This story about Stanford axing a number of non-revenue producing sports and the aftermath is like a concentrated dose of all the bullshit that is college athletics. Consider:
- Stanford kills eleven teams last July.
- The 11 sports represent roughly one-third of the school’s 36 sponsored athletic programs, account for 240 athletes and include programs that have produced 20 national titles and 27 Olympic medals.
- In the next six months, pledges of $40 million to fund the 11 discontinued squads have been made, and at least three of the teams have raised enough to self-endow, fully covering their operating expenses permanently.
- The school claims the cutbacks will eventually save it $8 million a year and has refused to consider reinstating any of them.
- “Using the university’s own financial figures, 36 Sports Strong generated a study to show that the elimination of the 11 sports is only a minimal budgetary impact and attributes the department’s deficit to an 84% increase in salary and benefits over the last decade, much of it tied to football and men’s basketball.”
- Still, even after a face to face meeting, the school hasn’t budged.
Why? Well, if you guessed money…
Many members of 36 Sports Strong theorize that the university, in part, eliminated sports to create admission flexibility. Stanford is one of the few colleges in the U.S. at capacity academically. In this theory, the university would now have the freedom to fill classroom spots occupied by athletes with those who may generate more tuition or carry a higher academic acumen.
The school fervently denies that, but as we all know, when they say it’s not about the money…
Get The Picture 
This is a puzzler. I believe a competent AD at Stanford could schmooze prominent alumni with very little effort and raise $100 million.
The same thing happened in my town at William & Mary when a very incompetent AD came in and immediately forced the retirement of the long, long, long, long-time head football coach (who was a beloved alum and had been coaching there for 39 years), fired the head basketball coach (who had gotten them competitive for the first time in decades) and axed a series of long-established non-revenue coaches. The blowback from athletes, parents, faculty, staff, media, and the public cost the AD her job.
LikeLike
Stanford doesn’t have a money problem. Stanford, Harvard, Yale, and Princeton (HYPS) are private investment banks masquerading as colleges.
It’s far more likely this is a result of an internal investigation after the USC admissions scandal. Harvard’s fencing coach and Stanford’s sailing coach were named in the USC scandal investigation, but it’s hard to believe the payoffs stopped there. Cut the teams and bring back the ones you want to after cleaning house. Dartmouth just brought back their swim team for example.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Higher education at those schools isn’t as much about educating as it is perpetuating the value of it’s precious rare commodity – it’s signaling effect. Once inside the pearly gates, the rigor required to earn a degree within these schools is no different. And yes, now these schools can operate as tax-exempt hedge funds each with a war chest in the tens of $ billions in pursuit of maintaining their status. The playbook has long been two-fold: 1) keep the funnel small enough to keep the commodity scarce, 2) attract 17-year-olds that display an proclivity for future success that you can later claim was learned within the walls of your esteemed institution. In recent decades a third element has been added, 3) cover yourself in progressive politics so as not to draw ire as an elitist institution teeming with cronyism and mixed efforts to promote diversity (racial optics = yes. racial + socio-economic = not so much)
LikeLiked by 2 people
so english 101 at Stanford isnt exceptionally different than english 101 at other places? lol. the high end private schools – its all about the connections. my piece of paper from georgia is basically worthless. but it cost 5% of those other schools.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Not worthless, Dawg! Just not as likely to end up at the top of the stack of resumes at Goldman Sachs or McKinsey. Those places have their own reputations for elitism to maintain. 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m guessing Stanford doesn’t have an athletic association that operates “independently” from the rest of the university. I looked at the list of sports from the release. With the exception of men’s volleyball and possibly wrestling, every other sport could be a club sport.
While the school may be at capacity, I’m guessing none of these students were admitted based on their athletic talent only and they are probably on partial scholarships (so this is about taking out coaches’s salaries and benefits and the internal cost associated with the athletic financial aid).
Never let a crisis go to waste.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yea, 36 sports is a ton – for comparison Georgia has 19. Does fencing have to be a varsity sport? Rowing is generally club elsewhere as well.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The fastest growing sport in America.. Rugby continues to get kicked to the curb. That will change at some point.
LikeLike
I’m a college wrestling fan, and them cutting their wrestling program was a gut punch. It’s already hard enough for kids to get scholarships (or even walk on) to wrestle in college since Title IX decimated the sport. Stanford was a quality program that was getting better in a part of the country with lots of HS wrestlers but not many college programs.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m guessing if it was legal to come off the top rope and use a folding chair on your opponent, college ‘rasslin’ would still be a varsity sport at many places. 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Stanford’s endowment was $27.7 BILLION in 2019. They could run the entire athletic department without taking a dime.
LikeLiked by 1 person
But they don’t. 😉
LikeLike
By choice. Sad, all that money donated to the university by individuals to help others and it sits in an account.
LikeLike
You don’t think the interest on that money goes to fund need-based scholarships. According to their website, full tuition is covered for all admitted students whose family earns $150k or less and full scholarships are given to those whose families earn $65k or less. They specifically say they don’t expect students to take out loans to cover the cost to attend.
https://admission.stanford.edu/afford/
LikeLike
i should have gone to Stanford then.
LikeLike
If you can get into one of those schools (a lot of the Ivies have similar aid profiles), it’s a no-brainer for a kid from a middle class background. I’ve been on the Stanford campus during a class day. It’s absolutely beautiful. None of those schools have merit-based only scholarships.
LikeLike
my GPA would have prohibited it of course. And there was a lot i didnt understand. My last Squadron Commander played football at the Academy. He was dumb as fuck. He talked in bumper stickers. He also made O-6.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You don’t think Stanford could do more with the $27 billion? For perspective UGA has roughly 2.5 times the enrollment and spends $1.6 billion annually. At 5% on the endowment Stanford could cover all expenses for everything.
LikeLike
I ran my son’s numbers through the website. 78k are my annual estimated expenses.
LikeLike
“Carry a higher academic acumen”…..Stanford can’t get much higher on its average SAT/ACT scores for incoming freshmen than it already is. The school is already taking the best of the best.
LikeLike
I’m guessing that they will not win another Director’s Cup anytime soon.
LikeLiked by 1 person