My father was sure Stanford would go the way of Santa Clara while Curtice was struggling. "They want scholars, not football players", he would say. Then Ralston arrived (thanks, Director Taylor). I was thrilled later when Bill Walsh arrived for two seasons and a couple of actual bowl wins. I appreciated his candor about the shallowness of the recruiting pool and how it would always limit Stanford to secondary bowls, at best. I bought into it and I accepted the low expectations. Then Harbaugh changed everything. Most of all, he blew up the trope about Stanford's competitive disadvantage(s). At last, a Big Time program with Big Time expectations that were real. Stanford was bad-ass football played by bad-asses who were coached by one. So still I hesitate to swallow the line about mutual exclusivity: that Stanford and "Blueblood" don't belong in the same sentence. It's been done. This tells me it is eminently do-able again. There is a precedent. It has happened before. And, BTW, the university has no choice about a return to FBS prominence. It's All In or it is Down and Out. Home of Champions No More. Who's gonna vote for that?
Life is too short to waste on crap football.