SPORTS ILLUSTRATED’S TIM LAYDEN recently identified the values sports fans hold most dear: "We beseech a certain purity from our athletes … We want college athletes to attend classes and work toward meaningful degrees. We want winners to earnestly praise teammates and coaches, and losers to congratulate winners and accept blame."

At Stanford, all of that happens, and its wide spectrum of achievement is just as visible through any prism one seeks to look through: three Pac-12 football championships in four years, five BCS/New Year’s Six bowls in a six-year span, all combined with an NCAA Graduation Success Rate (GSR) of 99 percent, leading all major-college football programs.

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"The culture that we've developed is a culture of excellence," said head coach David Shaw, Stanford’s Bradford M. Freeman Director of Football. "It's a culture of achievement. It's not a culture of wanting to get patted on the back all the time. It's a culture of: What do I need to do to achieve my goals and how hard do I have to work?"

Stanford, ranked No. 5 by AP and No. 6 by the College Football Playoff committee, will arrive at its New Year’s Day Rose Bowl matchup against Iowa while standing with a foot on the summits of two mountaintops – those marking the rise of academic and athletic excellence, a combination unmatched in the college football world.

"For me, being held in the highest standard in everything you do is something Stanford is known for, whether that is football or academics," said Indianapolis Colts’ tight end Coby Fleener, an All-American at Stanford who graduated with a degree in science, technology and society, and earned his master’s in communication. "I appreciated the opportunity in both realms to be pushed to my limit."

While Stanford recruits nationally, the pool of players who meet the stringent academic requirements is small. Competing schools have tried to use that negatively to sway prospects, but Stanford continues to thrive. Since 2009, Stanford football teams have a combined record of 73-20.

"It’s undoubtedly tough to find guys that fit the mold that Stanford is looking for," Fleener said. "But they’re out there. What you really want is the guys that are driven enough to excel at both and curious enough to learn new things, whether it’s on the football field or in the classroom."

After all, this is a place where players don’t feel confined to banal locker-room conversations.

"I was sitting there mulling over some ethical questions," Caspers said. "When (senior receiver) Conner Crane walked in, I presented this one: ‘What really should drive goals in life, happiness or security?’ We sat there for 30 minutes debating it."

For some of the 41 years (1972-2013) between Rose Bowl victories, there was a feeling Stanford might need to deemphasize football – that it no longer consistently could compete among the modern age’s elite with such a limited recruiting pool. But what once was looked upon as a weakness has become a strength.

"It’s a badge of honor," Muir said. "We don’t shy away from it. If you have that opportunity, you’ve got to come, because it’s going to be so rewarding in the end. It’s certainly something for which we should feel proud."

Stanford alum Mark Brandin and his family endow 13 men’s and women’s athletic scholarships, five in football. His father, Alf, was an end on Stanford’s "Vow Boys" team that beat Southern Methodist in the 1936 Rose Bowl.

"The whole tenet was to find people who are highly motivated on the field and off and give them a chance to aspire to greatness and attend a great university," he said.

People like Brendon Austin. A fifth-year senior from Parker, Colorado, Austin is a reserve offensive lineman majoring in public policy.

"Winning is a good tonic for anything," Brandin said. "But the great thing is watching someone like Brendon tell me how cool it was interning for former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and helping develop material for a visitor from South America. It’s not necessarily being a starter, but a vocal voice and taking pride in teaching the younger guys how hard you have to work."

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WHILE STANFORD IS NOT alone in producing scholar-athletes, it is one of only seven Power-5 programs -- those from the nation’s five most powerful football conferences -- to win at least 53 games over the past five seasons. Stanford has earned three AFCA Academic Achievement awards, given annually to the FBS program with the highest graduation rate. Ranked No. 4 in this year’s U.S. News & World Report of America’s top universities, Stanford is the only school at the highest level of college football (FBS) to appear among the U.S. News top five in the past decade.

"There are many high-quality colleges and universities that follow the same model," said Stanford president John Hennessy. "But there are very few consistently achieving at this high an athletic level throughout their entire sports program. If there is a ‘secret sauce’ at Stanford, it is that we have always believed that academic excellence and athletic excellence are not mutually exclusive."

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David Parry ’14, a political science major and former walk-on defensive tackle now with the NFL’s Colts, agreed.

