Yep, BC, the logic is compelling. Hard to fault. But it seems to be something we encourage, so it's then maddening when we hear Shaw use youth and inexperience as an excuse. It's one thing to cite that as a one off complaint about a down year or bad luck, but it's absurd if it's something that is a steady state due to the very way you run the program. Recruit 40 year decision guys, emphasize post-football job prospects and the value of degrees in everything you do, and actively accelerate the degree progress of your players and this becomes very predictable. Stanford will remain in a situation in which we are young and inexperienced because fifth year players are unicorns for us, by design.
I would wager that most view early enrollment as a slight head start to allow players to compete in spring practice and off-season training under the guidance of the Stanford strength and conditioning team. That view misses how revolutionary the new policy actually is: David Bailey, Sam Roush, and Mudia Reuben will have three academic quarters under their belt (winter, spring, summer) before their non-football "classmates" get on campus. Stanford effectively operates on trimesters as most regular students do not take summer classes. In effect, then, Bailey, Roush, and Reuben may be an entire academic year ahead (if they take relatively light loads, as would be reasonable, perhaps it's shy of a full year, but definitely closer to a year than it is to a fall fresh start would be). If any of them are NFL prospects after three years, this significantly decreases any pull they'd have to play another year at Stanford. For any who play four or five years of college football, the idea of having a Stanford degree after a junior or redshirt sophomore season opens up an even more distinct likelihood of transferring elsewhere for football opportunities or a different graduate degree. And this is a model we're aggressively trying to expand so that many more of our incoming football players are on this track.
I am not saying this is a bad idea. It's complicated. There are many benefits to the program and the individuals. But we do need to reckon with what it means to go from football being a 4-5 year commitment to a 3-4 year commitment, which is what I think the evolution in Stanford football in recent years amounts to. And I fear there isn't a way to plan around or mitigate what this means in the trenches.
I would wager that most view early enrollment as a slight head start to allow players to compete in spring practice and off-season training under the guidance of the Stanford strength and conditioning team. That view misses how revolutionary the new policy actually is: David Bailey, Sam Roush, and Mudia Reuben will have three academic quarters under their belt (winter, spring, summer) before their non-football "classmates" get on campus. Stanford effectively operates on trimesters as most regular students do not take summer classes. In effect, then, Bailey, Roush, and Reuben may be an entire academic year ahead (if they take relatively light loads, as would be reasonable, perhaps it's shy of a full year, but definitely closer to a year than it is to a fall fresh start would be). If any of them are NFL prospects after three years, this significantly decreases any pull they'd have to play another year at Stanford. For any who play four or five years of college football, the idea of having a Stanford degree after a junior or redshirt sophomore season opens up an even more distinct likelihood of transferring elsewhere for football opportunities or a different graduate degree. And this is a model we're aggressively trying to expand so that many more of our incoming football players are on this track.
I am not saying this is a bad idea. It's complicated. There are many benefits to the program and the individuals. But we do need to reckon with what it means to go from football being a 4-5 year commitment to a 3-4 year commitment, which is what I think the evolution in Stanford football in recent years amounts to. And I fear there isn't a way to plan around or mitigate what this means in the trenches.