[Farm93]

Stanford Basketball is probably the closest comparable.  And apparently Stanford would wait 5+ years to see if the ship could get turned around.

Stanford Football rarely has FCS teams on the schedule, so that 1 win does not really count.  UCB went 0-11.  And in 2014 I would guess 1 of the 3 would be against another FCS team.

So the question really needs to look like this...If Stanford came off a 0-11 season would Stanford fans then be content with a 2-9 season?  Those 2 wins had better be special, and the recruits in the next incoming class would need to be significantly be better.  I would guess that would not be good enough for Stanford.  I also would guess that would not be good enough for UofA, ASU, Colorado, Utah, USC, UCLA, UW and UofO.  It might be deemed barely acceptable at OSU or WSU.  And even then I doubt it.

I can't really comment on the benefit derived from clearing the bad apples and the low grad rates because Stanford simply does not have a good historical reference set there IHMO.  Even though Ted's buddies' teams were not great on the field, it was always clear the players were good apples. 

[Farm93]

Stanford Basketball is probably the closest comparable.  And apparently Stanford would wait 5+ years to see if the ship could get turned around.

Stanford Football rarely has FCS teams on the schedule, so that 1 win does not really count.  UCB went 0-11.  And in 2014 I would guess 1 of the 3 would be against another FCS team.

So the question really needs to look like this...If Stanford came off a 0-11 season would Stanford fans then be content with a 2-9 season?  Those 2 wins had better be special, and the recruits in the next incoming class would need to be significantly be better.  I would guess that would not be good enough for Stanford.  I also would guess that would not be good enough for UofA, ASU, Colorado, Utah, USC, UCLA, UW and UofO.  It might be deemed barely acceptable at OSU or WSU.  And even then I doubt it.

I can't really comment on the benefit derived from clearing the bad apples and the low grad rates because Stanford simply does not have a good historical reference set there IHMO.  Even though Ted's buddies' teams were not great on the field, it was always clear the players were good apples.