"That ends up becoming a culture where you strive to be good at everything you do," he said. "It shows you can be a balanced person. You play harder, work harder and win together."

Stanford has won an NCAA-record 21 consecutive Director’s Cups as the nation’s top overall athletics program. The men’s soccer team recently won its first NCAA championship, extending the university’s streak to 40 years of at least one NCAA team title, and 24 Cardinal teams have combined for 129 national championships.

Stanford’s success creates an important example to the rest of the country, said NCAA Executive Director Mark Emmert, in a 2013 interview with GoStanford.com.

"This is what you can do collectively," Emmert said. "You can achieve high performance in the classroom, in the laboratory, on the court and on the field. Nobody else does it like they do."

Hennessy is proud of the way Stanford goes about its business. He has been a strong supporter of athletics and served as the football team’s honorary captain during Stanford’s 31-14 victory against Washington on Oct. 24.

“Stanford is very clear about its values, and it always has been,” Hennessy said. “That clarity helps attract coaches, athletes and support staff who share our belief that collegiate athletes are students first.

“I credit Stanford’s success on the field and in the classroom to students who work very hard and coaches and staff who support them and ensure their experience is as much about classroom success as it is about whether they win or lose. Also important are the faculty members and fellow students who help our athletes keep a balanced perspective.”

Stanford football prides itself as a program that not only wins, but represents excellence and integrity in every respect. All-Americans feel humbled and inspired every day by their peers. They come to Stanford to be challenged more than they ever have in their lives, and that desire is shared by everyone who walks on campus, by people who literally will change the world, with a lineage that includes President Herbert Hoover, author John Steinbeck, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Yahoo! co-founders Jerry Yang and David Filo, Instagram founders Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom and transcendent golfer Tiger Woods.

Stanford football players are no different in their potential: Derek Belch ’07, a former kicker, created STRIVR Labs, a product of the Virtual Human Interaction Lab at Stanford. STRIVR created a truly immersive, fully customizable virtual reality experience specifically for football teams, one that has exploded among all ranks and was named Sports Illustrated’s Innovation of the Year.

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CORY BOOKER, B.A. political science ’91, M.A. sociology ’92, has been on a political path that seems to have no limits. Booker was a fellow receiver with Shaw before earning a Rhodes Scholarship and becoming mayor of Newark, New Jersey. He now is a U.S. Senator.

In delivering Stanford’s commencement address in 2012, Booker described how his father, without the support of a true family, was essentially raised by the people of his small North Carolina town, and how they banded together to care for him, teach him discipline and respect, and even pay for the first semester of his college education.

As Booker became a New Jersey high school football star and member of the National Honor Society, and started to feel too proud, his father, Cary Booker, felt the need to provide a lesson on perspective:

"Boy, don't you dare walk around this house like you hit a triple, when you were born on third base. You need to understand something, you drink deeply from wells of freedom and liberty and opportunity that you did not dig. You eat lavishly from banquet tables prepared for you by your ancestors … You have a choice in life: You can just sit back, getting fat, dumb, and happy, consuming all the blessings put before you, or it can metabolize inside of you, become fuel to get you into the fight, to make this democracy real."

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Booker found that every step of his journey, those who made the greatest impact in his life – like his father -- were those who sought challenges. "They embraced discomfort," Booker said. "They did not seek comfort and convenience."

Dallas Lloyd, a senior starting strong safety and science, technology and society major with a concentration on innovation, technology, and organizations, was attracted to Stanford for the same reasons. A hotshot quarterback from Pleasant Grove, Utah, Lloyd came to Stanford after a two-year church mission to Chile, where he lived alternately in comfort and poverty.

When he arrived at Stanford in 2012, "I was a totally changed person," he said. "I realized it was because I wasn’t comfortable. There were months at a time where every day I was pushed to the limit. That’s what I wanted to get out of my college experience, too.

"Football kind of refines you and turns you into a man. The same thing with school, intellectually it pushes you to the limit. The harder the experience is, the more you get out of it and the more you grow and learn."

