[Canalejas]

Division II is not an option. Perhaps people mean downgrading to FCS (formerly Division I-AA,) which keeps all other sports in Division I.  

Take a look at the other schools in CA in D2.  

There are two D2 conferences in CA, and neither one would be a good fit for Stanford:  

• CCAA (Cal Poly Humboldt, Cal Poly Pomona, Chico State, Cal State Dominguez Hills, Cal State East Bay, Cal State LA, Cal State Monterey Bay, Cal State San Bernardino, Cal State San Marcos, SFSU, and Sonoma State.)  
  
• Pacific West Conference (Academy of Art, Azusa Pacific, Biola, Concordia Irvine, Dominican, Fresno Pacific, Holy Names, Point Loma Nazarene, and Westmont College.) 
  

And none of those schools have football.  

Hanging out in D3 would give us the following options:  

• SCIAC (Caltech, Cal Lutheran, Chapman, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, Pomona-Pitzer, Occidental, La Verne, Redlands, and Whittier.)  
  
• Coast-to-Coast, home to UC Santa Cruz plus seven schools east of the Mississippi. 
  

Downgrading football to FCS but staying in D1 would give us the following options with other CA schools:  

• Big West (UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC Riverside, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, Cal Poly SLO, Cal State Fullerton, CSU Bakersfield, CSUN, and Long Beach State.)  
  
• WCC (Pacific, Santa Clara, USF, St. Mary's, Pepperdine, USD)  
  
• WAC (Cal Baptist)
  
• Big Sky (Sacramento State)  
  

Going the FCS route, especially if Cal comes along, I think it'd make the most sense to poach the Big West UC schools and start a new league.  

But, none of those options seem as good as still hoping to keep Stanford-Cal-UCLA-USC together by going to the Big Ten. Hopefully with enough other west coast schools also going to make crossing time zones less of a talking point.

[Canalejas]

Division II is not an option. Perhaps people mean downgrading to FCS (formerly Division I-AA,) which keeps all other sports in Division I.  

Take a look at the other schools in CA in D2.  

There are two D2 conferences in CA, and neither one would be a good fit for Stanford:  

• CCAA (Cal Poly Humboldt, Cal Poly Pomona, Chico State, Cal State Dominguez Hills, Cal State East Bay, Cal State LA, Cal State Monterey Bay, Cal State San Bernardino, Cal State San Marcos, SFSU, and Sonoma State.)  
  
• Pacific West Conference (Academy of Art, Azusa Pacific, Biola, Concordia Irvine, Dominican, Fresno Pacific, Holy Names, Point Loma Nazarene, and Westmont College.) 
  

And none of those schools have football.  

Hanging out in D3 would give us the following options:  

• SCIAC (Caltech, Cal Lutheran, Chapman, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, Pomona-Pitzer, Occidental, La Verne, Redlands, and Whittier.)  
  
• Coast-to-Coast, home to UC Santa Cruz plus seven schools east of the Mississippi. 
  

Downgrading football to FCS but staying in D1 would give us the following options with other CA schools:  

• Big West (UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC Riverside, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, Cal Poly SLO, Cal State Fullerton, CSU Bakersfield, CSUN, and Long Beach State.)  
  
• WCC (Pacific, Santa Clara, USF, St. Mary's, Pepperdine, USD)  
  
• WAC (Cal Baptist)
  
• Big Sky (Sacramento State)  
  

Going the FCS route, especially if Cal comes along, I think it'd make the most sense to poach the Big West UC schools and start a new league.  

But, none of those options seem as good as still hoping to keep Stanford-Cal-UCLA-USC together by going to the Big Ten. Hopefully with enough other west coast schools also going to make crossing time zones less of a talking point.