Note: Stanford reversed their decision to drop 11 varsity sports after 10 months of student activism and increased philanthropy. The reflection below was based on the original July 2020 decision to cancel these programs.

In July 2016, I traveled to California and spent a week at a Gilder Leherman seminar on the history of the US Supreme Court. While I would later joke with students that I have “studied at Stanford Law,” it was a remarkable experience inside and outside the classroom.

I’ve been on a lot of college campuses, but Stanford felt like Shangri-la with perfect weather, beautiful stone buildings, Rodin sculptures, and exquisite landscaping. Each single bedroom in my dorm had a private bathroom Sure, it was a “graduate” residence hall, but it was still nicer than a four star hotel.

Originally built off riches of the transcontinental railroad, Leland Stanford, Jr. University accumulated an endowment larger than the gross GDP of El Salvador, with only a medium sized undergraduate enrollment of 7,000. They can afford such luxuries, but even the wealthy have limits to how much they’ll spend on games.

Stanford’s decision to drop 11 varsity sports is a major shock to the NCAA ecosystem after winning the directors cup 25 years in a row. The announcement came shortly before the Ivy League cancelled fall sports due to COVID, the first NCAA Division 1 conference to do so. News from the east coast didn’t bury the story as much as the Cardinal hoped.

It always hurts to hear about athletic program cuts, and these decisions follow a similar narrative. Athletic departments at Division 1 schools frequently drop non-revenue sports to preserve middling football programs.

Stanford is not a middling football program, with five New Year’s 6 appearances in the past decade, and any tourist will realize they’re not short on cash in Palo Alto. Stanford’s decision to shrink their athletic department by a third reflects a series of broader issues.

Available Competition – Many of the teams dropped are east coast dominant sports and never caught on out west. With a higher density of college athletic programs on the east coast, schools in the east can reduce the number of plane trips for competitions.

Travel in the PAC 12 can be brutal to begin with, with an average distance of 663 miles between Palo Alto and PAC 12 opponents. However, few PAC 12 schools field the sports that Stanford is cutting, leaving teams on the chopping block with very expensive travel bills.

For example, Stanford’s field hockey team made four trips to the eastern time zone last regular season. We’re not talking about short hops on regional airliners. The field hockey team’s shortest overnight trip (Ohio State, Ball State, & Louisville) was 500 miles longer than the longest flight in the vast American Athletic Conference (UConn to Houston). Lumping multiple games on each trip increases time out of class and athlete fatigue.

Of 33 college squash teams, 25 live in the Eastern Time Zone and 6 in Central Time Zone, leaving Stanford and UC Berkley far removed from competition. Stranded out west, Stanford’s fencing program only would host one competition and travel to Northwestern for a second competition before entering the NCAA tournament.

Some of niche sports getting dropped by Stanford never caught on anywhere! Only four varsity synchronized swimming programs now remain – Ohio State, Wheaton (MA), Incarnate Wood (San Antonio, TX), & Texas Women’s College (Denton, TX). Again, it’s tough to field a team two time zones away from any other competition.

Girls lacrosse, another predominantly East Coast sport, escaped the guillotine as the lacrosse community continues to grow out west. Stanford was scheduled to play UC Berkley, UC Davis, USC, San Diego State, Oregon, and Colorado this season.

Media Money – Football media rights in Power 5 conferences can support a lot of non-revenue teams, but the PAC 12 is lagging behind the Big Ten and SEC in media revenues by $24 million and $13 million per year, respectively. 

Stanford’s $14M FB profit is better than most mid-majors, but that money can only stretch so far. With PAC 12 media rights under contract until 2024, there is no short term relief in sight even if COVID clears.

Admission Accessibility – Highly selective colleges are under a closer microscope regarding their admissions practices. Studies show carrying ritzy sports hurts affirmative action more than “legacy” admissions. There is an argument for eliminating sailing, squash, & crew could open more seats on campus for underprivileged applicants.

These changes are also closing admissions loopholes that previously proved embarrassing. Cutting these boutique sports also reduces opportunities for a repeat of “Varsity Blues” admissions fraud.

Title IX – All things considered, Title IX plays a smaller factor in the case of Stanford than program cuts at other schools. Still, athletic directors must solve the algebra equation: Any cuts to women’s sports opportunities must match equal cuts for men. Unfortunately, wrestling is usually the first to fall when schools need to balance participation for Title IX. 

While Stanford has a $27 billion endowment, most of those funds are already earmarked towards different university functions (specific scholarship funds, endowed “chairs” on the faculty, etc.) As tempting as it might be to dip into these funds, it would leave unfunded obligations later, similar to the pension crisis most states face.

While school officials are citing COVID as a catalyst, many of these changes likely would need to come at some point.

I think predictions of widespread cuts across FBS powers are slightly exaggerated, as most are already lean on non-revenue sports. Stanford had 36 varsity programs, while Clemson has 17 varsity programs and LSU has 19 varsity teams. Most schools with such a large number of varsity programs are well established institutions in northeastern states with plenty of competitors within the radius of a four hour bus ride.

Obviously, if COVID wipes out football for the 2020-21 school year, administrators will be faced with tough choices. I would like to think that most schools would find alternatives to ride out the storm unless there were other underlying vulnerabilities, like many of Stanford’s programs.

Still, Stanford’s decision will have a ripple effect, particularly at other colleges on the West Coast and niche sports with limited competition. I’m not sure how much longer UC Davis and UC Berkeley can survive as the only field hockey programs in the Pacific or Mountain time zones. Other rare sports could be pushed closer to extinction at the college level.

Most importantly, today’s news must be devastating for the families of current athletes and coaches. Wealthy alumni may rally to save some of these programs, but many of these athletes are left with the faint hope that their sport will compete in 2020-21 before their team fades away.