[BillBradley]

As the saying goes, “he’s just not that into you”

Let’s be honest here, revealed preferences being what they are, there just simply isn’t that much diehard support for Stanford football.  Not amongst fans who demonstrate it time and again by *not* going to games except in very brief windows when Stanford is competitive, not by students, who, like other fans *sometimes* go to games, not by most faculty, who view football as, at best, a distraction, and not by donors, who, by and large have not stepped up to buy a competitive football team.  The pockets of interest that do exist, concentrated on this board, for example, are simply not enough to move the needle.

Unfortunately, we largely lack the will to make Stanford competitive and to drop football, so we continue aimlessly, guided by inertia, to field a team, which by and large sucks, and which will likely continue to do so for the foreseeable future.  A braver soul would just call it like it is and admit that Stanford does not have what it takes institutionally to be a football powerhouse, and that’s ok.  Focus on our strengths, which, do not lie on the gridiron.

BC

100% agree there's no diehard support for Stanford football, but non-support of a terrible team isn't unique to Stanford. Fair weather fans exist on The Farm just like everywhere else. No one shows up to watch a loser, but everyone shows up to watch a winner, including the students and the faculty (refer to the Luck/CMac years). It's convenient after a bad loss to paint the "no one cares, all the time" picture, but it's not accurate IMO. I totally agree though that football passion at Stanford isn't close to other power conference schools, and that's why it's going to be a slow process. I wouldn't bet against Stanford long term though. The money is building, new people are involved, the landscape is changing...we'll see where we are in 5 years. Until then...what's your prediction for the fight Clubber? Painnnnnnn.

[BillBradley]

As the saying goes, “he’s just not that into you”

Let’s be honest here, revealed preferences being what they are, there just simply isn’t that much diehard support for Stanford football.  Not amongst fans who demonstrate it time and again by *not* going to games except in very brief windows when Stanford is competitive, not by students, who, like other fans *sometimes* go to games, not by most faculty, who view football as, at best, a distraction, and not by donors, who, by and large have not stepped up to buy a competitive football team.  The pockets of interest that do exist, concentrated on this board, for example, are simply not enough to move the needle.

Unfortunately, we largely lack the will to make Stanford competitive and to drop football, so we continue aimlessly, guided by inertia, to field a team, which by and large sucks, and which will likely continue to do so for the foreseeable future.  A braver soul would just call it like it is and admit that Stanford does not have what it takes institutionally to be a football powerhouse, and that’s ok.  Focus on our strengths, which, do not lie on the gridiron.

BC

100% agree there's no diehard support for Stanford football, but non-support of a terrible team isn't unique to Stanford. Fair weather fans exist on The Farm just like everywhere else. No one shows up to watch a loser, but everyone shows up to watch a winner, including the students and the faculty (refer to the Luck/CMac years). It's convenient after a bad loss to paint the "no one cares, all the time" picture, but it's not accurate IMO. I totally agree though that football passion at Stanford isn't close to other power conference schools, and that's why it's going to be a slow process. I wouldn't bet against Stanford long term though. The money is building, new people are involved, the landscape is changing...we'll see where we are in 5 years. Until then...what's your prediction for the fight Clubber? Painnnnnnn.