College Football Rankings: Way-too-early Top 25 projections for 2018
By Zach Bigalke
Stanford ended up reclaiming the Pac-12 North title in backdoor fashion. The Cardinal knocked off defending conference champion Washington, then watched the Huskies take down rival Washington State in the Apple Cup. That gave David Shaw’s team the tiebreaker over the Huskies, and sent them into the Pac-12 title game against USC.
A close loss to the Trojans kept the Cardinal out of the New Year’s Six, but they still landed a premier matchup. Stanford was matched against Big 12 losing finalist TCU in the Alamo Bowl. Their first-ever trip to San Antonio wasn’t a great one for Stanford football, though, as they built up a lead and then let the Horned Frogs pull off a comeback.
Stanford seems to have found its quarterback for 2018 and possibly beyond, with K.J. Costello returning again for another year under center. And we haven’t officially heard Bryce Love declare for the 2018 NFL Draft yet, which could be a huge boost to what should be an already strong offense.
If Love comes back, the Cardinal will be ranked somewhere near the top 10. If he is gone, there will be some question marks that will have pollsters put them somewhere closer to the high teens. Either way, Stanford will be in good position to defend its Pac-12 North crown and contend for teh conference title.