Stanford football does things differently, and not just because of its unique style as a power-running team. All the while, the program continues to add to its lore as Quarterback U. – spawning four NFL No. 1 draft picks and a legacy of greats deeper at that position than any other school in the country: Frankie Albert, Gary Kerkorian, Bob Garrett, John Brodie, Jim Plunkett, Don Bunce, Mike Boryla, Guy Benjamin, Steve Dils, John Elway, Steve Stenstrom, Todd Husak, Andrew Luck and Kevin Hogan.

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Part 5

A Unique Approach

HOW IS STANFORD FOOTBALL different? Among the reasons are these:

The program has close ties with faculty. At other schools, the application process may be modified and standards adjusted to attract top players. At Stanford, football players go through the same application process as any other student and are held to the same standards.

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"What that leads into is that the faculty really respects all our students," said Matt Doyle, Senior Associate Athletics Director for Football Operations and Player Programs.

That relationship extends to recruiting. If a recruit is interested in a certain major, the program will reach out to a faculty member to meet, and talk more specifically about the academic environment. All organized recruiting visits involve meals with faculty and the opportunity to hear about the latest research, for instance.

Often, recruits get to meet Condoleezza Rice – "our closer," as Muir calls her. She remains active on campus, is a member of the College Football Playoff committee, and has even served as a major advisor to members of the team.

"It really goes to show how committed everyone is to making sure the scholar-athlete is a big part of our makeup, there’s no compromise," Doyle said. "No other schools have that kind of faculty involvement in recruiting."

Innovation has been a hallmark of Stanford football from the unveiling of Coach Clark Shaughnessy’s T-formation in 1940, to the preview of Bill Walsh’s West Coast Offense at Stanford in 1977-78.

Some of Stanford’s biggest innovations today are off the field, among them concussion research, rapid thermal exchange and virtual reality.

At a time some levels of the sport are being criticized for their insensitivity to head injuries, Stanford is at the forefront of making the game safer. For the past five years, game impact is being measured with sensors on players’ mouthpieces. If a player suffers a concussion, it can be studied closely, from the angle and spot of the impact, to its intensity.

Rapid thermal exchange is a cooling system used for recovery. In humid or hot weather, a hand is placed in the device, which immediately cools the player’s core temperature. It’s far more efficient and faster than ice and can prevent heatstroke and other heat-related maladies.

As for virtual reality, no team has embraced the technology more than Stanford. Because of Belch’s background (he also was a special teams graduate assistant coach) and with the influence and involvement of Jeremy Bailenson, the founding director of Stanford’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab and a professor in the communication department, Stanford football is at the cutting edge of this technology.

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Using a high-tech headset, Stanford quarterback Hogan can read defenses and get more reps without absorbing the blows and banging that come with a typical practice session.

As a kicker, Ukropina is among those who have benefited, taking reps and film study through virtual reality. A science, technology and society major with interests in business and product design, Ukropina is especially connected and sees his own future in the field.

During an engineering class called Technology Entrepreneurship, groups were instructed to create a tech startup and pitch it to teachers as if they were venture capitalists.

"We made a company called ‘Virtual Realty,’ ’’ Ukropina said. "How could we take VR and implement it into the commercial real estate market? If you were a potential buyer, you could put on the headset and walk through a property without actually having to drive there. It would increase the speed to market. That’s something that in the future would be great to explore."

A more pressing project as Ukropina co-terms toward his master’s in communication next year, would be to "study the psychology of a repeatable motion on how to use virtual reality to help strengthen your muscle memory," he said. That could mean kicking, bowling, batting or any number of uses in the athletic realm.

And the best part? Bailenson.

"He’s the leading researcher of virtual reality in the United States and he’s going to be my advisor," Ukropina said, still in disbelief. "That’s so crazy. That’s absolutely insane.

"That’s the biggest differentiation between us and other places, the resources you have access to. You can study whatever you want wherever you go, but the resources here are pretty unparalleled."

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Part 6

Common Ground

SOME OF THE THINGS you won’t see with Stanford football? Mid-year enrollees, football floors in dormitories or the one-stop tutoring shop.

A trend at some big-time programs is for high school recruits to graduate early, enroll early in college and take part in spring workouts. Besides the fact that the practice unhinges the traditional high school experience, Stanford does not allow it for many reasons. To get admitted to Stanford takes the highest and most demanding high school course offerings. This is not an area where a recruit can afford to take a semester off or should be encouraged to squeeze them into a shorter time frame.

