[old spanish trail]

The administration above Muir wants a smaller proportion of the student body to be scholarship athletes, and less "privileged" ones at that.  If you start with that premise, everything makes a lot more sense.  It explains why no amount of fundraising is going to resurrect those sports.  It explains why the operating cost savings are de minimis.  With the exception of wrestling, it also largely explains why the sports that were cut were chosen.

If you really buy the explanation that Muir has been offering, I have a bridge somewhere to sell...

BC

This was driven by Muir and supported by the administration. It was budget driven so resources can be concentrated on the top sports. De-emphasizing the number of athletes on campus is a side benefit for some faculty and administrators. It was not the driver. The reality is that a number of sports were given increased admissions spots fwhen the spots were taken away from the 11.  The increase of fall admits for PWO for football is not coincidental. Women's heavyweight rowing has more spots now that lightweight rowing was cut. The reason why Muir has turned down fundraising attempts by these 11 sports is that the athletic department is about to kick off a large fundraising campaign and they did not want to pull donors that would support that campaign into donating to these 11 sports endowment drive.  The flaw in that thinking is that that the men's volleyball alum who is ponying up money for the volleyball endowment was not planning on donating to the AD's fundraising push for football, basketball etc.  With MTL in his corner, I think Muir will hold onto his job, but this is a sad day for Stanford.  Stanford is making decisions and treating sports like Nebraska rather than like our academic peers who have more varsity sports and whose mission for sports is an important part of the overall mission for the school.

Donkey, I think Boston Card's info/analysis is the driver here. I suspect Muir is ok with it because he is a big sport guy. Your info that other sports will gain new participants is interesting, but the numbers cant begin to approach those lost by the 11 sports. Do you have "inside" info?
I don't, but do know one named supporter of one of the saved sports who thinks the situation is a disaster, fwiw.

[old spanish trail]

The administration above Muir wants a smaller proportion of the student body to be scholarship athletes, and less "privileged" ones at that.  If you start with that premise, everything makes a lot more sense.  It explains why no amount of fundraising is going to resurrect those sports.  It explains why the operating cost savings are de minimis.  With the exception of wrestling, it also largely explains why the sports that were cut were chosen.

If you really buy the explanation that Muir has been offering, I have a bridge somewhere to sell...

BC

This was driven by Muir and supported by the administration. It was budget driven so resources can be concentrated on the top sports. De-emphasizing the number of athletes on campus is a side benefit for some faculty and administrators. It was not the driver. The reality is that a number of sports were given increased admissions spots fwhen the spots were taken away from the 11.  The increase of fall admits for PWO for football is not coincidental. Women's heavyweight rowing has more spots now that lightweight rowing was cut. The reason why Muir has turned down fundraising attempts by these 11 sports is that the athletic department is about to kick off a large fundraising campaign and they did not want to pull donors that would support that campaign into donating to these 11 sports endowment drive.  The flaw in that thinking is that that the men's volleyball alum who is ponying up money for the volleyball endowment was not planning on donating to the AD's fundraising push for football, basketball etc.  With MTL in his corner, I think Muir will hold onto his job, but this is a sad day for Stanford.  Stanford is making decisions and treating sports like Nebraska rather than like our academic peers who have more varsity sports and whose mission for sports is an important part of the overall mission for the school.

Donkey, I think Boston Card's info/analysis is the driver here. I suspect Muir is ok with it because he is a big sport guy. Your info that other sports will gain new participants is interesting, but the numbers cant begin to approach those lost by the 11 sports. Do you have "inside" info?
I don't, but do know one named supporter of one of the saved sports who thinks the situation is a disaster, fwiw.