Post
by Bleedinbluengold » Tue Dec 19, 2006 12:55 pm
I'm pointing out that Stanford is averaging about 41,000/home game in a stadium that used to seat 85,500. Football was such a big deal that the Board of Trustees approved spending $90MM to reduce the seating capacity to 50,000. I don't know if they got the renovation done before this season, as planned, or not. This is not a sign that Stanford has a vibrant Division I football program.
OSU's stadium holds about 43,000 and WSU's holds about 30,000. Both stadiums basically sell out every home game. These programs are not exactly the elite of the Pac-10, and yet, they have incredibly loyal fans and a huge committment by the respective universities, regardless of win/loss records. The Seattle area population is about 2.5 million, and the Huskies average 17,000 more than Stanford at their home games and the Huskies football program can not get much worse.
My point was not to denigrate Stanford football, but that's probably how it sounded.
In a geographical area of 7 million people, Stanford football is barely on the sports radar let alone anywhere else. I did not even point out that the stringent academic requirements at Stanford generally work against the recruitment process because, let's face it, academics is king at Stanford, not sports, let alone football in particular. And, seriously, the Stanford band does more toward promoting Stanford University than the football program does...that's fine...it's just the way it is.
That was my point in saying what I said. Bobby, and now Harbaugh, will have to overcome two challenges: 1) Academic standards limit your recruiting ability, and 2) You have a hard time selling Stanford football, because Stanford football is WAYYYYY down on the list for the other 6.5 million people in the Bay Area.
Saying, "no one cares to play there, and no one cares at all about Stanford football" was too harsh, perhaps. But, you have to admit, when I say, "Stanford", you don't first think, "Football." Heck, you might not even think, "Football" until after thinking of 5 or 6 other things first.
Montana State IS what "they" think Montana is.