: In what sport will Stanford win its first 2025-26 NCAA championship? - BobK - 08-25-2025

Women’s Soccer

RE: In what sport will Stanford win its first 2025-26 NCAA championship? - Papa John - 08-25-2025

(08-25-2025, 04:25 PM)BobK Wrote:  Women’s Soccer
Thanks BobK. I was in the middle of editing the poll when my Internet crashed. You and others should be able to vote in the poll now.

RE: In what sport will Stanford win its first 2025-26 NCAA championship? - BobK - 08-25-2025

Ah Mens Water Polo national championship is at Avery Dec 5-7

RE: In what sport will Stanford win its first 2025-26 NCAA championship? - Papa John - 08-25-2025

And Women's Water Polo is May 26. Oh well, I tried...

RE: In what sport will Stanford win its first 2025-26 NCAA championship? - cardcrimson - 08-25-2025

(08-25-2025, 04:33 PM)BobK Wrote:  Ah Mens Water Polo national championship is at Avery Dec 5-7

I'll go with Men's Polo. . . .

RE: In what sport will Stanford win its first 2025-26 NCAA championship? - paloalto - 08-25-2025

Beach Volleyball

RE: In what sport will Stanford win its first 2025-26 NCAA championship? - old spanish trail - 08-25-2025

women's golf

RE: In what sport will Stanford win its first 2025-26 NCAA championship? - BostonCard - 08-26-2025

Will this be the year when the streak finally falls?

I think we have a number of good chances, but as always luck has a lot to do with it.

BC

RE: In what sport will Stanford win its first 2025-26 NCAA championship? - Papa John - 08-26-2025

(08-26-2025, 07:11 AM)BostonCard Wrote:  Will this be the year when the streak finally falls?

Could be, but for me the more important question is "Why aren't we talking more about the streak?" I have no idea what the second-longest NCAA-team-championship-streak is, but I'm sure it's nowhere near what Stanford has accomplished in the previous 49 academic years. This is the DiMaggio of streaks!

I think Stanford wins multiple NCAA championships in 2025-26, and I'm picking women's soccer to be the first.

RE: In what sport will Stanford win its first 2025-26 NCAA championship? - SkiBum80 - 08-26-2025

I think women's soccer has a good chance.
But there's a lot of teams pushing around at that top level, so it's really tough to win over all of them.
So I went with women's water polo.
Also really tough of course, but just that there's less number of teams at the really top level where we are.

RE: In what sport will Stanford win its first 2025-26 NCAA championship? - MV72018 - 08-26-2025

(08-26-2025, 01:33 PM)SkiBum80 Wrote:  I think women's soccer has a good chance.
But there's a lot of teams pushing around at that top level, so it's really tough to win over all of them.
So I went with women's water polo.
Also really tough of course, but just that there's less number of teams at the really top level where we are.

Hands down: canasta.

RE: In what sport will Stanford win its first 2025-26 NCAA championship? - Mick - 08-26-2025

Women's soccer, I think. Stanford (4-0) beat #16 Santa Clara by 5-1 and has gone 19-2 on scoring differential so far this season.

Duke has a new head coach and their team is on the young side. New Goalkeeper. Wake Forest caught fire last year, but lost their two best players to the NWSL. 

UNC is talented and deep. Notre Dame not quite as good as Stanford, I think.

Six of Stanford's players went to national team camps. They only lost one transfer (I think, Amalie Pianim). Head coach Paul Ratcliffe is in his 23rd season, at least three terrific frosh.

Stanford has a challenging schedule that will help them toughen up over the course of the year, playing ranked teams like VaTech (14 in the preseason rankings), Virginia (15), USC (5), UCLA (8), Florida State (3). And Cal and Clemson received preseason votes.

RE: In what sport will Stanford win its first 2025-26 NCAA championship? - martyup - 08-26-2025

(08-25-2025, 11:48 PM)old spanish trail Wrote:  women's golf

On paper women's golf has a brobdingnagian advantage over the rest of the nation.  Our team is stacked with talent.  However, that damned match play format makes it a crap shoot.  Hopefully, women's golf will be the 3rd or 4th Stanford team to win a NC next season.

RE: In what sport will Stanford win its first 2025-26 NCAA championship? - 82lsju - 08-26-2025

(08-26-2025, 09:52 AM)Papa John Wrote:  
(08-26-2025, 07:11 AM)BostonCard Wrote:  Will this be the year when the streak finally falls?

Could be, but for me the more important question is "Why aren't we talking more about the streak?" I have no idea what the second-longest NCAA-team-championship-streak is, but I'm sure it's nowhere near what Stanford has accomplished in the previous 49 academic years. This is the DiMaggio of streaks!

