Nobody Home at Stanford Stadium; Big Time Media Trade; Election Postmorten (by request)

I snapped the images below at kickoff of the Stanford-SMU football game last month at Stanford Stadium.

The preponderance of empty seats was shocking, sad, and depressing.

Similar "crowds" were on hand for Stanford's home games vs. Wake Forest and Saturday's thrilling come-from-behind win over No. 22 Louisville.

Stanford trailed 35-21 midway through the fourth quarter, but came back with two late touchdown passes to true freshman wide receiver Emmett Mosley V, tying the game with 45 seconds to go.

The Cardinal defense held and Stanford got the ball at its own 44 with five seconds left, well out of field goal range, but Louisville was flagged for two penalties that moved the ball 20 yards closer, setting up Emmet Kenney for the game-winning kick from 52 yards as time expired.

It's a shame no one was there to see it. When the students in the crowd stormed the field to celebrate, there were almost as many players as fans.

The Athletic Department announced an attendance of 18,000, but it looked like less than 10,000. The announced crowds for SMU and Wake Forest (19,000 and 23,000), were about twice the number that actually came through the gates, according to people who've seen the ticket reports.

It wasn't that long ago that Stanford drew good crowds for games against USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington.

That was before the Pac-12 disintegrated and Stanford and Cal scrambled to find a home in a league based 3,000 miles away, the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), and agreed to spend a lot of time in airports, airlines and hotel rooms in places like North Carolina, Florida, Virginia, and Syracuse, New York.

I'm not being critical. It was the only choice they had.

But on top of the taxing travel schedules, lost class time, and diluted media rights, another casualty of the new ACC affiliation was home attendance.

Regional rivalries and decades of tradition have been sacrificed for TV-driven realignment. Gone are the iconic Stanford-USC battles and the classic Stanford-Oregon games that often determined conference championships and national rankings.

The new matchups aren't nearly as compelling. 

Let's be honest. People don't want to see Stanford play Wake Forest or Virginia Tech or SMU or Louisville in football. Right now, the only "name" opponents are Cal and Notre Dame every other year, and perhaps Clemson or Miami every five or six years.

At the same time the matchups have become less attractive, Stanford's fan base has gotten older and the student body has gotten nerdier. 

And the program that won 102 games in the 10 years between 2009 and 2018 hasn't won more than four games the last six years.

To attract decent crowds, Stanford will have to win more games like Saturday's Louisville upset and return to its glory days, when its teams ranked in the top 20 nationally and featured superstars like Andrew Luck, Toby Gerhart, Christian McCaffrey and Bryce Love. 

Perhaps Mosley, who caught 13 passes for 168 yards and three TDs Saturday, could become one of those marquee names.

I'd also suggest trying to schedule USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington for non-conference games. That would definitely put more butts in seats.

The fact is, for the Cardinal to have a shot at being competitive in the NIL/transfer portal era, huge investments in NIL dollars must be made, and Stanford must find a way to attract transfers who can meet the University's admission's requirements and make an immediate impact on the field.

It's a tall order. Otherwise, those empty seats will become standard fare.

Inside the NBA Trade: Love 'em or hate 'em, you have to admit the "Inside the NBA" studio show with Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Shaquille O'Neal and Kenny Smith is entertaining. 

Johnson somehow keeps a semblance of order as the three ex-players analyze NBA teams, criticize each other, talk over each other, and trade barbs. It's always fun, and there are always several memorable comments.

The show's future has been in doubt since TNT (which has aired the show for many years) recently was left out of the NBA's new media package.

Yesterday, in one of the landmark trades in sports media history, ESPN acquired Inside the NBA in exchange for 27 Big 12 games--12 football and 15 basketball.

Problem solved, and a big win for ESPN chief Jimmy Pitaro.

Election Postmortem: A number of readers asked why I didn't include an election recap in last Monday's blog post.

I felt there really wasn't much I could say without sounding like a sore loser. But since you asked, let me offer a few comments.

First, I congratulate Donald Trump, who won handily. I wish him well.

But as one who still believes in telling the truth and respecting the dignity of all people--regardless of gender, race or religion--it was depressing to see a majority of Americans embrace a vicious campaign of lies, racism and misogyny.

I have to admit, I worry about our future under a president who is more concerned about sex change than climate change.

As for his Cabinet picks, well, let's just say the clown show has begun. Wouldn't you love to be a fly on the wall in the room where Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are working on government efficiency?

If their nominations are approved, we will have a Fox & Friends Weekend host, Peter Hegseth, as Secretary of Defense, and Tulsi Gabbard, a Democrat turned MAGA Republican who parrots Russian propaganda, as Director of National Intelligence.

As Health Secretary, Trump nominated an anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist with no scientific qualifications, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a man who revealed that a worm had eaten part of his brain and that he dumped a dead bear cub in Central Park.

Trump's nominee for attorney general, Matt Gaetz, was the subject of a recent federal sex trafficking probe and was investigated by the House Ethics Committee for having sex with a minor, illicit drug use, accepting improper gifts, dispensing favors, sharing inappropriate images of women he'd slept with and diverting campaign funds for personal use. 

Even the Murdoch owned Wall Street Journal feels Gaetz might not be a good choice to lead the nation's justice department. 

And now that Kristi Noem has been tabbed as Homeland Secretary, no puppy in America is safe.

Honestly, you don't know whether to laugh or to cry.