College Football Rankings 2016: Projected AP Top 25 after Week 12

Stanford crossed the bay to Berkeley and took down rival California by double digits in the Big Game on Saturday. Already rated by the College Football Playoff committee last Tuesday, the Cardinal should leap up into the AP Top 25 as well this week after taking down the Golden Bears for their eighth win of the year. Christian McCaffrey looked like his old self in his last Big Game before the pros, torching Cal for over 300 all-purpose yards and three touchdowns to possibly reinsert his name into a reopened Heisman debate.

While the Cardinal missed out on their chance to repeat as Pac-12 champions this season, this four-game win streak offers hope that this downturn was a temporary blip in a larger trajectory of success. The season finale against Rice next Saturday won’t offer much incentive for the AP voters to push Stanford much further up the Top 25, but while David Shaw’s team needs a lot of help to be considered for a New Year’s Six game they should be back in contention for the Pac-12 North next season.