Stanford making moves to be more Transfer Portal friendly

[MDUte]

The Portal has single-handedly taken down Stanford’s program from once being a powerhouse at the beginning of the PAC 12 era. Although players transferred out of Stanford like anywhere else, it was nearly impossible to attract talent through the Portal because they couldn’t get kids admitted. So David Shaw had to rely solely on high school recruiting which put him at a massive disadvantage to other programs who were able to take advantage of the Portal to bolster their rosters and/or fill holes from outgoing transfers.

It looks like Stanford’s athletic department has finally gotten university leadership to ease its standards in this regard. From a timing perspective, my cynical mind wonders if this happening now to help make Football more competitive in time for not getting left behind by the B1G or future Super League.

Stanford athletics has announced an effort to make postbaccalaureate opportunities more accessible to student-athletes in a statement to the Daily.

This move could allow the Cardinal to dip into the transfer portal even more.https://t.co/Okx9uq8gee

— Stanford Daily Sports (@StanfordSports) June 8, 2024

[camden897]

Clemson doesn’t use the transfer portal either and there still a powerhouse you don’t need the transfer portal to be good

[RedUte14]

we will see this next year. they seemed to have had a down year.

[Ute Dub]

Agree. Clemson and Alabama have come way back to the pack now that NIL is for EVERYONE!

[MDUte]

@camden897 not entirely true. It’s true that Clemson doesn’t use the portal but not true that they’ve remained the powerhouse they were when they won their titles. There’s no question Dabo’s stance on not using the portal has had a negative impact on Clemson’s program. Secondly, Clemson doesn’t have the academic requirements that Stanford has and can continue to recruit the top high school kids each year whereas Stanford has to zero in on the best talent that also fits with Stanford’s academic requirements. So for those reasons it’s not an apples to apples comparison to say that Stanford should be at least as good as Clemson.

[camden897]

Clemson’s academic standards are very high and I think similar to Stanford’s I’m not saying Stanford needs to be as good as Clemson but I was just saying you don’t need the transfer portal

[MDUte]

[MDUte]

Agree to disagree. Clemson has good academics but it isn’t even on the same planet as Stanford. And yes, you have to embrace the Transfer Portal today or fall behind.

Although Clemson is still recruiting at an elite level from the high school ranks, they are falling behind peers who are recruiting as well from high school but who are also bringing in more experienced and developed talent from the portal giving them an advantage. Stanford knew it wasn’t David Shaw’s fault that the program continued to fall off the cliff. Shaw was at a major disadvantage when the transfer portal emerged as well as NIL which Stanford has been slow to come around on.

Shaw resigns from Stanford

[camden897]

I don’t necessarily know if Stanford has more academic standards then Clemson I just know that’s Clemons standards blow Utah out of the water just like Stanford’s academic standards do

[MDUte]

Yea it’s not close. For example, Stanford can offer a scholarship to a kid and the kid can announce their commitment to Stanford. But it’s not official until they actually go through the admissions process and find out if they are accepted or not that their athletic commitment becomes official. At any other school, if the football program offers a scholarship they can get the kid admitted as long as the kid has the minimum 2.3 GPA and meets the other min requirements for admission (this is true even at TSPP, regardless of the nonsense their fans try to put out there). But it’s not the case at Stanford. If a kid doesn’t meet the school’s admission standards, they’re not getting in.

[NarfUte]

Stanford will admit any kid that can pass the clearinghouse out of high school but assesses them based on if they think they can stay eligible, which is why they have to focus on HS recruiting. Where Stanford becomes Stanford is for transfers trying to be admitted to undergrad degree programs and graduate programs, separate from the clearinghouse. It’s why they have a lot of grad transfers, even before the transfer portal became a thing. And no, Clemson is not Stanford.

[Charlie]

I expect that Stanford admissions are still very very high. However, when the curtains were pulled back at Harvard we saw three groups of students: Legacy, DEI, and Regular admissions. Each had their own requirements. I feel that in some cases I have to revalidate by expectations related to admissions at some Universities.