[GK3]

I wonder if her decision to enter the portal isn’t about more than the NIL. I find it hard to believe that Stanfords Collective wouldn’t match or exceed any offer from another school. I personally can’t think of any other athlete at .stanford who will have as big an impact on Stanford .athletics as Canady. 

Softball is starting to boom as a women’s sport . Stanford in the middle of a big fund raise to build a new stadium .  We seemed to be heading toward a national championship.  Why wouldn’t the collective go all out to keep Canady and send a strong message that poaching Stanford athletes is no longer cost free?

If it’s not money, what then?  Two thoughts come to mind:

Stanford is not the idyllic place to go to school that most alums, myself included, remember.  The culture can be very off putting if you are a midwesterner raised with middle America values. 

Second, it’s possible Canady wants to be regarded as the best pitcher ever in college softball. Not the best pitcher who never won a championship, but the best. Winning two at OU or wherever would cement that. Maybe Stanford will get one, but there was a qualitative hitting difference between OU, Texas, Florida and UCLA vs Stanford. And both OU and Texas were better fielding teams. So it’s not clear Stanford will get to natty level.

The end of the Texas game had to be a tough blow to Canady. To shut out Texas for 6 innings and the. Lose because of an error on a routine groundball and a poorly played rundown at the plate… and to never get even one run of support in two games against Texas would have to make you wonder what you have to do as a pitcher to win the big one.

Please know I am not claiming any information or insight into the Canady decision. I don’t have that. Nor am I trying to be critical of a very good team , a young team, that performed as well as it could . But it feels like there is a missing piece to the puzzle, as there was with Kiki at the end of the WBB season.

I’m just not sure it is all about the Benjamins.

Your point is well taken.  It is pretty obvious that without another good pitcher, better hitting, and a big better fielding we achieved about all we could hope to achieve. Pitchers like Canady do not grow on trees and those that exist mostly cannot get into Stanford.  There are challenges no matter what.

[GK3]

I wonder if her decision to enter the portal isn’t about more than the NIL. I find it hard to believe that Stanfords Collective wouldn’t match or exceed any offer from another school. I personally can’t think of any other athlete at .stanford who will have as big an impact on Stanford .athletics as Canady. 

Softball is starting to boom as a women’s sport . Stanford in the middle of a big fund raise to build a new stadium .  We seemed to be heading toward a national championship.  Why wouldn’t the collective go all out to keep Canady and send a strong message that poaching Stanford athletes is no longer cost free?

If it’s not money, what then?  Two thoughts come to mind:

Stanford is not the idyllic place to go to school that most alums, myself included, remember.  The culture can be very off putting if you are a midwesterner raised with middle America values. 

Second, it’s possible Canady wants to be regarded as the best pitcher ever in college softball. Not the best pitcher who never won a championship, but the best. Winning two at OU or wherever would cement that. Maybe Stanford will get one, but there was a qualitative hitting difference between OU, Texas, Florida and UCLA vs Stanford. And both OU and Texas were better fielding teams. So it’s not clear Stanford will get to natty level.

The end of the Texas game had to be a tough blow to Canady. To shut out Texas for 6 innings and the. Lose because of an error on a routine groundball and a poorly played rundown at the plate… and to never get even one run of support in two games against Texas would have to make you wonder what you have to do as a pitcher to win the big one.

Please know I am not claiming any information or insight into the Canady decision. I don’t have that. Nor am I trying to be critical of a very good team , a young team, that performed as well as it could . But it feels like there is a missing piece to the puzzle, as there was with Kiki at the end of the WBB season.

I’m just not sure it is all about the Benjamins.

Your point is well taken.  It is pretty obvious that without another good pitcher, better hitting, and a big better fielding we achieved about all we could hope to achieve. Pitchers like Canady do not grow on trees and those that exist mostly cannot get into Stanford.  There are challenges no matter what.