[Goose]

There is no federal statute that requires Stanford and Cal to get $50M as new members. New members can accept deals to take less in order to stay alive in the big time level. And frankly, Stanford can easily afford taking less money to maintain its place in big league college sports given its massive wealth. Cal has no such wealth or near the donor culture Stanford does.

Perhaps Stanford could take less money. Do you think for a moment all the big egos involved would agree to that and agree that this fact be made public? I really doubt any school would agree to be a "second class citizen" in a conference. The optics are horrible. I can imagine a conference split where the conference champions in each sport get an appropriate "bonus" or something like that, but an "N tiered" membership IMHO strains credulity.

[Goose]

There is no federal statute that requires Stanford and Cal to get $50M as new members. New members can accept deals to take less in order to stay alive in the big time level. And frankly, Stanford can easily afford taking less money to maintain its place in big league college sports given its massive wealth. Cal has no such wealth or near the donor culture Stanford does.

Perhaps Stanford could take less money. Do you think for a moment all the big egos involved would agree to that and agree that this fact be made public? I really doubt any school would agree to be a "second class citizen" in a conference. The optics are horrible. I can imagine a conference split where the conference champions in each sport get an appropriate "bonus" or something like that, but an "N tiered" membership IMHO strains credulity.