Stanford Drops 11 Sports
Wow that’s huge, and really sad to see. Bunch of unfortunate news for these young athletes trying to enjoy sport and get a great education
They can go elsewhere. Give it 2 football seasons, and they will be back.
I think you missed the point...
What point did I miss? Fencing, Field Hockey, Light weight rowing, mens rowing co-ed womens sailing squash, syncronized swimming and men's volleyball are all things they can continue to do at their parents ccountry club. Wrestling I'll give you, but these kids can find another school to do these things. They aren't losing scholarships because these programs don't offer scholarships.
I'm sure that the vast majority of these sports gave out very small portions of scholarships to each athlete. Most non-revenue sports break up a small number of scholarships across a large number of athletes. Also, I would assume that Stanford will honor the scholarship for any existing athletes....they can afford it.
Not a big deal, just a big deal for those who used these sports as "entry" to the institution. It's not a scholarship cost thing, it's the cost of the coaches, travel, use of facilities, and administration. Major bummer to the gifted athlete w/ the 29 ACT who used field hockey as her ticket to such a school. Such schools have approximately 6 golden tickets to extend each season in their respective sport, which rarely involve scholarship money, aside from what financial aid a student may already qualify.
Yeah it’s tough, but if you gain access to a seriously good school by being on the coed sailing team, not sure that you had planned on sailing as your future lifework and if you did, being a Stanford student because of it, you were probably leading a charmed life of some sorts anyway. Just saying.
Exactly.
I'm curious about the motivation. Isn't Standford wildly wealthy?
So there may actually be a fighting chance for someone else to win the Director's Cup?
No, not even a little.
Stanford only dropped 4 directors cup sports--fencing, field hockey, M volleyball, wrestling. They rarely got points in field hockey or wrestling, and fencing and M volleyball were not necessarily the sports that were propelling them over the top.
The other sports they dropped are not NCAA sports; they were only club activities dressed up in the "varsity" name.
It's sad that's the first thing that popped into my head when I read that.
Same here. Immediately I scrolled the comments to see how far I'd have to go before hearing about the Director's Cup. Was not disappointed.
Same.
Although I'm not too sad. It's Stanford. I'm sure those kids will be just fine in the long run.
As long as you've got football, men's and women's basketball, baseball, softball, men's and women's soccer the rest is gravy IMO.
Canned gravy to you good sir!
Ohh, C'MON!!! Canned gravy is terrible! If you can't make it yourself, then go with a jar.
FFS...
For them or for us? Because hockey seems to be missing from your list.
I didn't even realize Stanford had hockey. I'm all for hockey, but it seems more relevant in the Midwest, Northeast, & Mountain regions. It would be unfortunate if a school like BC or Minnesota lost hockey, but Stanford seems eh, although I recognize it really sucks for the players.
For the fans, sure. For the student-athletes, blows big time.
It's crazy they're cutting all these sports, some perhaps less surprising (squash, synchronized swimming) and some more (wrestling, field hockey, men's volleyball).
This does, perhaps, give UM a better shot at that Director's cup, though obviously not a "good" way to make it more competitive given the fact a bunch of kids lost their varsity opportunities.
I have two reactions: 1) It's terrible news for the dedicated athletes at Stanford who will be affected by this, and 2) Director's Cup here we come.
Also the staff who are losing their jobs.
Also the staff’s children.
Finally someone thought about the children!
Stanford's endowment: 27.7 billion dollars.
Are you suggesting the math nerds and computer geeks at Stanford are....well-endowed???
Yes, & they have a lot of money too.
Propping up an athletics budget that's long-term unsustainable would not be a good use of a university's endowment, however large.
If it were within a legal framework to do so, propping up athletic budgets, along with full-ride tuition, boarding, food, and books/lab costs for every student, is more than affordable on a $27B investment fund.
I don't really give a shit what Stanford does with its money, but a tiny, tiny fraction of that ginormous endowment would be more than enough to cover the costs of those sports, without any discernible impact on Stanford's bottom line.
This might also be a good time to scale back the outrageous football and b-ball coaching salaries. Cut Shaws salary to $1m a year down from $4.3. This way he still makes more money than 99.99% of the population and coaches of other sports get to keep their jobs and support their families. Just a thought though, I don’t think it will happen.
This is a sad reality with financial ripples from Covid but was probably coming anyway as revenue was not hitting expectations (=PAC12 network is a flop) and costs are rising quickly -right or wrong- in the revenue sports with the facilities and salary races going on in the P5.
That all being said... Am I an insensitive person that one of my first thoughts was that the race for the Directors cup will be an actual race going forward? (Wrestling and Field Hockey are the only corresponding varsity sports at M of the list above.)
No, you're about the 5th person in as many posts to say the exact same thing
Sorry to offend. I just type slowly. There were zero replies when I started my comment.
I feel so bad for all these kids.
Don’t feel too bad, they get a Stanford education and you feel bad for them. Feel bad for the slug that’s decides coed sailing is more important than a college degree from Stanford, and transfers to the University of Timbuktu and tries to use that degree to get a job.
It’s just the tip of the iceberg, especially if no football and/or men’s basketball is played. An unfortunate side effect of two producing sports paying for all the others.
Wow. I feel like Stanford produces lots of olympians from these lesser popular sports.
Let's look on the bright side - if they get down to just one varsity sport, at least their mascot will finally make sense?
Dark. True, but dark...
Wasn't Harbaugh's daughter considering a scholly at Stanford for water polo? That sport isn't one of the cuts, but still... She's playing at Michigan.
This sucks ass for the kids that just had a sport pulled out from under them. I hope the school will honor the scholarships until they die a natural, eligibility related, death.
How were most of these varsity sports to begin with?!?
Probably not a huge impact on the Director's Cup since I don't think the NCAA sponsors the championships for many of those sports, which means they don't count for the Director's Cup.
Also, they only count the top 19 sports, and presumably Stanford will continue to have broad success in enough to build their Director's Cup lead.
Man, that's crazy. Has anyone considered the implications for the Director's Cup?
Also, fencing, squash, sailing, and synchronized swimming were varsity sports?
Does this knock them down to division II status?
/s
I guess even Stanford had to learn that there are some things a massive endowment can't save you from
In the Director's Cup, they count baseball, men's basketball, women's basketball, women's volleyball, plus the 15 best remaining NCAA results--19 sports total.
Stanford's counting sports in 2018/19 were Baseball, M & W Basketball, M & W Cross Country, M & W Golf, M Gymnastics, W Rowing, M & W Soccer, M & W Swimming, W Tennis, M & W Track & Field, W Volleyball. M & W Water Polo. One of these is getting dropped--M Water Polo. Without it, they would have replaced the 90 points from M water polo with 55.5 points from W Gymnastics. So without M water polo, they would have beaten Michigan by 197 points instead of 230.5 points.
Actual 2018/19 standings
1. Stanford (1503.75)
2. Michigan (1272.25)
Theoretical 2018/19 standings (without the sports Stanford dropped)
1. Stanford (1469.25)
2. Michigan (1272.25)
Stanford is one of the richest universities in the world.
It's just time to tax these endowments and make contributions to universities no longer tax deductible.