Important point I: A loss won”t disqualify the Cardinal from the playoff chase, as long as it doesn”t come in the Pac-12 title game. With a 12-1 record, a conference crown and a stretch-run win over a top-10 opponent (Notre Dame), Stanford would almost certainly have a berth in the semifinals waiting. Then it”s the Pac-12 championship game at Levi”s Stadium on Dec.
After that, the Cardinal gets Oregon, Cal and Notre Dame at home. The lone road trip comes this week to lowly Colorado. The Cardinal (7-1, 6-0) has a commanding lead in the Pac-12 North and will be favored in every game down the stretch, with all but one at home or within a short drive of campus. Given its manageable upcoming schedule and the daunting games left for other top-10 teams - we”ll get to that in a minute - Stanford could be one of the four left standing. The loss at Northwestern has been pushed to the background by impressive wins, in particular the victory at USC and the blowout of UCLA.
(What”s the fun in meaningless rankings if you can”t make them the basis for meaningless discussion?) With five weeks left and dozens of potential permutations, it”s silly to speculate on the Cardinal”s playoff prospects, but we”ll do it anyhow.
Last year proved as much: Three of the semifinalists weren”t in the top four of the initial rankings, and eventual champion Ohio State was No. 6), which establishes the playoff participants. 12 or 14 in the rankings, which will be released weekly through the end of the regular season and can deviate significantly from The Associated Press Top 25.Īside from generating viewers for ESPN and lulling some teams into a false sense of security, the committee rankings are an academic exercise until the final edition (Dec. Yep, the same team that opened its season with a touchdown-less loss at Northwestern - and was fortunate to escape with a victory last week at Washington State - is set up for a run at the semifinals. Stanford is smack in the middle of the playoff chase. The top tier will include a bevy of preseason favorites and current undefeateds (Ohio State, Baylor, Alabama, Michigan State, TCU) and at least one unexpected entry. The stretch run makes its unofficial start Tuesday afternoon with the release of the College Football Playoff selection committee”s initial rankings.
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