[cardcrimson]

The more I think about it, the more I think that this is the perfect off ramp for Stanford football.

I don’t deny that there have been compromises made to field a competitive football team, and that to some extent we’ve been haggling about the price, but I think continuing on this path is a bridge too far, at least for me. Others may feel differently, and that’s fine, but I think the combination of conferences relentlessly pursuing revenue maximization over all else (including student athlete welfare), the transfer portal making it functionally a free agent market, and NIL (and, particularly the establishment of collectives) and I think that’s just not what Stanford athletics is supposed to be about.

I hope some of the non-revenue sports can continue to thrive without the money that football brings in. It would be sad to lose the baby with the bath water, but in the end, I have been getting increasingly disillusioned so while I wouldn’t say this is the straw that broke the camel’s back, it is for me a convenient excuse to disengage.

BC

Without a conference, where do the non-revenue athletes compete? 

From an economic perspective, non-revenue sports are a massive business. Not at the college level, per se, but at the youth level. Baseball, Softball, Soccer, Competitive Dance, Swim, Water Polo, etc etc etc. all have brobdingnagian participation across the country. You can't go to a hotel on a weekend and not have it filled with traveling teams. What happens if those sports vanish at the collegiate level?

[cardcrimson]

The more I think about it, the more I think that this is the perfect off ramp for Stanford football.

I don’t deny that there have been compromises made to field a competitive football team, and that to some extent we’ve been haggling about the price, but I think continuing on this path is a bridge too far, at least for me. Others may feel differently, and that’s fine, but I think the combination of conferences relentlessly pursuing revenue maximization over all else (including student athlete welfare), the transfer portal making it functionally a free agent market, and NIL (and, particularly the establishment of collectives) and I think that’s just not what Stanford athletics is supposed to be about.

I hope some of the non-revenue sports can continue to thrive without the money that football brings in. It would be sad to lose the baby with the bath water, but in the end, I have been getting increasingly disillusioned so while I wouldn’t say this is the straw that broke the camel’s back, it is for me a convenient excuse to disengage.

BC

Without a conference, where do the non-revenue athletes compete? 

From an economic perspective, non-revenue sports are a massive business. Not at the college level, per se, but at the youth level. Baseball, Softball, Soccer, Competitive Dance, Swim, Water Polo, etc etc etc. all have brobdingnagian participation across the country. You can't go to a hotel on a weekend and not have it filled with traveling teams. What happens if those sports vanish at the collegiate level?