[msqueri]

The ACC is a ridiculous option for Stanford even if ACC members would part with an equal media share. It's a self-debasing option if Stanford has to enter the conference for "free" -- nothing is free -- or with a buy-in.

How has the university lost its dignity, and its way, and its self-respect, so suddenly?

This would be a far better option: keep the Pac-4 together. Add SMU, Rice, Tulane and either Army or UConn. Those eight would be a credible foundation for something that (i) could be expanded and (ii) has a feasible travel schedule. You would add Texas, Louisiana, and New Jersey (via Army or UConn) recruiting visibility. New TV markets would be Dallas, Houston, and New York. Texas and the south more generally are booming, with no signs whatsoever of a change in trend.

This new conference could wait for the ACC to implode, which seems likely, then add selectively from its ranks, but with eastern and western divisions to keep the travel burden down.

No no no no no no no no no no no. This is so wrongheaded. Keeping the most minor teams of the Pac-12 together and adding minor teams is a minor conference. You may not like that this is a fact but it is a fact that conferences establish hierarchies in college sports. Revenue and recruiting, which both become self-reinforcing, flow from that. What you and many on this site have either advocated or expressed willingness to tolerate is death for athletics at Stanford. A Pacific coast conference is dead. We may not like that but it's where the world is in 2023. If we ignore that reality, we are consigning ourselves to minor status.

An athletics-aspiring university with dignity and self-respect must be in the Big 10, ACC, SEC, or Big 12. Period. That's it. You cannot play major college football outside of those conferences (unless you're Notre Dame, which we are not and which plays a half ACC schedule anyway) starting in five months. Nobody will care about you if you don't play major college football. If we try to sustain sports without football it will be embarrassing to the university and only possible with perennial subsidies to the athletics department unlike anything Stanford has ever done. Even if we try that the dynamics that link conference quality to recruiting will be profound headwinds for our other sports.

I get that it sucks that we are where we are but we will undermine Stanford as an athletics department and university if we lie to ourselves any further that West Coast sports are sustainable without partnership with the parts of the country that give a damn or that we can band together with all the misfits (this latter option is so depressing to me....why the hell is allying with SMU, Rice, Tulane, and Army/UConn more desirable than playing in a major conference?).

[msqueri]

The ACC is a ridiculous option for Stanford even if ACC members would part with an equal media share. It's a self-debasing option if Stanford has to enter the conference for "free" -- nothing is free -- or with a buy-in.

How has the university lost its dignity, and its way, and its self-respect, so suddenly?

This would be a far better option: keep the Pac-4 together. Add SMU, Rice, Tulane and either Army or UConn. Those eight would be a credible foundation for something that (i) could be expanded and (ii) has a feasible travel schedule. You would add Texas, Louisiana, and New Jersey (via Army or UConn) recruiting visibility. New TV markets would be Dallas, Houston, and New York. Texas and the south more generally are booming, with no signs whatsoever of a change in trend.

This new conference could wait for the ACC to implode, which seems likely, then add selectively from its ranks, but with eastern and western divisions to keep the travel burden down.

No no no no no no no no no no no. This is so wrongheaded. Keeping the most minor teams of the Pac-12 together and adding minor teams is a minor conference. You may not like that this is a fact but it is a fact that conferences establish hierarchies in college sports. Revenue and recruiting, which both become self-reinforcing, flow from that. What you and many on this site have either advocated or expressed willingness to tolerate is death for athletics at Stanford. A Pacific coast conference is dead. We may not like that but it's where the world is in 2023. If we ignore that reality, we are consigning ourselves to minor status.

An athletics-aspiring university with dignity and self-respect must be in the Big 10, ACC, SEC, or Big 12. Period. That's it. You cannot play major college football outside of those conferences (unless you're Notre Dame, which we are not and which plays a half ACC schedule anyway) starting in five months. Nobody will care about you if you don't play major college football. If we try to sustain sports without football it will be embarrassing to the university and only possible with perennial subsidies to the athletics department unlike anything Stanford has ever done. Even if we try that the dynamics that link conference quality to recruiting will be profound headwinds for our other sports.

I get that it sucks that we are where we are but we will undermine Stanford as an athletics department and university if we lie to ourselves any further that West Coast sports are sustainable without partnership with the parts of the country that give a damn or that we can band together with all the misfits (this latter option is so depressing to me....why the hell is allying with SMU, Rice, Tulane, and Army/UConn more desirable than playing in a major conference?).