[FarmBoy]

Fair points, WIM, but if you look at last year, there were several last minute commitment for players who had been considering Stanford and schools like ND, U.SC, and UW. Having a strong year may not add a lot more kids to the recruiting funnel, but I bet it helps seal the deal. And doing it in a year after Andrew Luck may have had a greater confidence boost to any player waffling on the idea of whether Stanford can continue its success long term.

But you're probably right that the strong performance of the '12 team should encourage some players with borderline academics (borderline for Stanford admission that is) to recommit themselves to tougher classes and better grades. This touches on an aspect of our recruiting that I hadn't considered: you gotta think that if a player makes the academic commitment to make themselves eligible, that they're more likely to stay committed. Maybe a psych major can weigh in on that relationship. For most elite players, getting into a good football program involves submitting their game film, meeting with some coaches, and taking a few visits. A couple of days of their lives. But for an elite player who wants to go to Stanford, they may need to spend significant additional effort on classes, hours on homework, stress out on the outcome of non-football performance. You'd think that going through that would make you all the more committed.

[FarmBoy]

Fair points, WIM, but if you look at last year, there were several last minute commitment for players who had been considering Stanford and schools like ND, U.SC, and UW. Having a strong year may not add a lot more kids to the recruiting funnel, but I bet it helps seal the deal. And doing it in a year after Andrew Luck may have had a greater confidence boost to any player waffling on the idea of whether Stanford can continue its success long term.

But you're probably right that the strong performance of the '12 team should encourage some players with borderline academics (borderline for Stanford admission that is) to recommit themselves to tougher classes and better grades. This touches on an aspect of our recruiting that I hadn't considered: you gotta think that if a player makes the academic commitment to make themselves eligible, that they're more likely to stay committed. Maybe a psych major can weigh in on that relationship. For most elite players, getting into a good football program involves submitting their game film, meeting with some coaches, and taking a few visits. A couple of days of their lives. But for an elite player who wants to go to Stanford, they may need to spend significant additional effort on classes, hours on homework, stress out on the outcome of non-football performance. You'd think that going through that would make you all the more committed.