[81alum]

Thanks for the above clarifications and corrections jk…

My wife and I are similar to many fans. We live close to Stanford, so are season ticket holders, go to all the women’s basketball events, travel to far away places to watch the team in preseason and postseason tourneys, and follow the ups and downs of the season — as if the team was an extension of our own family.
In the last couple of days we have felt betrayed and let down, the feelings one gets when deceived by a good friend, or the feeling of violation you have after a nice hike in nature only to find your car has been broken into. I figured that, after a good night's sleep, the awful feeling would go away — but it hasn’t! Instead our morning conversations are about the contaminating influences of NIL and the portal and the demise of one of our favorite activities. 
I think that we could trace the lack of this year's team-unity to the abuses of NIL (and, in a larger sense, the defection of the Southern California teams for greater profit). How could a coach speak about unselfishness and team spirit with the distraction of some players enriching themselves off the sport or being self-possessed by the vanity of a Twitter post, while others players are left behind? Selfishness, jealousy, and conceit replace the essentials of team unity — humility, cohesiveness, and teamwork.
The game has eroded beneath our feet, much like the ground being swept away by an atmospheric storm. The values that connected my family to women’s collegiate basketball have been compromise almost overnight. Maybe we should not have pinned too much hope on a group of young athletes, maybe we should not have seen them as different from the rest — but we did. The very thing that attracted us to women’s basketball, a youthful idealism, has been tarnished by a few players in a very short span of time.
The question remains, will it right itself? Will this be a blip on the path? Will those players that remain hold hope for the future, or will they, too, be contaminated by NIL and the portal? Will the coaches adapt and change? Will the institution respond?
The players don’t seem to understand or take into consideration the fan experience — the fans are a vital part of the game. Perhaps, we have lost the connection between the fans and the players. At least, when we used to engage in an afternoon of autographing at Town & Country, we got to interact with the players. Now the players have become a commodity in an ever-increasing materialistic system. We can only watch from a distance as if it is another game that got away.

Very well said.

I am wrestling with the same issues.  Chimera indicates something similar.  How can it be that just as WBB seems to be peaking in popularity, it is being ruined from the standpoint of my own enjoyment of it?  Is it that I am naive, had unrealistic expectations?  Am I at fault for loving this game "in the wrong way"?  Am I just too "old fashioned" or, as a few posters have noted on this board, just too elderly (like Tara) to really understand the changing landscape and the desires of the new players?

I did not think any of those things are true.  I teach 18-21 year olds every week, and (if I do say so myself) am wildly popular with them.  I seem to "get" them well enough to inspire them academically.  I have closely followed events in college sports ever since the Knight Commission.

I think the problem is, quite simply, that certain people and certain institutions have simply made terrible choices about the future of college sports, beginning right at the top with the Supreme Court and the NCAA both.  These choices were not inevitable--college sports did not have to be ruined in this way.  But they have been.

The one place where I will admit my naivete was in hoping that Stanford, almost alone among universities, could use its advantage as an elite and wealthy academic institution to be successful in college sports without capitulating to the corruptions that have been introduced.  Well, I was right that Stanford is resisting, but I was wrong that we could be successful while doing so.  At least not successful in an athletically elite manner.

[81alum]

Thanks for the above clarifications and corrections jk…

My wife and I are similar to many fans. We live close to Stanford, so are season ticket holders, go to all the women’s basketball events, travel to far away places to watch the team in preseason and postseason tourneys, and follow the ups and downs of the season — as if the team was an extension of our own family.
In the last couple of days we have felt betrayed and let down, the feelings one gets when deceived by a good friend, or the feeling of violation you have after a nice hike in nature only to find your car has been broken into. I figured that, after a good night's sleep, the awful feeling would go away — but it hasn’t! Instead our morning conversations are about the contaminating influences of NIL and the portal and the demise of one of our favorite activities. 
I think that we could trace the lack of this year's team-unity to the abuses of NIL (and, in a larger sense, the defection of the Southern California teams for greater profit). How could a coach speak about unselfishness and team spirit with the distraction of some players enriching themselves off the sport or being self-possessed by the vanity of a Twitter post, while others players are left behind? Selfishness, jealousy, and conceit replace the essentials of team unity — humility, cohesiveness, and teamwork.
The game has eroded beneath our feet, much like the ground being swept away by an atmospheric storm. The values that connected my family to women’s collegiate basketball have been compromise almost overnight. Maybe we should not have pinned too much hope on a group of young athletes, maybe we should not have seen them as different from the rest — but we did. The very thing that attracted us to women’s basketball, a youthful idealism, has been tarnished by a few players in a very short span of time.
The question remains, will it right itself? Will this be a blip on the path? Will those players that remain hold hope for the future, or will they, too, be contaminated by NIL and the portal? Will the coaches adapt and change? Will the institution respond?
The players don’t seem to understand or take into consideration the fan experience — the fans are a vital part of the game. Perhaps, we have lost the connection between the fans and the players. At least, when we used to engage in an afternoon of autographing at Town & Country, we got to interact with the players. Now the players have become a commodity in an ever-increasing materialistic system. We can only watch from a distance as if it is another game that got away.

Very well said.

I am wrestling with the same issues.  Chimera indicates something similar.  How can it be that just as WBB seems to be peaking in popularity, it is being ruined from the standpoint of my own enjoyment of it?  Is it that I am naive, had unrealistic expectations?  Am I at fault for loving this game "in the wrong way"?  Am I just too "old fashioned" or, as a few posters have noted on this board, just too elderly (like Tara) to really understand the changing landscape and the desires of the new players?

I did not think any of those things are true.  I teach 18-21 year olds every week, and (if I do say so myself) am wildly popular with them.  I seem to "get" them well enough to inspire them academically.  I have closely followed events in college sports ever since the Knight Commission.

I think the problem is, quite simply, that certain people and certain institutions have simply made terrible choices about the future of college sports, beginning right at the top with the Supreme Court and the NCAA both.  These choices were not inevitable--college sports did not have to be ruined in this way.  But they have been.

The one place where I will admit my naivete was in hoping that Stanford, almost alone among universities, could use its advantage as an elite and wealthy academic institution to be successful in college sports without capitulating to the corruptions that have been introduced.  Well, I was right that Stanford is resisting, but I was wrong that we could be successful while doing so.  At least not successful in an athletically elite manner.