Lifetime Cardinal to help Stanford rejoin the rest of college football in the modern era with NIL push

Stanford is finally embracing the NIL aspect of college sports

When NIL was first legalized by the NCAA the consistent fear throughout all of college sports was how the big programs would take advantage to grab an even form grasp on college sports.

While some programs like the Texas' or Alabama's of the world have boosters that offer far more than others, we have learned that NIL is not exclusive to the top tier programs. If efforts are made, deals can be done. However, when a program like Stanford, which is the most academically rigorous program in the Power 5 and has been showing a reluctance to modernize with college sports, it can effectively hurt their future.

On the back end of the David Shaw tenure, Stanford was making strides in terms of beginning to tap into NIL. A whole year or two after the rest of the country had been hard at work. It is quite puzzling how such a prestigious program with notable alumni in all aspects of life couldn't muster a better approach, but that concern is coming to an end thanks to 'Lifetime Cardinal'.

In a report by On3's Ivan Maisel the efforts of Allen Thorpe were discussed as the former goalie and graduate of the 1992 class has seen enough of he and his son's alma mater being left in the dust. He expressed his frustrations and the lack of effort saying he was:

“Wildly frustrated,” Thorpe described himself about Stanford’s reluctance. “Why are people standing around looking at each other? We’ve got to do something, and we have the alumni base and wherewithal to build something better than anyone else.”

The article explains that Thorpe and several other notable alumni have created the Lifetime Cardinal collective. Among those who are a part of the collective is former Stanford quarterback and No. 1 overall pick, Andrew Luck. The legendary quarterback is on the board of directors and according to the report has been extremely involved, even meeting with players.

 The collective will support both mens and women's sports, and as Thrope explained is not to just gain clout online as he explained:

“We’re not going to teach them to be social media influencers,” Thorpe said of the athletes. “Much more important, we’re going to give them real alumni mentorship, connectivity and career support throughout their time at Stanford. If we can go to employers and say, ‘We represent hundreds of Stanford athletes. They are an incredibly talented and diverse group of women and men. It’s not just about using their faces to sell your product. Wouldn’t you want their brains and effort level at your company?’”

One interesting tidbit from the interview was the fact that Athletic Director Bernard Muir declined to comment. 

When previously asked about NIL, Muir acknowledged that Stanford wasn't nearly as active as other programs and expressed that they just needed to find the program's niche in the whole scheme of things.

His lack of enthusiasm or public support is something that has long frustrated fans, but now Cardinal fans are seeing legitimate efforts being made to help keep all of their already thriving programs on top, and resurrect the big ones like football and basketball.