[donkey687]

I have been saying for months now and everything the athletic department says is consistent with the simple explanation.

This is about money and concentrating resources in the highest priority sports.

Bernard believes that our 25 priority sports need to have budgets to compete with the biggest budgets at other schools. In order to match these big budgets at other schools, he believes we need to raise $380 million and we can't afford to support the 11 lower priority sports even though their budgets are smaller.  In order to fund 36 sports at the highest level, an additional $200 million endowment is needed above the $380 million fundraising goal for the 25 high priority sports.

Bernard's logic is flawed and un-Stanford like for two reasons.
1) We do not need to spend at the highest levels in every sport to be competitive.
2) We do not need to be the #1 program in every sport. It is okay that our wrestling program is ranked 20th and only occasionally produces an All American.  The wrestling program has value and those wrestlers still contribute to the student body.  Harvard has 45 varsity sports. It is okay if some of our sports look more like Harvard than Ohio State.  Harvard is more of a peer school than Ohio State and we are competing with Harvard for top student athletes in many of these cut sports. Football needs a big budget. Fencing doesn't.

[donkey687]

I have been saying for months now and everything the athletic department says is consistent with the simple explanation.

This is about money and concentrating resources in the highest priority sports.

Bernard believes that our 25 priority sports need to have budgets to compete with the biggest budgets at other schools. In order to match these big budgets at other schools, he believes we need to raise $380 million and we can't afford to support the 11 lower priority sports even though their budgets are smaller.  In order to fund 36 sports at the highest level, an additional $200 million endowment is needed above the $380 million fundraising goal for the 25 high priority sports.

Bernard's logic is flawed and un-Stanford like for two reasons.
1) We do not need to spend at the highest levels in every sport to be competitive.
2) We do not need to be the #1 program in every sport. It is okay that our wrestling program is ranked 20th and only occasionally produces an All American.  The wrestling program has value and those wrestlers still contribute to the student body.  Harvard has 45 varsity sports. It is okay if some of our sports look more like Harvard than Ohio State.  Harvard is more of a peer school than Ohio State and we are competing with Harvard for top student athletes in many of these cut sports. Football needs a big budget. Fencing doesn't.