03-31-2025, 02:39 PM
The "40-year decision" needs to be retired as the main recruiting pitch. If you play big time college football, you'll have a network, and now your present value will be large enough that not much else matters in the real world. Any intelligent kid and his or her parents realize this. So, that needs to be the all else equal before going for more esoteric value added propositions. Brave new world for the best players; the ones that make the difference between being competitive and being mediocre or worse.
Ironically, and this is for you StanUSwagU, AI says that "40-year decision" concept is widely attributed to Duke's approach to emphasize the long-term impact of a college choice. Duke uses a "forty, not four" approach. I'm sure that has metamorphized into Final Four and Four Million While You Get There. The first time I heard anything remotely like this was from (again for you StanUSwagU) Lou Holtz, when the kicker that was one of the wide right (or left, who remembers?) guys at FSU chose FSU over Notre Dame. 'You're not just making a four-year mistake, son, you are making a forty-year mistake." I also remember him saying Justin Armour was an idiot for signing with Stanford, instead of Notre Dame, to win only four games every year. So many fours.....
With hindsight, most of us realize that life is not a forty-year decision, but a random set of four-year, four-month, four-day, and yes sometimes even four-second decisions that shape everything. I made that so called forty-year decision about forty-four years ago. It had everything to do with trying something different (Mom won't be in Georgia watching my every move and in fact encouraged me to move 1,400 miles away) rather than follow what's her name to Mines (she ended up in Oxford, UK), or what's her other name to Boulder (don't care where she ended up), or there was no one to follow to Fort Collins. Turns out that was one of the best things I ever did, but how was I to know? I'd like to think I am not a derelict or dead or a deadbeat had I chosen CU (most likely - had a roommate all lined up), but I know I'm not sitting where I'm sitting in full view of pictures of two particular grandchildren. And I've never second guessed that decision once. Same with grad school. Picked California over Cambridge, Massachusetts and picked the money over no money. Done and done.
Anyone good enough to seriously consider Stanford and be seriously considered by Stanford is rather likely to wind up successful wherever they go, because Stanford only looks at people most likely to be successful. Also, there is no control. No one can go back in a time machine, know the alternative, take the road not taken, and compare outcomes.
If you are selling to footballers, sell the football. With a great school where we will support your other interests including academic interests, and there is a diverse cosmopolitan area attached. If that scares you, then sure, maybe Auburn, Alabama is more your cup of (sweet) tea. If the football sucks and going to school there kind of sucks too (or that's the prevailing wisdom), then sales will be limited.
Ironically, and this is for you StanUSwagU, AI says that "40-year decision" concept is widely attributed to Duke's approach to emphasize the long-term impact of a college choice. Duke uses a "forty, not four" approach. I'm sure that has metamorphized into Final Four and Four Million While You Get There. The first time I heard anything remotely like this was from (again for you StanUSwagU) Lou Holtz, when the kicker that was one of the wide right (or left, who remembers?) guys at FSU chose FSU over Notre Dame. 'You're not just making a four-year mistake, son, you are making a forty-year mistake." I also remember him saying Justin Armour was an idiot for signing with Stanford, instead of Notre Dame, to win only four games every year. So many fours.....
With hindsight, most of us realize that life is not a forty-year decision, but a random set of four-year, four-month, four-day, and yes sometimes even four-second decisions that shape everything. I made that so called forty-year decision about forty-four years ago. It had everything to do with trying something different (Mom won't be in Georgia watching my every move and in fact encouraged me to move 1,400 miles away) rather than follow what's her name to Mines (she ended up in Oxford, UK), or what's her other name to Boulder (don't care where she ended up), or there was no one to follow to Fort Collins. Turns out that was one of the best things I ever did, but how was I to know? I'd like to think I am not a derelict or dead or a deadbeat had I chosen CU (most likely - had a roommate all lined up), but I know I'm not sitting where I'm sitting in full view of pictures of two particular grandchildren. And I've never second guessed that decision once. Same with grad school. Picked California over Cambridge, Massachusetts and picked the money over no money. Done and done.
Anyone good enough to seriously consider Stanford and be seriously considered by Stanford is rather likely to wind up successful wherever they go, because Stanford only looks at people most likely to be successful. Also, there is no control. No one can go back in a time machine, know the alternative, take the road not taken, and compare outcomes.
If you are selling to footballers, sell the football. With a great school where we will support your other interests including academic interests, and there is a diverse cosmopolitan area attached. If that scares you, then sure, maybe Auburn, Alabama is more your cup of (sweet) tea. If the football sucks and going to school there kind of sucks too (or that's the prevailing wisdom), then sales will be limited.