Stanford Football: 5 reasons the Cardinal will beat USC in Pac-12 title

SANTA CLARA, CA - DECEMBER 05: Ronald Jones II #25 of the USC Trojans scores a touchdown, dragging Dallas Lloyd #29 of the Stanford Cardinal into the endzone during the third quarter of the NCAA Pac-12 Championship game at Levi's Stadium on December 5, 2015 in Santa Clara, California. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images) /

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(Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images) /

5. Stanford will be playing close to home

In the first few years after expanding from 10 teams to 12 teams, the Pac-12 championship game was hosted by the division winner with the better record. Since 2014, however, the game has been played at Levi’s Stadium.

The home of the San Francisco 49ers is just 14 miles away down toward the southern end of the Bay Area from the Stanford campus in Palo Alto. While USC will be making the long trip up from Los Angeles, the Cardinal have the decided advantage of getting to play close to home on Friday night.

David Shaw’s team has won its only previous Pac-12 championship game appearance at Levi’s Stadium. Two years ago, the Cardinal took down USC in the 2015 title game in a runaway 41-22 victory. While it is unlikely that Stanford will open up that big a lead on Friday night against the Trojans, they have the benefit of getting to sleep at home.

While it isn’t quite the confines of Stanford Stadium, the Cardinal still have a geographic advantage over their interdivisional rival. They have won three of the past five Pac-12 crowns, and after Washington vaulted them into the championship game Stanford will get to gun for a fourth in six years really close to home.

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