Many so-called "football factories" around the country have football floors, areas within dorms where football players live together during their freshman years. Stanford does not. Freshman student-athletes, regardless of sport, are not allowed to room together their first year. Roommate pairings are a complete surprise.

This causes a bit of trepidation at what awaits, but players end up thankful for the experience and more worldly because of the friendships that develop that may not have begun otherwise.

"I was hesitant," said the 6-5, 294-pound Bright. "But, looking back on it, I absolutely loved it. It’s great to get out of your athlete bubble and meet students on campus who do different things. My roommate was a 5-7 guy from Texas. I was the biggest guy in my dorm and he was the smallest. He was awesome."

Ukropina felt an acceptance of student-athletes at Stanford that he didn’t feel on an Ivy League visit.

"There was a bigger feeling of camaraderie and acceptance on all levels, among student-athletes and non-athletes alike," he said. "That was very appealing because I’m interested in academics. I like school. I didn’t want to be seen walking into a classroom as a football player. I feel I’ve worked just as hard as all the other people to get there."

It’s a place where "Everybody is on common ground right away," said Griff Whalen ’12, who played wide receiver for the Cardinal and is now a valuable contributor for the Indianapolis Colts. "We took a lot of pride in not taking shortcuts, and working hard every day."

Another difference is Stanford’s academic support system. Some Pac-12 schools have more than 15 academic advisors serving only football. At Stanford, there are five academic advisors serving 36 varsity sports. That doesn’t mean there are fewer resources. In fact, the opposite is true. Stanford has peer advisors and drop-in tutors, serving all students, stationed in each dorm and library, and academic departments have one-on-one tutors available as well.

The danger in a massive academic advising environment solely for football is the amount of involvement in every aspect of academics, creating a culture of extreme dependency on others for help. At Stanford, academic services will offer guidance on classes and majors, make sure student-athletes are eligible and offer direction toward other resources. But they will not babysit or hand-hold.

"We don’t check if you’re going to class or showing up for finals," Lee said. "At other places, they start with the assumption that you can’t manage your time. We’re going to start with the assumption that you want to be successful."

Another sign that studies take precedence is evident in the new spring practice schedule. Because spring football was only a small part of the quarter, the team has practiced at night to accommodate classes. This year, practices will be scheduled only on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. This will allow players to stack classes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and have fewer conflicts.

But perhaps the most innovative aspect to Stanford football is the way it conducts its summer. Every player has the opportunity to participate in a summer jobs program.

"We’re not talking about lining the rec field or painting the bleachers," Doyle said. "These are legitimate internships in law, finance, engineering, tech and marketing."

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Part 7

A Lifetime Decision

THE IDEA OF SUMMER school began in 2006, with incoming freshman Richard Sherman used as a trial case. Sherman’s success in the classroom triggered a program in which all incoming scholarship freshmen were required to attend summer school at Stanford, as a way to ease into the university’s academic demands and to be available for conditioning programs.

The jobs program gives players practical experience, useful contacts and a strong resume for his post-playing career. Quite often, the player has job choices after graduation, rather than job hopes.

"It’s an unbelievable program that everyone wants to emulate," Doyle said.

That’s part of the reason why choosing where to accept a football scholarship can be a lifetime decision. At Stanford, that idea carries abundantly more weight, as Marlon Evans ’96, a former Cardinal receiver, can attest. Evans and Shaw were teammates in football and track and field at Stanford in 1994.

"We always knew that if at some point we could convince enough student-athletes that it was possible to balance the rigors of being a Division I athlete and going to a place like Stanford, it would eventually snowball, even if we could only recruit 100 or 200 people across the country," Evans said. "It’s awesome to see more and more of those students stepping up who want to be challenged."

Initially, Evans didn’t know if he would measure up.

"I came in just looking to keep my head above water," he said. "You’re always unsure whether you were the mistake in the admissions office. I walked away from the experience demanding more of myself than I did going in. It’s thanks in large part to having coaches and professors who saw more in me than I saw in myself."

After earning a degree in political science and a master’s in sociology, Evans spent four years working at Stanford’s offices of Undergraduate Admission and Medical Development. He left to head up a non-profit to help build charter schools, expanded the Ronnie Lott Foundation to assist underserved kids, and then joined Hewlett Packard as Director of Corporate Affairs, where he oversaw philanthropy in 170 countries. He is now the CEO of GSVlabs, an innovative Redwood City campus comprised of founders and entrepreneurs of Silicon Valley startups, corporations, international agencies, investors and non-profits.

