[OutsiderFan]

Highly competitive enterprises don’t allow those who have succeeded in the past to become complacent. The phrase “adapt or die” is as true in sports as it is in form of life survival or business. Company leaders don’t want to lay-off employees, but neither do they want to go out of business sticking with what they have always done, or falling on their swords to feel good about themselves. How do you feel good about yourself when everything you worked to build is dead?

There is always a fine line between adapting and selling out your values to stay competitive. Recruiting is the lifeblood of college sports. Stanford puts more obstacles in its own way than seems smart. In fact, it can be argued Stanford doesn’t recruit as much as select from a pool that comes to it, maybe not in all cases, but certainly many. What happens when the best players no longer see Stanford as the place to become NFL-ready?

The Wesley Steiner recruitment is an object lesson in extinction. This ain’t even a case where a recruit demanded to enroll early. All he wanted was to take an official visit in Spring to see if he would like Stanford because he wanted to decide his school before season. Like it or not, the best players want to win and have the schools demonstrate they will do what it takes to win. Elite prospects will now more frequently conclude Stanford isn’t committed to winning if not allowing early entries or Spring visits. Requiring kids to pay their own way for unofficial visits means only privileged kids will comprise the roster. This is terrible for the competitiveness of the program. You need the Richard Shermans and Doug Baldwins who have nothing but can still come to Stanford for the team to have the diversity and edge it needs - guys who act like their sport is life and won’t give it up for a cushy job with eligibility remaining.

No Spring official visits, no early enrollment, leave small margin of error with so few offers, make recruits go through admission gauntlets no competitor requires, and then require academic performance numbers that are quite rare to achieve from kids focused on developing their athletic skill. But even if Stanford gets some elite talent through its gauntlet, they leave early many times now after just two years of playing. This is a recipe for disaster and not being competitive with your peers. Something has to change because Stanford’s ability to compete isn’t getting developed on too many fronts right now.

Harbaugh didn’t really have the early enrollment issue to deal with so much, and Spring official visits weren’t even a thing when he was at Stanford. At the end of the day, Stanford can’t succeed in the revenue sports without a willingness to make some compromises. Waiting until you are on the bottom to make changes is really, really dumb. It’s hard enough to stay on top, but way harder to get there from the bottom in big time college sports.

None of these issues have anything to do with coaching staff, which has its own problems. So yes, there should be great concern for both the near and long term Stanford Football outlook right now.

[OutsiderFan]

Highly competitive enterprises don’t allow those who have succeeded in the past to become complacent. The phrase “adapt or die” is as true in sports as it is in form of life survival or business. Company leaders don’t want to lay-off employees, but neither do they want to go out of business sticking with what they have always done, or falling on their swords to feel good about themselves. How do you feel good about yourself when everything you worked to build is dead?

There is always a fine line between adapting and selling out your values to stay competitive. Recruiting is the lifeblood of college sports. Stanford puts more obstacles in its own way than seems smart. In fact, it can be argued Stanford doesn’t recruit as much as select from a pool that comes to it, maybe not in all cases, but certainly many. What happens when the best players no longer see Stanford as the place to become NFL-ready?

The Wesley Steiner recruitment is an object lesson in extinction. This ain’t even a case where a recruit demanded to enroll early. All he wanted was to take an official visit in Spring to see if he would like Stanford because he wanted to decide his school before season. Like it or not, the best players want to win and have the schools demonstrate they will do what it takes to win. Elite prospects will now more frequently conclude Stanford isn’t committed to winning if not allowing early entries or Spring visits. Requiring kids to pay their own way for unofficial visits means only privileged kids will comprise the roster. This is terrible for the competitiveness of the program. You need the Richard Shermans and Doug Baldwins who have nothing but can still come to Stanford for the team to have the diversity and edge it needs - guys who act like their sport is life and won’t give it up for a cushy job with eligibility remaining.

No Spring official visits, no early enrollment, leave small margin of error with so few offers, make recruits go through admission gauntlets no competitor requires, and then require academic performance numbers that are quite rare to achieve from kids focused on developing their athletic skill. But even if Stanford gets some elite talent through its gauntlet, they leave early many times now after just two years of playing. This is a recipe for disaster and not being competitive with your peers. Something has to change because Stanford’s ability to compete isn’t getting developed on too many fronts right now.

Harbaugh didn’t really have the early enrollment issue to deal with so much, and Spring official visits weren’t even a thing when he was at Stanford. At the end of the day, Stanford can’t succeed in the revenue sports without a willingness to make some compromises. Waiting until you are on the bottom to make changes is really, really dumb. It’s hard enough to stay on top, but way harder to get there from the bottom in big time college sports.

None of these issues have anything to do with coaching staff, which has its own problems. So yes, there should be great concern for both the near and long term Stanford Football outlook right now.