This gets into complex sociological and economic factors that are hard to predict. However, my impression is that Stanford has a major recruiting advantage in all those sports which are truly amateur sports, since the value of the Stanford degree and the 40 year decision dwarfs any other rational consideration.
As sports become more professionalized and the amounts of fame and money mount up, Stanford maintains its advantage for most admissible college athletes but begins to lose it for a handful of elite performers who believe they have a reasonable prospect of being set for life with their first contract. The more money in the sport and the more professionalized--the larger this relatively small pool of athletes becomes.
I think we are still a long way away from that for WBB. A $500k contract (maximum and probably quite unusual) is far from setting up an athlete for life. The kind of women who get admitted to Stanford are not delusional. Giving up the 40 year Stanford degree for $500k would be inane.
As sports become more professionalized and the amounts of fame and money mount up, Stanford maintains its advantage for most admissible college athletes but begins to lose it for a handful of elite performers who believe they have a reasonable prospect of being set for life with their first contract. The more money in the sport and the more professionalized--the larger this relatively small pool of athletes becomes.
I think we are still a long way away from that for WBB. A $500k contract (maximum and probably quite unusual) is far from setting up an athlete for life. The kind of women who get admitted to Stanford are not delusional. Giving up the 40 year Stanford degree for $500k would be inane.