(08-13-2023, 07:59 PM)paloalto Wrote: I agree d4cohn. If Stanford were to join the MWC or all of the MWC teams were added to the PAC 4 outcasts, almost all Olympic sports would fairly quickly drop from national prominence. I'll use the sport I'm most passionate about as an example; WVB. The current Stanford WVB team playing many of the MWC teams would be like the varsity playing the freshmen team. The Stanford players would become disinterested due to the lack of competition. Many elite recruits would start exploring other opportunities in future years.
My first choice would be some Olympic sports join the ACC and the football team can go independent or somewhere to their liking. My course of action would be to:
1.) Ask the coaches of all Stanford's Olympic sports teams if the ACC would be a good fit for their sport. I would only want to involve the teams that would want to go to the ACC. It would be the ideal fit for WVB for many reasons. I would be willing to bet if you asked the WVB players if they want to play in the ACC with the travel implications or the MWC, every player on the roster would prefer the ACC and deal with the travel.
2.) A solution for some of Stanford's sports will require outside the box thinking by those at Stanford in charge. I would first approach ND and get their support which I suspect they would be glad to do. The chance for teams like ND, Duke, Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, etc. to play nationally prominent Stanford WVB every season should be appealing to them.
3.) If having the football team in one conference and other sports in a different conference violates some NCAA rule, I would petition them to change the rule. The emphasis being on creativity for a changing college sports landscape.
4.) Appeal to Stanford alums to donate to their sport of interest. For example Jim Belardi has a daughter who currently plays on the WVB and beach volleyball teams. He is the guy who made the Belardi pool at the Avery Aquatic Center happen. I would not ask the ACC for any distribution to allow some Stanford sports to join their conference.
Yes, I know the possibility of this happening is between slim and none. I would at least explore it to see if it goes anywhere. The alternative is Stanford sports across the board gradually fading from the national scene which is probably where things will end up.
Thanks PA. Sadly, I don't even know if it would be a gradual fade (I think our entire AD could decline like football declined from 2018 to 2019-2022). I think, depending on how the conference picture sorts out, there could be a lot of transfers and coaches leaving for other schools (which would cause some more players to transfer) in June. I agree recruits want to play and compete against the best, but I actually think the bigger reason Stanford's Olympic sports would decline in the MW is dollars and cents. I think the Big 10's media deal is 10 times (in terms of payout for a full share) the MW deal. While football may get a lot of the extra revenue, the media money also flows down to the Olympic sports too (and compounds year after year). If schools are able to pay coaches more in the Big 10, and the student-athletes can get better NIL deals elsewhere (and still get a good education at a Big 10 school), both coaches and athletes will more likely than not pick those schools.
Stanford's pitch to prospective athletes in at least the Olympic sports is Stanford is the school if you want to get both an elite education and compete for national championships. If the second half of the equation is removed, then we are basically competing on the same plain as the Ivies (even if football and men's basketball and some of our other sports would be better than those at the schools in the Ivy League).