… yeah, money is important and all that, but there are some advantages to the job that are almost impossible to find elsewhere. Some day the school will find a coach that values those advantages over money… I still hold out hope that Harbaugh might be one of those people. Consider:

• Low external pressures - We would all like to see Stanford excel, but as long as the team is competitive year in/year out, people will generally be happy.
• Stanford athletes - I keep hearing that they tend to be smarter and more “coachable” than athletes at a lot of other schools. For example - could Harbaugh really run this offense at a place like Florida, where all players have to do to get in is hook themselves up to a heart rate monitor?
• Stanford brand - For the type of kid that can get admitted to Stanford, the school practically sells itself. A Stanford diploma is a nice insurance policy against a career ending injury
• Great facilities, great location - they may not pay as much for the coach, but they sure do invest in facilities. Plus, Palo Alto is a pretty enjoyable place to live.
• Honest boosters - I don’t get the sense that Harbaugh has to police the “friends” of the program much - can’t say that’s the same elsewhere…

Yes, you have to deal with the admissions standards and the program still has work to do with the fan base before it will have recovered from the BuddyWalt years, but these are all significant selling points to the right kind of person.