[Goose]

Even making the case that Stanford's identity is elite academics and athletics is probably a stretch.

BC

Agree. In the "smaller" and "Olympic" sports Stanford has always taken pride in punching way above our weight. This was true even in years where our football team was below .500 and our basketball team was WAY below .500. We took great pride in the fact that every so often we get a Brodie/Plunkett/Elway/Luck (and lots of other guys I haven't mentioned) that makes us "relevant". If these events coincide with a decent defense, we could play with anybody. Not bad for a school where the athletes actually had to do the work was how we looked at it. In no way did we claim we were "elite". We competed like mad, but we didn't expect to win every year. Yes, Stanford has made lots of significant contributions to sport, but we had no illusions that we were Alabama (or Nebraska :-). Our identity did just fine under those circumstances.

[Goose]

Even making the case that Stanford's identity is elite academics and athletics is probably a stretch.

BC

Agree. In the "smaller" and "Olympic" sports Stanford has always taken pride in punching way above our weight. This was true even in years where our football team was below .500 and our basketball team was WAY below .500. We took great pride in the fact that every so often we get a Brodie/Plunkett/Elway/Luck (and lots of other guys I haven't mentioned) that makes us "relevant". If these events coincide with a decent defense, we could play with anybody. Not bad for a school where the athletes actually had to do the work was how we looked at it. In no way did we claim we were "elite". We competed like mad, but we didn't expect to win every year. Yes, Stanford has made lots of significant contributions to sport, but we had no illusions that we were Alabama (or Nebraska :-). Our identity did just fine under those circumstances.