[qwerty49]

In the entire 71-year history of the Atlantic Coast Conference, charter member NC State has never scored more points in a conference game.

I'm completely flummoxed that fellow conference newbie SMU has a great chance of making the conference title game and perhaps the playoff while getting no money from the conference, yet 'world class' Stanford can't seem to figure it out. It seems off brand to say you are too good for a reconstituted west coast conference, go hat in hand across the country, and totally crap the bed in the one sport that matters if all sports are going to survive.

In my mid-30s, I was hired into a newly created position, but one I had executed successfully at two prior firms. I was speaking with the Board about what needed to happen for the role to be a success. One of the regional managing partners suggested a course of action that was totally untenable. It had never worked, ever, other firms had tried it, it was the kind of revenue development plan that only an accountant would suggest. I told him it wouldn't work and why. He rephrased the question, I gave him the same answer. He rephrased it a third time, I reformatted the answer to match his phrasing, at which point he said "I don't think you understand my question."

Yeah, I understand your question. I understood it completely. You just didn't like my answer, and you're trying to bully me into committing to an unworkable approach.

I get the feeling that the University hierarchy doesn't quite understand the answer here. It appears to me that they keep trying solutions that are untenable. If they want Stanford football to work, they need to tear down the whole approach and structure and start anew.

Could also be that the administration views this as some senior stakeholder’s passion project that they are allowing but ultimately don’t believe in because it is not central to their core business.  My experience is that these usually fail.

Could we succeed in athletics generally?  Probably.  Will we?  Probably not, because at the end of the day, it is probably a “nice to have” not a “must have”, so while folks are happy to support the endeavor when it all goes well, they won’t be willing to bail it out when it struggles.

BC

Well BC it’s been a “nice to have” for 130 years now, so maybe that counts for something.

But how well the administration can recognize, understand and adapt to the changing environment seems the real issue IMHO.

[qwerty49]

In the entire 71-year history of the Atlantic Coast Conference, charter member NC State has never scored more points in a conference game.

I'm completely flummoxed that fellow conference newbie SMU has a great chance of making the conference title game and perhaps the playoff while getting no money from the conference, yet 'world class' Stanford can't seem to figure it out. It seems off brand to say you are too good for a reconstituted west coast conference, go hat in hand across the country, and totally crap the bed in the one sport that matters if all sports are going to survive.

In my mid-30s, I was hired into a newly created position, but one I had executed successfully at two prior firms. I was speaking with the Board about what needed to happen for the role to be a success. One of the regional managing partners suggested a course of action that was totally untenable. It had never worked, ever, other firms had tried it, it was the kind of revenue development plan that only an accountant would suggest. I told him it wouldn't work and why. He rephrased the question, I gave him the same answer. He rephrased it a third time, I reformatted the answer to match his phrasing, at which point he said "I don't think you understand my question."

Yeah, I understand your question. I understood it completely. You just didn't like my answer, and you're trying to bully me into committing to an unworkable approach.

I get the feeling that the University hierarchy doesn't quite understand the answer here. It appears to me that they keep trying solutions that are untenable. If they want Stanford football to work, they need to tear down the whole approach and structure and start anew.

Could also be that the administration views this as some senior stakeholder’s passion project that they are allowing but ultimately don’t believe in because it is not central to their core business.  My experience is that these usually fail.

Could we succeed in athletics generally?  Probably.  Will we?  Probably not, because at the end of the day, it is probably a “nice to have” not a “must have”, so while folks are happy to support the endeavor when it all goes well, they won’t be willing to bail it out when it struggles.

BC

Well BC it’s been a “nice to have” for 130 years now, so maybe that counts for something.

But how well the administration can recognize, understand and adapt to the changing environment seems the real issue IMHO.