Further development on Stanford wrestling. They just did a big (and expensive if the leaked info is close to true) hire as a new head coach. The leaked info also said it came with a 5 year guarantee.
The new coach is from Cornell. He took over that program almost 30 years ago and took it from an afterthought in the Ivy Legue to one that has finished in the top 10 as a team at D1’s the last 10+ years with multiple national champions. They are competing for recruits against Penn State and Iowa, not Harvard and Brown.
The best thing about this from Stanford wrestling’s point of view is that he is the perfect hire for them. He is fine as a coach. But he excels at recruiting, fund raising, and hiring great assistants who can do the “on the ground coaching”. If he gives them the 5 years in his contract, my guess is that in 5 years not only are they fully endowed, they are one of the best funded programs in the country.
That doesn’t give them guaranteed safety. But if they are flush with cash, and are adding to diversity rather than detracting from it (wrestling rooms overall are mostly kids with bluecollar backgrounds, it is definitely not a rich white kid sport) that is about all you can ask for.