Quite frankly, that's a shame. Andy Thompson is an excellent head coach. The Sac fans got spoiled by Troy Taylor's quick success and really turned against Thompson. Oh well, their loss in my opinion.
I believe the answer is that they are free to decommit. I can’t tell if they still need to request a release and that the college has to grant it, or if they are now just free to go. There’s so much change right now - I didn’t realize the NLI program is soon to be eliminated
They got obliterated by injuries, but I don't know if I know enough about him to call him an "excellent" HC. He inherited a stellar team from Taylor and crashed and burned this season.
Most likely Thompson got a hefty raise. Also Stanford provides housing for faculty and coaches and/or a$3000 per month housing stipend. Stanford used to give the head football coach his own on campus house back in the day. My very first job: parking cars at Stanford football games. Got into 4th quarter FREE!
My reading says the elimination of the NLI took effect already, in October.. It replaces a one size fits all letter with contractual documents. More work for lawyers, more negotiation of terms. Athletes are still bound to whatever they sign, but the terms of the contract are not as uniform.
Going to Stanford to make more money and coach with his friend. Easy move, I reckon.
Not a good look for Sac with all the FBS talk. Maybe the guys in the program think its not happenin'
Maybe sac has reached the point of no return on this scatterbrained idea that they are ready for the “BIG TIME” and the FBS. All or much of which is probably the result of the local media (Read sac bee) pushing the sac president and the ad to go public on the whole idea. All of which was a pipe dream as was/is the idea that sac was/is going to build a new stadium in the first place. So all the happy excitement that this caused was crushed by one very bad football season and someone had to take the blame: Andy Thompson. Absolutely no class in this move at all. My worry for sac is: what very smart coach would want this job?
I read parts of a few articles but it didn’t seem real clear the purpose. I thought one article said that athletes were not bound if the coach left before they enrolled in classes. Again, wasn’t clear if they had to request a release and needed the school’s approval.