[Mick]

The stark contrast of a Top 25 football school with MIT / Cal Tech misses the significant number of highly-rated academic schools which play Division 1 football and are not consistently in the Top 25.

Northwestern, Duke, Vanderbilt, Tulane, and Rice for example.  At least so far, they seem to feel that Division 1 scholarship football is a net positive to their institutions.  That may change in the coming years, but Stanford has nore resources to devote to athletics than these other schools.  As such, it is fear-mongering to suggest that Stanford must expect to play football consistently at the Top 25 level in order to maintain a high-performing, diverse athletic program.

At the same time, Stanford stands for excellence in all things.  Should that not include football?

[Mick]

The stark contrast of a Top 25 football school with MIT / Cal Tech misses the significant number of highly-rated academic schools which play Division 1 football and are not consistently in the Top 25.

Northwestern, Duke, Vanderbilt, Tulane, and Rice for example.  At least so far, they seem to feel that Division 1 scholarship football is a net positive to their institutions.  That may change in the coming years, but Stanford has nore resources to devote to athletics than these other schools.  As such, it is fear-mongering to suggest that Stanford must expect to play football consistently at the Top 25 level in order to maintain a high-performing, diverse athletic program.

At the same time, Stanford stands for excellence in all things.  Should that not include football?