03-25-2026, 01:13 PM
The Admin for a Facebook Group I follow called "Women's Basketball Trash Talk Forum" posted the following yesterday:
"Stephen Perlman is working in behalf of Oregon State. He has discovered Lara Somphai and Addy Brown are going into the transfer portal."
It's the first public comment I've seen other than mere speculation and seems quite specific. But there's no way to confirm the authenticity. On the other hand, Stanford's pre-game press release for the BYU game has Somfai all over it.
But it's reminding me of the Catarina Macario situation at Chelsea. They kept talking about her even though she was away from the team. Then the big announcement came out that she had signed with the Wave and would be immediately transferring.
Separately, I don't agree with some that seem to suggest Stanford can't compete in big sports anymore. Men's Basketball has had its 2nd 20-win season in a row and has the 16th-ranked recruiting class in the country for 2026 (5 four-star players, compared to 0 the year before Smith arrived). And we are certainly doing great recruiting and holding onto players in Women's Soccer. Moreover, even though we famously lost Canady due to $$$, Stanford Softball is getting and retaining good recruits. They are currently in the Top 25 and Sophomore Zoe Prystajko won National Pitcher of the Week earlier this month. We are also currently #1 in the Director's Cup standings.
Moreover, the impact of having only 30% of Tier 1 media rights is not all that significant. That's like a $15M-$20M reduction for 2026, right? And it improves as time goes on. Plus, I believe Stanford still receives a full share of ACC Network, College Football Playoff (CFP), and NCAA tournament revenues. Unlike Cal, UCLA and many other Power Conference teams, we fully own our own football stadiums and, most importantly, Stanford has a sports-specific endowment of over $1 billion (they stopped publishing the exact amount some time ago, but by my estimate it has to be at least that big now). The draw on a billion dollar endowment would be $50 million a year. Other schools don't have that. We are way ahead before you cut back that Tier 1 media rights revenue. If Stanford starts cutting sports it won't be because of the tiny amount that the Tier 1 media revenue is reduced.
"Stephen Perlman is working in behalf of Oregon State. He has discovered Lara Somphai and Addy Brown are going into the transfer portal."
It's the first public comment I've seen other than mere speculation and seems quite specific. But there's no way to confirm the authenticity. On the other hand, Stanford's pre-game press release for the BYU game has Somfai all over it.
But it's reminding me of the Catarina Macario situation at Chelsea. They kept talking about her even though she was away from the team. Then the big announcement came out that she had signed with the Wave and would be immediately transferring.
Separately, I don't agree with some that seem to suggest Stanford can't compete in big sports anymore. Men's Basketball has had its 2nd 20-win season in a row and has the 16th-ranked recruiting class in the country for 2026 (5 four-star players, compared to 0 the year before Smith arrived). And we are certainly doing great recruiting and holding onto players in Women's Soccer. Moreover, even though we famously lost Canady due to $$$, Stanford Softball is getting and retaining good recruits. They are currently in the Top 25 and Sophomore Zoe Prystajko won National Pitcher of the Week earlier this month. We are also currently #1 in the Director's Cup standings.
Moreover, the impact of having only 30% of Tier 1 media rights is not all that significant. That's like a $15M-$20M reduction for 2026, right? And it improves as time goes on. Plus, I believe Stanford still receives a full share of ACC Network, College Football Playoff (CFP), and NCAA tournament revenues. Unlike Cal, UCLA and many other Power Conference teams, we fully own our own football stadiums and, most importantly, Stanford has a sports-specific endowment of over $1 billion (they stopped publishing the exact amount some time ago, but by my estimate it has to be at least that big now). The draw on a billion dollar endowment would be $50 million a year. Other schools don't have that. We are way ahead before you cut back that Tier 1 media rights revenue. If Stanford starts cutting sports it won't be because of the tiny amount that the Tier 1 media revenue is reduced.