Saw someone on another board suggest Stanford should create an AD for Football. I thought, "OMG, yes!" and wanted to add on to the suggestion here.
Stanford should hire an AD for Football who reports directly to the Provost or University President. Even putting aside who that person might be or what they might do, simply having the position will elevate football in stature and importance within the university in a way that will make it clear to everyone.
The Football AD would take over ALL aspects of overseeing the Football program, probably taking some responsibilities off the Head Coach in the process, particularly when it comes to dealing with administration. At a time with NIL and transfers, and media rights driving the business, how much sense does it really make to leave this up to the football coach? He's a football coach, not trained in business and marketing.
The Football AD would be responsible for benchmarking performance, learning best practices from other schools, interfacing with school executives and basically be the equivalent of an NFL team President, including hiring and firing Head Coach. In this new structure, there would be associate directors for:
Recruiting - kind of the equivalent of NFL college scouting for high school recruiting
College personnel - kind of the equivalent of pro personnel, to keep tabs on and coordinate transfers
Football operations - responsible for all aspects of day-to-day operations to support what the Head Coach wants to do
Player services - NIL, academic support, career counseling, and networking
Business operations - includes marketing the program, monetizing, and growing its value
LifeTime Cardinal can't have any direct coordination with Stanford, but they can certainly agree to be collaborative.
There is so much meat on this bone in terms of what dedicated people responsible for football only can be tasked to do, that just thinking about it makes me realize how truly insane it is to have football be run by a Head Coach and overseen by an AD with dozens of other sports to manage.
Stanford should hire an AD for Football who reports directly to the Provost or University President. Even putting aside who that person might be or what they might do, simply having the position will elevate football in stature and importance within the university in a way that will make it clear to everyone.
The Football AD would take over ALL aspects of overseeing the Football program, probably taking some responsibilities off the Head Coach in the process, particularly when it comes to dealing with administration. At a time with NIL and transfers, and media rights driving the business, how much sense does it really make to leave this up to the football coach? He's a football coach, not trained in business and marketing.
The Football AD would be responsible for benchmarking performance, learning best practices from other schools, interfacing with school executives and basically be the equivalent of an NFL team President, including hiring and firing Head Coach. In this new structure, there would be associate directors for:
Recruiting - kind of the equivalent of NFL college scouting for high school recruiting
College personnel - kind of the equivalent of pro personnel, to keep tabs on and coordinate transfers
Football operations - responsible for all aspects of day-to-day operations to support what the Head Coach wants to do
Player services - NIL, academic support, career counseling, and networking
Business operations - includes marketing the program, monetizing, and growing its value
LifeTime Cardinal can't have any direct coordination with Stanford, but they can certainly agree to be collaborative.
There is so much meat on this bone in terms of what dedicated people responsible for football only can be tasked to do, that just thinking about it makes me realize how truly insane it is to have football be run by a Head Coach and overseen by an AD with dozens of other sports to manage.
