[81alum]

I also am starting to have philosophical thoughts about Stanford's place in the world, including the sports world, and what the natural order of things is. Thoughts way too nascent to put into words but part of it is wondering what were Stanford's decades of athletic dominance based on and is that any more right/proper/natural than schools with large passionate fan bases soaking up the fun? If Stanford's dominance was based in part on having more resources to spread across more sports, is a resource-intensive shifting of the power balance to schools that actually have fans a bad thing or just the Stanford rich kids finally getting put in their place by schools whose riches are more a function of having a large student/fan/donor/community base than Arrillaga-driven oligarchy? 

Deeply thoughtful analysis.  I've often wondered how many Sears cups we would have won without Arrillaga.  A little like how far would Oregon track have gotten without Phil Knight.

Other schools have always seen us this way.  I remember when the SJSU football coach brought his team up to play us here in Palo Alto, and rather than drive straight to the stadium, he gave his team a tour of the Stanford campus.  He wanted them to see the privilege and luxury that Stanford students enjoyed compared with SJSU.  As I recall, it worked that year.

[81alum]

I also am starting to have philosophical thoughts about Stanford's place in the world, including the sports world, and what the natural order of things is. Thoughts way too nascent to put into words but part of it is wondering what were Stanford's decades of athletic dominance based on and is that any more right/proper/natural than schools with large passionate fan bases soaking up the fun? If Stanford's dominance was based in part on having more resources to spread across more sports, is a resource-intensive shifting of the power balance to schools that actually have fans a bad thing or just the Stanford rich kids finally getting put in their place by schools whose riches are more a function of having a large student/fan/donor/community base than Arrillaga-driven oligarchy? 

Deeply thoughtful analysis.  I've often wondered how many Sears cups we would have won without Arrillaga.  A little like how far would Oregon track have gotten without Phil Knight.

Other schools have always seen us this way.  I remember when the SJSU football coach brought his team up to play us here in Palo Alto, and rather than drive straight to the stadium, he gave his team a tour of the Stanford campus.  He wanted them to see the privilege and luxury that Stanford students enjoyed compared with SJSU.  As I recall, it worked that year.