04-14-2026, 06:40 PM
There is NIL and the portal in the WCC too. Moving to the WCC solves nothing other than shorter road trips in the same time zone, which is indeed a big thing. Long-term I can see the money maker (football) being national and everyone takes the non-revenue sports (even if that is often most of the sports) back into regional conferences.
This is a shorter thread than the WBB and WWP threads so I'll put my money thoughts here. (We are only missing WWE, WWF, WTA, WFL...news threads.)
Paye, the administration, a whole host of people associated with Stanford sports simply overvalued/overvalue a Stanford degree compared to cash. The prospective athletes aren't stupid. They understand present worth and what starting off with hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars means compared to a nebulous "40-year decision". Everyone understands the cash value of....cash.
My old professors at Stanford have largely retired, so I'm no longer occasionally on campus guest lecturing about the professional unicorns and rainbows that await everyone. Rather, I was over in Berkeley this morning with an actual rainbow picture taken on my phone from the trailer deck during levee construction. Very enjoyable 90-minute class and (god they really are) kids stayed after in a circle of chairs to ask all these earnest questions. It was fun and walking back down the hill to the BART station with some old Blues on my staff who sat in (and who aren't all that old), back out of academia into the salt mine. What brought you to California anyway questions came up. Wow, hadn't thought about that in a long time.
At the time, I was deciding between Cambridge, MA; Berkeley; and Stanford. The timing of spring break was such that I could visit Boston or SF but not both and I had no money anyway, so might need to do this blind. My dad hated his time at MIT and I could visit two schools on one trip, so he paid roundtrip fare from ATL to SFO and flew west right after watching Tech lose a close one to Georgetown in the East Regional Final, four years after they won four games. The whole season. I was nearly dead certain that Berkeley was the place for me. Had plenty of blue and gold gear, was always a public school guy, a couple of professors raved about their alma mater, Berkeley nightlife, quick trip into the City, etc, etc. A little worried about going from quarters to semesters because I'd only have two months of summer earnings, and as it turned out, I eventually left Atlanta with $75 in my account; just enough to fill my dad's Audi 4000 turbo tank with gas the two times needed, because even at 56 mpg with the A/C off, Atlanta to Denver was more uphill than down.
Anyway, Dad always had a fondness for the Bay Area, so he brought my younger sister and we met up in Millbrae for a family reunion of sorts. I think he really didn't want to see me at MIT and their offer was a full ride for two years in a discipline that didn't excite me honestly. Berkeley offered admission. You're welcome. The price tag was $12,000 I didn't have. My dad's thoughts were 'I guess if I could live through MIT, you could too.' Expecting nothing from Stanford, we drove down Mission and El Camino one light at a time all they way from downtown SF where we stayed so Dad could get his Peking Duck at wherever restaurant that was he remembered. It's a free trip, so you do you Dad. Wild now to think of that strip is basically where I've spent my adult life. Anyway I met with some (at the time) very young professors in the department I wanted. Great tour of campus, which was completely dead because of Spring Break and probably why they had all this time. Wined and dined at the Faculty Club even. Hard not to be impressed during perfect late March weather. And out comes an offer letter for a full fellowship and a teaching stipend. I want to say it was all worth $17,000 or thereabouts and I'd be done in nine months. My dad said do what you want. (Well, of course I'll do what I want, Dad, you ain't payin'.) I think my sister took one look at the letter and said I'm an effing idiot if I don't take that offer. Strong words from a 14 year old, but she was never wrong about anything. Although she eventually married a Berkeley grad. (j/k - great guy)
There is no moral to this story other than I understand that money trumps a lot of decision making at any age, let alone one's salad days. I went to Stanford rather than what I thought was a better fit across the Bay all for the lack of $12,000. Using federal COLA statistics for the SF-Oak-Hayward CPI, that is the equivalent to $40,000 today. So if someone is offered an extra six or seven figures to 'forego that prestigious Stanford degree,' I completely understand and agree with them.
And of course I hooked up with a Berkeley person too. Must be the DNA.
This is a shorter thread than the WBB and WWP threads so I'll put my money thoughts here. (We are only missing WWE, WWF, WTA, WFL...news threads.)
Paye, the administration, a whole host of people associated with Stanford sports simply overvalued/overvalue a Stanford degree compared to cash. The prospective athletes aren't stupid. They understand present worth and what starting off with hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars means compared to a nebulous "40-year decision". Everyone understands the cash value of....cash.
My old professors at Stanford have largely retired, so I'm no longer occasionally on campus guest lecturing about the professional unicorns and rainbows that await everyone. Rather, I was over in Berkeley this morning with an actual rainbow picture taken on my phone from the trailer deck during levee construction. Very enjoyable 90-minute class and (god they really are) kids stayed after in a circle of chairs to ask all these earnest questions. It was fun and walking back down the hill to the BART station with some old Blues on my staff who sat in (and who aren't all that old), back out of academia into the salt mine. What brought you to California anyway questions came up. Wow, hadn't thought about that in a long time.
At the time, I was deciding between Cambridge, MA; Berkeley; and Stanford. The timing of spring break was such that I could visit Boston or SF but not both and I had no money anyway, so might need to do this blind. My dad hated his time at MIT and I could visit two schools on one trip, so he paid roundtrip fare from ATL to SFO and flew west right after watching Tech lose a close one to Georgetown in the East Regional Final, four years after they won four games. The whole season. I was nearly dead certain that Berkeley was the place for me. Had plenty of blue and gold gear, was always a public school guy, a couple of professors raved about their alma mater, Berkeley nightlife, quick trip into the City, etc, etc. A little worried about going from quarters to semesters because I'd only have two months of summer earnings, and as it turned out, I eventually left Atlanta with $75 in my account; just enough to fill my dad's Audi 4000 turbo tank with gas the two times needed, because even at 56 mpg with the A/C off, Atlanta to Denver was more uphill than down.
Anyway, Dad always had a fondness for the Bay Area, so he brought my younger sister and we met up in Millbrae for a family reunion of sorts. I think he really didn't want to see me at MIT and their offer was a full ride for two years in a discipline that didn't excite me honestly. Berkeley offered admission. You're welcome. The price tag was $12,000 I didn't have. My dad's thoughts were 'I guess if I could live through MIT, you could too.' Expecting nothing from Stanford, we drove down Mission and El Camino one light at a time all they way from downtown SF where we stayed so Dad could get his Peking Duck at wherever restaurant that was he remembered. It's a free trip, so you do you Dad. Wild now to think of that strip is basically where I've spent my adult life. Anyway I met with some (at the time) very young professors in the department I wanted. Great tour of campus, which was completely dead because of Spring Break and probably why they had all this time. Wined and dined at the Faculty Club even. Hard not to be impressed during perfect late March weather. And out comes an offer letter for a full fellowship and a teaching stipend. I want to say it was all worth $17,000 or thereabouts and I'd be done in nine months. My dad said do what you want. (Well, of course I'll do what I want, Dad, you ain't payin'.) I think my sister took one look at the letter and said I'm an effing idiot if I don't take that offer. Strong words from a 14 year old, but she was never wrong about anything. Although she eventually married a Berkeley grad. (j/k - great guy)
There is no moral to this story other than I understand that money trumps a lot of decision making at any age, let alone one's salad days. I went to Stanford rather than what I thought was a better fit across the Bay all for the lack of $12,000. Using federal COLA statistics for the SF-Oak-Hayward CPI, that is the equivalent to $40,000 today. So if someone is offered an extra six or seven figures to 'forego that prestigious Stanford degree,' I completely understand and agree with them.
And of course I hooked up with a Berkeley person too. Must be the DNA.