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I interpreted the press release, news coverage differently by fortune_smith

Stanford's press release is linked. It struck me as thorough and candid. Here are a few excerpts:

2nd paragraph -- "Stanford currently offers more varsity sports than nearly every other D1 university .... providing 36 varsity teams with the level of support they deserve has become a serious and growing financial challenge."

3rd paragraph -- "We now face the reality that significant change is needed to create fiscal stability for Stanford Athletics."

7th paragraph -- "We felt it was imperative to confront the financial challenge before it worsened .... and to exhaust all alternatives before making profound changes in our programs."

9th paragraph -- "The decision to discontinue these 11 varsity sports programs comes down primarily to finances and competitive excellence."

10th paragraph -- "The financial model supporting 36 varsity sports is not sustainable. The average D1 program sponsors 18 varsity sports. In fact, only one university at the D1 FBS level sponsored more varsity sports than Stanford prior to this change, and that institution does so with a significantly larger budget. Many of our peers at the P5 level are supported by budgets that are much larger than ours while operating far fewer sports. Stanford's more than 850 varsity student-athletes today represent 12% of our undergraduate population, a far higher percentage than exists at nearly all of our peer institutions."

16th paragraph -- "While painful, the discontinuation of these 11 sports at the varsity level and the associated reductions in our support staff will create a path for Stanford Athletics to return to fiscal stability while maintaining gender equity and competitiveness."

The release then delineates 10 criteria that were used for evaluating which sports to discontinue. The first listed criterion is sponsorship at the D1 level. The release cites the following sponsorship statistics:

1. Six of the 11 discontinued sports are not NCAA-sponsored championships;
2. All 11 are sponsored by less than 22% of the 350+ D1 schools;
3. Nine of the 11 are sponsored by less than 9% of D1 schools (so ~30 or fewer competitors);
4. Eight of the 11 feature a total of four west coast D1 competitors: two for field hockey, one for the squash programs and none for the other five sports.

The release makes the incremental points that permanently sustaining the 11 discontinued programs would cost more than $200 million and that ensuring success of the 25 retained programs will require an even larger amount. Stanford professes full commitment to fund-raising for the amount required for the retained programs.

Stanford's narrative is an excellent read for anybody with an interest in college athletics and the sustainability of the operating model, COVID or otherwise.

Here are a few miscellaneous observations: Ohio State is the unnamed FBS peer with more sponsored sports and a much larger budget. The release implies that Stanford does not broadly regard the Ivies as a peer in athletics. Stanford's re-sized athletic program will now much more closely approximate ND's in size. And, lastly, Stanford seems uninterested in tolerating mediocrity, or "having a program just to have a program," though, by financial necessity, it may have greater flexibility on this desire for major revenue sports like football and men's basketball.