"It’s been a great journey," Evans said. "It started at Stanford. You get that spark and find your passion and purpose, and you get after it. I wanted to make a difference in the world, especially as it relates to education.

"I think it’s the idea of proving what’s possible. That you can succeed at a tremendously high level and excel while not compromising from an academic or larger value perspective.

"We want to be the best. It’s a level of excellence that we all strive for. It’s a tangible thing that people can see and experience. The Ivy League and other schools have a different perspective. Not that one is better, but the reason I came to Stanford and didn’t attend an Ivy League school is that I wanted to be the best in the classroom and on the field. Stanford affords that."

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Part 8

No Room for Compromise

USUA AMANAM ’13 was a nickelback who preserved Stanford’s 2013 Rose Bowl victory over Wisconsin with a late interception and earned the game’s Defensive MVP honor. Today, he’s in the first year of Stanford’s Ph.D. program in Energy Resources Engineering, with interest in the oil and gas industry. He was inspired by his father, also named Usua, who grew up sleeping on the floor of a mud house in an impoverished community in Nigeria and built a successful career in the oil industry.

"Football is such a short snapshot in life," Amanam. "But it affords such an ideal opportunity to grow and mature.

"I love football. I love watching football and I loved playing it. And I believe the game’s greatest purpose is to help the transition from a boy to a man. The Stanford program allows you to do that."

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"When I look at other schools and watch their dynamics on the field or on the sidelines, I don’t get the feeling that they’re upholding those ideals of what the game is all about. But Stanford does a great job of capturing its essence. Coach Shaw understands that. Every day, I am so happy that I decided to come to Stanford."

Sherman continues to promote education first as an All-Pro cornerback for the Seattle Seahawks. While growing up in the tough streets of Compton, Sherman understood the value of education through his parents.

Sherman also knows not every child has the support system that he did growing up, which is why he started his foundation, Blanket Coverage, in 2013 with the goal of providing students in low-income communities with school supplies and clothing, as well as encouragement and one-on-one mentorship so that those kids can achieve their goals.

"I have lived first-hand what education can do for you," said Sherman to Seahawks.com. "I had parents who instilled it in me, and they stayed on me and were diligent about it, and I want to do everything in my power for the kids I meet and the kids I have a chance to reach out to and touch."

Sherman has been nominated for the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award, which is given annually to recognize an NFL player for his excellence on and off the field.

In South Florida, former Stanford safety Michael Thomas, now with the Miami Dolphins, was recognized for his service by being named the NFLPA Community Service MVP of the Week in October.

"It’s important to me to try to inspire kids and offer resources and experiences that they wouldn't otherwise have," Thomas said to MiamiDolphins.com. "Many of us in the NFL have had moments as a child where someone — a coach, teacher or mentor — took time to believe in us. My desire is that, by getting involved, I am helping change a kid’s life.

"It’s important to stress not just sports, but education. Education opens doors to many, many opportunities. It is so important for the future of their lives, and these programs help young children, who are so impressionable, believe all things are possible."

In so many ways, Stanford football has made a difference, and its influence is felt far beyond Stanford Stadium. Just ask the kids in Fort Pierce, Florida, who played touch football with Thomas on a recent afternoon and were inspired by his message to use school as a means to stay out of trouble.

For Shittu, selected All-Pac-12 first team on the field and in the classroom this season, football is only the beginning. He understands that the program and the team are so much greater than himself.

"At the end of the day, you have at least 90 guys that will lend a willing hand because they don’t want to see you fail," he said. "If you can’t hold up your end academically, how can you be trusted to do your job athletically?"

When a freshman turns onto Palm Drive for the first time as a Stanford student, the possibilities seem endless. But that sense of wonder is met with the understanding that it will take hard work in the classroom and, for a football player, in the meeting room, weight room and on the practice field.

There is no room for compromise, and none is expected.

"We are the example for college football," said Shittu, a symbol of that ideal with his sublime performances on and off the field.

"We’re not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but what we hold ourselves to here at Stanford is different. We’re the blueprint of how things are supposed to be done."