Blaming the policies of President Donald Trump's administration, Stanford University is revealing plans to cut more than 350 full-time positions -- with nearly 10% of those jobs in the school's athletics department.
Stanford earlier this summer announced as a school that it would pare some $140 million from its operating budget.
This week, the University revealed that a significant portion of those cuts would come in the form of layoffs to more than 360 employees.
Midday Thursday, veteran West Coast reporter John Canzano first reported that Stanford's cuts included approximately 30 Cardinal athletics department employees.
FootballScoop reached out directly to Stanford University's athletics communications and athletics director for comment but has not received response at this time.
Stanford just last week hired former Nike executive John Donahoe as its athletics director. The school has not disclosed Donahoe's salary nor terms of his contract, but he arrives at the school after making roughly $60 million in compensation from Nike in 2023-24 per multiple reports.
It's been just one year since Stanford formally joined the ACC for its conference home in NCAA athletics as the then-Pac-12 disintegrated. That move instantly incurred a marked increase in operating expenses for the Cardinal, which saw its football team in 2024 play road games at Syracuse, Clemson, Notre Dame and North Carolina State, among others.
The school issued a general statement on the widespread cuts.
"Stanford is in the process of making budget reductions. Last week, many schools and units made staff workforce reductions," the statement read. "In total, 363 layoffs occurred."
Stanford athletics has still thrived overall in the NCAA landscape, placing third nationally in the most recent Learfield Director's Cup that measures total athletic department success.
But the Cardinal football program is just 10-26 in its last three seasons. The school has fired two different coaches during that time: David Shaw, after his program slipped from perennial conference-title contenders and his replacement, Troy Taylor, for allegations of a hostile workplace.
The school has hired Andrew Luck as its general manager for football, and he brought in his former pro coach -- Frank Reich of the Colts -- to serve as Stanford's interim head coach for the 2025 season.
As Canzano notes, attendance at Cardinal football games also is anemic. The Cardinal drew fewer than 24,000 fans for three of its home games in 2024 and has had just one sellout, its 2023 rivalry contest against Cal in the 'Big Game,' since 2022. That contest also marks the only time Stanford has drawn more than 40,000 for a home game.
Stanford opens its 2025 season in 16 days, playing a Week 0 game at Hawaii on Aug. 23.