I think Stanford wins multiple NCAA championships in 2025-26, and I'm picking women's soccer to be the first.

the billboard in Lot 2 at the corner of El Camino and Galvez talks about the streak currently, it might get updated with fall sports soon.

RE: In what sport will Stanford win its first 2025-26 NCAA championship? - terry - 08-29-2025

(08-26-2025, 09:52 AM)Papa John Wrote:  I have no idea what the second-longest NCAA-team-championship-streak is, but I'm sure it's nowhere near what Stanford has accomplished in the previous 49 academic years. This is the DiMaggio of streaks!

I looked at that issue about 10 or 15 years ago. As far as I could tell at that time, USC had the second longest streak of NCAA team championships with NCAA titles in 19 consecutive years from 1959-60 through 1977-78. (That streak could be extended to 21 years if you include USC's football championship in the fall of 1978, but of course that was a championship awarded by the polls, not an official NCAA title.)

I haven't updated the research since then, so it's possible that a school like North Carolina, UCLA, or Penn State might have had a pretty good run, though I'd be surprised if they exceeded USC's streak of 19 years.

So, yeah, Stanford's 49 year streak is indeed DiMaggio-esque.

RE: In what sport will Stanford win its first 2025-26 NCAA championship? - oldalum - 08-30-2025

(08-26-2025, 04:59 PM)Mick Wrote:  Six of Stanford's players went to national team camps. They only lost one transfer (I think, Amalie Pianim). Head coach Paul Ratcliffe is in his 23rd season, at least three terrific frosh. 

 Lumi Kostmayer transferred to Cal. Not a starter, but she won our game at Louisville last year by scoring with 2 seconds left in the game. She's starting for Cal and has scored 2 goals in their first 4 games.

Stanford has a challenging schedule that will help them toughen up over the course of the year, playing ranked teams like VaTech (14 in the preseason rankings), Virginia (15), USC (5), UCLA (8), Florida State (3). And Cal and Clemson received preseason votes.  

And we'll play some tough teams, possibly UNC, in the ACC tournament.


RE: In what sport will Stanford win its first 2025-26 NCAA championship? - Papa John - 12-08-2025

Some of you might recall this poll from earlier this year. The majority of poll respondents chose Women's Soccer (I did), which came oh-so-close to extending Stanford's national championship streak to 50 years.

With thanks to BobK who corrected some wrong dates from my poll, here are the remaining national championship dates, excluding Stanford teams that have been officially eliminated (sorry Men's Soccer and Football):

Dec. 20: Women's Volleyball
Mar. 14: Men's Indoor Track & Field
Mar. 14: Women's Indoor Track & Field
Mar. 21: Wrestling
Mar. 21: Women's Swimming & Diving
Mar. 28: Men's Swimming & Diving
Apr. 5: Women's Basketball
Apr. 6: Men's Basketball
Apr. 18: Men's Gymnastics
Apr. 18: Women's Gymnastics
May 3: Beach Volleyball
May 11: Men's Volleyball
May 17: Men's Tennis
May 17: Women's Tennis
May 24: Women's Lacrosse
May 26: Women's Water Polo
May 27: Women's Golf
May 31: Men's Rowing
May 31: Women's Rowing
June 3: Men's Golf
June 6: Softball
June 14: Men's Outdoor Track & Field
June 14: Women's Outdoor Track & Field
June 23: Baseball

I don't know how to restart the poll, but I invite folks like me who picked Women's Soccer to use a mulligan and pick the first Stanford team to win a natty in 2025-26.

I'm going with Women's Golf.

RE: In what sport will Stanford win its first 2025-26 NCAA championship? - Spiny_Norman - 12-08-2025

Women's golf is so very hard to win. A very difficult championship format.

Men's gymnastics looks like they lost a lot from last year's runner up team. 

On the other hand, women's water polo has to win the conference, then win one tough match at NCAAs. Or don't win the conference and win two tough matches at NCAAs. I am going with WWP.

RE: In what sport will Stanford win its first 2025-26 NCAA championship? - Mick - 12-09-2025

I don't think it will be men's volleyball, 13-15 last season. I think they're destined for a Top 10 finish, possibly Top Five if things break their way. They do have some talent, and they'll be a mature team, returning all starters but one. But I don't think they'll be able to beat Long Beach State, though I think they can beat anyone else on any given day. LBSU was 30-3 winning last year's NCAA title and had the nation's top recruiting class.

I'll go with Women's Water Polo.