(08-10-2023, 09:12 AM)81alum Wrote: Is there a billionaire alum, similar to John Arrillaga, who could just endow athletics with enough to replace the TV revenue that we would lose by being independent or playing in a non power-4 conference? Couldn't we regularly get our old Pac 12 partners and Notre Dame on the football schedule? And if our coaching and facilities and matchups are as good as any power 4 school, what does it matter?
In short, does Stanford have the resources necessary to buy ourselves out of this mess? All the coaches and athletic scholarships are payed for out of endowments already, no? That is more than a start....
I would hope a wealthy alum(s) would step up.
Potentially gaping hole Ath Dept funding loss is a big part of what's going on here.
But there is a second part related by both the Pres of UW and Coach TT.
National visibility and relevance for the football team of playing in a Power conference.
UW cited this as a big reason to bolt to the B1G. "Our players deserve visibility" or something like that was her quote.
Coach TT cited this too as his expectation to continue to play in a Power conference regardless if needed to travel.
It would be very hard to maintain top coaching and top recruits if the team foresees uncertainty of who they'll even be playing next year and the year after.
Especially if the only certainty being that it won't be in a Power conference and it won't be with any national coverage, maybe regional coverage at best.