The Stanford Cardinal
Since beating Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl, Stanford has seen both sides of the human condition. All American quarterback Andrew Luck decided to stay in school, while head coach Jim Harbaugh has moved onto the NFL. While Luck will get a ton of media hype leading into the season, the real story is the loss of Harbaugh.

When Harbaugh came to Palo Alto, he inherited a team that was at the bottom of their conference. During his stint, Harbaugh built Stanford into a brand of hard nose, straight ahead football that didn’t need to rely on dynamic athletes to beat you. Now that he has left, the question is “can Stanford continue this legacy under new leadership?”

The Cardinal return thousand-yard rusher, Stepfan Taylor, who should be able to have strong gains against the nickel packages teams will throw at Stanford. At wideout, Stanford will need Chris Owusu to show durability and make big plays throughout the season. He did get knocked out of the Oregon game last year.

While Luck has enough weapons returning at the skill positions, his offensive line will provide major question marks. This is what challenges The Cardinal as being the expert pick for the Pac-12. The Cardinal replace three offensive lineman, but do bring back Luck’s blindside tackle, Jonathan Martin. Still, being an All American guarantees nothing if there is shoddy pass protection, just ask Sam Bradford during his final season at Oklahoma.

Pac 12 Title Hopes
Stanford will start conference play feeling full of themselves with an easy non-conference schedule that features regional cupcake San Jose State and a road trip to ACC doormat, Duke.

While the Pac 12 might not get a lot of respect on the national scene, from top to bottom they are very strong conference. Stanford kicks off their conference schedule at night in a hostile environment when they travel to Tucson to play Arizona. That will be followed up with home games vs. UCLA and conference newcomer, Colorado.

Stanford has pretty short odds to win the Pac 12 North (+125) and is +250 to win the conference straight up. I will pass on both and say Stanford will struggle a bit this year. Starting October 22nd, they begin a brutal five game stretch that includes home vs. Washington, at USC, at Oregon State, and then home vs. Oregon and California. Stanford is going to have to run the table during those games if they want to sniff the conference championship and they have too many variables and not enough talent to do so. This is why they are not a lock as the Pac 12 college football pick to with the conference.

Worth a BCS Future?
Even at 20-to-1, I say no way. Just read the last paragraph and you will see my stance. Additionally, while Stanford starts the season with two non-conference lay-ups, they finish the season with a home game against Notre Dame. By that point in the year, I don’t see how Stanford is not mentally and physically beat up. I am not saying they will lose to Notre Dame, but the Irish at home is the last thing you want to see at the end of that brutal five game stretch.

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