07-11-2022, 03:59 PM
If we stay in the Pac-10 and that remains our conference for Olympic sports--then it's hard to view USC and UCLA leaving creates a Los Angeles-sized hole in the Stanford women's tennis schedule. We go from having a conference slate with three perennial powers to just one. We become, effectively, Pepperdine, with a conference slate that offers only opportunities to stumble, not to improve your ranking. We would have to schedule far more aggressively than we ever have before. While a Pac-10 without the LA schools seems manageable for some sports, for certain sports it will mean we have to significantly change how we do business.
Perhaps if there's some sort of formal alliance with the ACC, then we have a guaranteed few matches with ACC schools as part of that, even if it's not a new conference altogether. But we need good matches, and if we can't get them in conference, perhaps we can have a multi-year deal where Stanford/Cal head to UNC/Duke one year and host those two schools the next year.
Perhaps if there's some sort of formal alliance with the ACC, then we have a guaranteed few matches with ACC schools as part of that, even if it's not a new conference altogether. But we need good matches, and if we can't get them in conference, perhaps we can have a multi-year deal where Stanford/Cal head to UNC/Duke one year and host those two schools the next year.