Currently Cardinal, 7/19: Stanford’s open letter receives open response back

You may have read it a dozen times by now, and seen a dozen different kinds of reactions. One thing is for sure, however, and that is that everyone has their own response to the Stanford Cardinal athletics department’s decision to cut 11 sports.

One of those reactions is one of concern. If Stanford has to cut 11 sports, what’s going to save the small school programs or even the big Power-5, major college athletic programs if the coronavirus pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the collegiate athletics landscape?

There are multiple reports of small schools losing millions if football alone doesn’t come back. For instance, if the rest of the Power-5 conferences agree to play a conference-only schedule in 2020, the MAC is scheduled to lose $20 million in guaranteed money. Those figures come from those large guaranteed payout figures that small school programs accept to play the higher level of competition.

The MAC’s potential $20M loss is just a microcosm of the pandemic’s effect on collegiate athletics across the country. Some conferences and institutes have already agreed to move fall sports back to spring or cancel them outright. Others have cut sports entirely, Stanford being one of those.

And as such, Stanford opened up their computers to virtually pen an open letter to the Stanford community.

That is right here.

Then, the Stanford Daily published their own open letter, an open response to the open letter.

That can be found here.

We’re sure we haven’t heard the last from the Stanford Athletics Department just like we haven’t heard the last from the NCAA, small schools, Power-5 conferences, etc. We’ll wait patiently by for any further news on the fall sports landscape and the impact that COVID-19 will have, but until then, here are the rest of the news links for your Stanford Cardinal athletics news from this weekend.

America East Field Hockey schedule update

Moye awarded postgraduate scholarship

Stanford Men’s Basketball team earns All-Academic honors

Stanford cross country teams earn 17 All-Academic honors

ESPN report cites Jerod Haase, David Shaw as one of eight pairs of Pac-12 basketball/football coaches to take pay cut during pandemic