[Treefence]

Not to keep going on this, but I always look at Stanford admission standards as an added filter.  Most other power 5 schools do not have this filter, so it's a disadvantage. To counter that, most other power 5 schools don't have the overall athletic budget we do, nor the history of success we do overall.  While many other schools might have a narrow and more successful focus, Stanford dominates the big picture, though some might say Stanford dominates the irrelevant sports.  In sports like football, having the academic standards is steep hurdle, but there are still enough athletes each year that you could potentially field a championship team, even with only elite educational standards, but the issue is that other schools also want those athletes, and that includes some very prestigious educational institutions.  While an school like Alabama can pursue almost any star athlete in football, Stanford can only pursue a few each year.

[Treefence]

Not to keep going on this, but I always look at Stanford admission standards as an added filter.  Most other power 5 schools do not have this filter, so it's a disadvantage. To counter that, most other power 5 schools don't have the overall athletic budget we do, nor the history of success we do overall.  While many other schools might have a narrow and more successful focus, Stanford dominates the big picture, though some might say Stanford dominates the irrelevant sports.  In sports like football, having the academic standards is steep hurdle, but there are still enough athletes each year that you could potentially field a championship team, even with only elite educational standards, but the issue is that other schools also want those athletes, and that includes some very prestigious educational institutions.  While an school like Alabama can pursue almost any star athlete in football, Stanford can only pursue a few each year.