Kate Paye Faces Seven-Player Exodus After Stanford’s March 26 Loss
Kate Paye’s Stanford team lost its final game on March 26, and seven players entered the transfer portal soon after. Three more players graduated early, leaving the Cardinal with two-thirds of a 15-woman roster gone as the program closed a second straight season without an NCAA Tournament berth.
Paye After Miami
The exit wave did not come out of nowhere. After Stanford’s Feb. 19 loss at Miami, Paye assembled the team in the locker room and assistant coaches handed out stat sheets for the year on her orders.
She then told players, “No one [in the transfer portal] is going to want anyone with these numbers,” a line that now sits at the center of the roster break that followed the season’s end.
Stanford’s 15-Woman Roster
That March 26 fallout hit a group already under strain. Stanford did not reach the NCAA Tournament for a second straight season, and it did not appear in the Top 25 during the 2025-26 season for the first time in 30 years.
Two former players and four parents of players from the 2025-26 season alleged that Paye fostered a dysfunctional and toxic environment. Their claims included intimidation, threats, and retaliation concerns, along with the allegation that some student-athletes were iced out of practices if they fell on coaches’ bad sides.
One former player said Paye threatened to bench players and floated getting rid of scholarships or refusing to give recommendations for grad school programs. During practices in the second half of the season, Paye also allegedly said, “Our jobs are on the line, and this is how you play?”
John Donahoe and Angie Jabir
Parents of former players filed reports with John Donahoe about Paye, and two former players said Angie Jabir observed multiple practices after the complaints. Parents of players also said there was a culture of retribution for athletes who spoke out against what they viewed as unfair treatment.
That dispute reached into player decisions beyond the season itself. Two parents of former players and one former player said Paye is working to implement a rule that would prevent student-athletes from taking larger course loads and summer classes so they cannot graduate early.
The departures of Nunu Agara, Courtney Ogden and Chloe Clardy in March, along with seven portal entries after the final loss, left Stanford facing a roster reset before the next season even begins. Kiki Iriafen had already shown the transfer path could run the other way, graduating in three years before leaving for USC ahead of the 2024-25 season.
