[BostonCard]

"Stanford has never done those things and never will. There are enough good players with good grades to make Stanford a pretty good team some of the time, but not all of the time."

How about making an actual argument instead of an assertion?  And think about what you just said: "a pretty good team some of the time, but not all of the time"? I would fire you in a heartbeat if you told me that was the goal of your [fill in program, department, college, etc.]...to be pretty good. 

Besides, I'll bet not long ago Stanford never offered online courses, filed for patents, licensed inventions for commercialization, or allowed multi-national fast-food chains on campus. Times are changing.

Most of things you cite are either in service of the academic mission or at least irrelevant to it. Many of the things involved in fielding a competitive big money athletic team (Especially football) is at cross currents with the academic mission, and that’s the problem.

BC

[BostonCard]

"Stanford has never done those things and never will. There are enough good players with good grades to make Stanford a pretty good team some of the time, but not all of the time."

How about making an actual argument instead of an assertion?  And think about what you just said: "a pretty good team some of the time, but not all of the time"? I would fire you in a heartbeat if you told me that was the goal of your [fill in program, department, college, etc.]...to be pretty good. 

Besides, I'll bet not long ago Stanford never offered online courses, filed for patents, licensed inventions for commercialization, or allowed multi-national fast-food chains on campus. Times are changing.

Most of things you cite are either in service of the academic mission or at least irrelevant to it. Many of the things involved in fielding a competitive big money athletic team (Especially football) is at cross currents with the academic mission, and that’s the problem.

BC