(08-20-2024, 01:53 PM)Spiny_Norman Wrote: (08-20-2024, 12:40 PM)Mick Wrote: (08-20-2024, 11:01 AM)Spiny_Norman Wrote: Hi, Warren. Thanks to the Stanford Club of Pasadena for organizing this event. I'm always glad for the opportunity to see and socialize with other like-minded Stanford Sports diehards. But I am going to pass this time. I attended the Stanford Coaches tour back in May. Muir's remarks will probably be similar to what we heard there. I have learned more about what's going on within the Stanford AD from Howard Wolf than from Bernard Muir.
So...what pointed questions would you ask Mr. Muir, if you could get a candid response?
We will never get a candid response from Bernard Muir.
I don't want to put him on record for anything. I don't want to play "Gotcha!" I just want to have some confidence that the senior leadership of the AD is preparing for the likely scenarios ahead in college sports. Stanford was slow to respond to NIL and it has cost them greatly. Stanford cut 11 sports without consultation or advance notice to coaches, athletes or donors (all important stakeholders!). They seemed never to anticipate the backlash. Stanford was caught being reactive to conference realignment. The AD leadership seems slow to respond (they might say deliberate), reactive and me-too in a dynamic environment that still might have some titanic changes ahead. I would like to hear something, anything that indicates that the AD leadership isn't still behind the curve.
Spot on Spiny. Bernard Muir is the reason I will not donate to the Stanford AD. He, along with the President and Provost, have been behind the changes in college sports for over a decade.
AD Muir is a bureaucrat who could survive/thrive in a world where the NCAA reigned supreme. The pinnacle of his career was serving on the NCAA MBB selection committee (despite not having a team who could make the tournament). When the NCAA lost control of their low cost labor and the football powers decided the NCAA was irrelevant to its money spinning ambitions Muir was finished as an AD. He has no capability to operate in a world that is not tightly controlled by the NCAA. Unfortunately at Stanford it is very hard to lose your job even when your skills no longer match what the job entails.
Stanford's AD deficits are mindboggling for the next decade. The inability to generate any meanigful attendance revenue combined wtih a reduced TV share from the ACC, means revenues will be well below where they need to be. Then the higher operating costs of being in a North Carolina based athletic conference are in the mix too.
Stanford should be pushing for a football super conference and seperate the other sports from football. Stanford can decide whether it wants to be part of a super league that will have employees and $10 million per year coaches. I think Stanford should walk away from this part of it and come up with the funds to fully fund the rest of the athletic program at the highest level. Muir is not capable of getting Stanford there, so Stanford will continue to be a follower (flounderer?) in this new world of college sports.
