10-04-2026, 07:27 PM
I appreciate the thoughtful original post but side squarely closer to Row80Critic's viewpoint. The original post is too rosy almost across the board and not conducive to the kind of standards and accountability we need to have any hope.
If we want to look at objective metrics of where the program is, try these:
Record
2021 (Shaw): 3-9 (highlight an overtime home win against #26 Oregon and had road wins against #73 USC and #142 Vanderbilt)
2022 (Shaw): 3-9 (highlight a road win against #17 Notre Dame and had home wins against #72 Arizona State and #223 Colgate)
2023 (Taylor): 3-9 (emotional highlight a double overtime road win against #59 Colorado, statistical highlight a road win against #39 Washington State, and also had a road win against #136 Hawai'i)
2024 (Taylor): 3-9 (highlights were a home win against #20 Louisville and a road win against #44 Syracuse, also had a home win against #215 Cal Poly)
2025 (Reich): 4-8 (highlight was taking advantage of an easy home schedule with wins over #43 Florida State, #76 Cal, #88 Boston College, and #144 San Jose State)
2026 so far (Pritchard): 2-3 trending toward most likely 4-8 but far from assured we win that many (so far the closest thing to a highlight beating #77 Georgia Tech at home)
We finally broke through for four wins and gave fans reasons to go home happy after games, a tangible step in the rebuild. One shouldn't overread signs of progress as zero wins against top 40 teams is very, very pathetic (the most recent that could have been the case was 2006 but I'm not positive a five win Washington wasn't top 40). 2026 is likely hoping we can repeat four wins so we can squint and call that stabilizing an upward tick from a pathetic baseline.
Sagarin
2021: #89
2022: #87
2023: #101
2024: #102
2025: #78
2026 so far: #109
Notwithstanding the sad lack of beating any good teams, last year was clearly a significant step forward in Sagarin's view. This year is looking like an utterly demoralizing step back to contend with the worst teams in our history, despite having one of the 25 oldest rosters in the country, which objective and biased observers alike thought set us up to have a team about the quality of last year's team.
SP+
2021: #105
2022: #93
2023: #108
2024: #103
2025: #112
2026 so far: #114
Bill Connelly is the other supposed sage of algorithms and he dissented from Sagarin's view last year was a step forward. One of the absolute worst teams in Stanford history in SP+'s view, almost surely owing to that shocking lack of beating any good teams. And this year all algorithms think this is looking like one of the worst Stanford teams ever.
FEI
2021: #80
2022: #86
2023: #86
2024: #85
2025: #84
2026 so far: #92 BEFORE our biggest blowout loss since 1954, so this will be ugly too
If one wanted to use FEI as a tiebreaker, it turns out that it's a wash. No meaningful improvement, we are who we are and are still looking to turn the corner to put it charitably.
If we want to look at objective metrics of where the program is, try these:
Record
2021 (Shaw): 3-9 (highlight an overtime home win against #26 Oregon and had road wins against #73 USC and #142 Vanderbilt)
2022 (Shaw): 3-9 (highlight a road win against #17 Notre Dame and had home wins against #72 Arizona State and #223 Colgate)
2023 (Taylor): 3-9 (emotional highlight a double overtime road win against #59 Colorado, statistical highlight a road win against #39 Washington State, and also had a road win against #136 Hawai'i)
2024 (Taylor): 3-9 (highlights were a home win against #20 Louisville and a road win against #44 Syracuse, also had a home win against #215 Cal Poly)
2025 (Reich): 4-8 (highlight was taking advantage of an easy home schedule with wins over #43 Florida State, #76 Cal, #88 Boston College, and #144 San Jose State)
2026 so far (Pritchard): 2-3 trending toward most likely 4-8 but far from assured we win that many (so far the closest thing to a highlight beating #77 Georgia Tech at home)
We finally broke through for four wins and gave fans reasons to go home happy after games, a tangible step in the rebuild. One shouldn't overread signs of progress as zero wins against top 40 teams is very, very pathetic (the most recent that could have been the case was 2006 but I'm not positive a five win Washington wasn't top 40). 2026 is likely hoping we can repeat four wins so we can squint and call that stabilizing an upward tick from a pathetic baseline.
Sagarin
2021: #89
2022: #87
2023: #101
2024: #102
2025: #78
2026 so far: #109
Notwithstanding the sad lack of beating any good teams, last year was clearly a significant step forward in Sagarin's view. This year is looking like an utterly demoralizing step back to contend with the worst teams in our history, despite having one of the 25 oldest rosters in the country, which objective and biased observers alike thought set us up to have a team about the quality of last year's team.
SP+
2021: #105
2022: #93
2023: #108
2024: #103
2025: #112
2026 so far: #114
Bill Connelly is the other supposed sage of algorithms and he dissented from Sagarin's view last year was a step forward. One of the absolute worst teams in Stanford history in SP+'s view, almost surely owing to that shocking lack of beating any good teams. And this year all algorithms think this is looking like one of the worst Stanford teams ever.
FEI
2021: #80
2022: #86
2023: #86
2024: #85
2025: #84
2026 so far: #92 BEFORE our biggest blowout loss since 1954, so this will be ugly too
If one wanted to use FEI as a tiebreaker, it turns out that it's a wash. No meaningful improvement, we are who we are and are still looking to turn the corner to put it charitably.