[Farm93]

To be able to evaluate this hire, one has to hear what :

(1) The  Goals or Aspirations of the Stanford Football program are (in terms of # of Wins per year):

-If the goal is to be a Perennial Top15, 10+ win, Regularly win the ACC conference  team.

Or

-If the goal is merely to be a perennial 7 win team.

For a $50M donation, it better be the former.

$50 million doesn't go quite as far as it used to. 

In 2026 $50M could get you a good coach that has never won a Power 4 conference title (Kiffin, Franklin, etc.) for about 5 years.   If a program wanted a coach with a few conference titles that would likely require another step up in money with something close to $50M sitting around if the coach was fired without cause at any point in their 5-8 year contract.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/st...5m-5-years

And that $50Milllion wouldn't include any assistant coaches.

Given Stanford plays in high tax California, and lacks any real potential for the coach to earn endorsement deal money on the side, I fear as we approach 2026 $50Million gets the program a CHANCE at a 6-8 win level coach with a very low ceiling or an unproven coach with an unknown ceiling.

I would guess if Stanford wanted to compete for someone with real CFP credentials they would need to pay 20%-40% more than whatever LSU is about to pay to get Kiffin.

Pritchard is a good hire for Stanford's current level of support.   Those dreaming of better should quickly find 35,000 fans and force them to buy season tickets for 2026 and pay another few million fans to watch Stanford football in 2026.   Without that elite level of fan support (45K+ butts in the seats and millions of eyes on the screens at home) Stanford probably has a hiring ceiling that excludes proven CFP-level coaches.

[Farm93]

To be able to evaluate this hire, one has to hear what :

(1) The  Goals or Aspirations of the Stanford Football program are (in terms of # of Wins per year):

-If the goal is to be a Perennial Top15, 10+ win, Regularly win the ACC conference  team.

Or

-If the goal is merely to be a perennial 7 win team.

For a $50M donation, it better be the former.

$50 million doesn't go quite as far as it used to. 

In 2026 $50M could get you a good coach that has never won a Power 4 conference title (Kiffin, Franklin, etc.) for about 5 years.   If a program wanted a coach with a few conference titles that would likely require another step up in money with something close to $50M sitting around if the coach was fired without cause at any point in their 5-8 year contract.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/st...5m-5-years

And that $50Milllion wouldn't include any assistant coaches.

Given Stanford plays in high tax California, and lacks any real potential for the coach to earn endorsement deal money on the side, I fear as we approach 2026 $50Million gets the program a CHANCE at a 6-8 win level coach with a very low ceiling or an unproven coach with an unknown ceiling.

I would guess if Stanford wanted to compete for someone with real CFP credentials they would need to pay 20%-40% more than whatever LSU is about to pay to get Kiffin.

Pritchard is a good hire for Stanford's current level of support.   Those dreaming of better should quickly find 35,000 fans and force them to buy season tickets for 2026 and pay another few million fans to watch Stanford football in 2026.   Without that elite level of fan support (45K+ butts in the seats and millions of eyes on the screens at home) Stanford probably has a hiring ceiling that excludes proven CFP-level coaches.