Amid a difficult year, Stanford football received a massive, much-needed boost when Bradford M. Freeman, a former Cardinal football player and former university trustee, donated $50 million to the program in an effort to aid NIL efforts. The gift includes “significant support for institutional NIL and creates five new football scholarships for student-athletes,” the university’s release said.
“With Brad’s incredible gift, we are positioned to win on the field and build a bridge to a sustainable future for Stanford football,” said Andrew Luck, the former Stanford and Colts star who took over as Stanford’s general manager last year. “The ability to support our players through new scholarships and institutional NIL will reinforce Stanford as the preeminent place in the country to be a football scholar-athlete.”
Luck’s tenure with the program has been a time of upheaval. In March 2025, Luck fired coach Troy Taylor days after multiple investigations revealed Taylor mistreated female staffers and tried to have an NCAA compliance officer removed after being warned of rule violations, as reported by ESPN. The move stunned staffers per CBS Sports’ Brandon Huffman, and Taylor — who went 6-18 in two years at the school — said he was fired “without cause.” Several players entered the transfer portal.
Luck then hired Frank Reich, his coach for his final year in Indianapolis, as the interim coach. Though Reich never coached at the college level, he brought plenty of NFL coaching experience over. The Cardinal also hired ex-Nike CEO John Donahoe as athletic director in August in an attempt to increase their NIL capabilities. Smith’s donation follows that direction.
“I hope my gift will herald a new era of excellence for Stanford football and help the university address the new financial demands of competitive college athletics,” said Smith, who co-founded private equity investment firm Freeman Spogli & Co. in 1983.
The Cardinal are 2-3 this year with losses to Hawaii, BYU and Virginia and wins over Boston College and San Jose State.
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