[BostonCard]

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?

Stanford ostensibly also has principles, or so we would like to believe.  What happens when those principles conflict with the pursuit of excellence?

BC

Shouldn't "the pursuit of excellence" BE a fundamental principle?? Silly me, I always assumed that it was.

Strategic focus is a key to the pursuit of excellence, and I would suggest focusing on our strengths instead of trying to be all things to all people. To give but one example, Stanford (through its investment fund) owned the Stanford shopping center, but sold it off in 2003. That was a smart call; I don’t think it is part of the University’s mission to pursue excellence in retail.

BC

[BostonCard]

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?

Stanford ostensibly also has principles, or so we would like to believe.  What happens when those principles conflict with the pursuit of excellence?

BC

Shouldn't "the pursuit of excellence" BE a fundamental principle?? Silly me, I always assumed that it was.

Strategic focus is a key to the pursuit of excellence, and I would suggest focusing on our strengths instead of trying to be all things to all people. To give but one example, Stanford (through its investment fund) owned the Stanford shopping center, but sold it off in 2003. That was a smart call; I don’t think it is part of the University’s mission to pursue excellence in retail.

BC