Big 12 football: Ranking the league’s 5 best expansion options ‘out west’

2. Stanford Cardinal

Stanford might be underappreciated for how successful its football program can be. It certainly hasn’t been a player on the national stage for quite some time, but the team has some strengths that it could offer to the Big 12 if it were to ditch the Pac-12.

First, there’s a prestige to Stanford that few other schools out West can match. It’s not just the academic reputation and the outstanding success of its athletic program as a whole. Consider that four Cardinal players went in the first round of the NFL draft from 2015-2017. A total of 13 Stanford players have gone on to the NFL in the past four seasons, including guys like wide receiver JJ Arcega-Whiteside and offensive lineman Walker Little.

For a decade-long stretch between 2009-2018, the Cardinal finished ranked among the nation’s top 20 teams on seven separate occasions. That stretch included squads like the 2010 Cardinal, which finished 12-1 and won the Orange Bowl against Virginia Tech, and the 2015 squad that finished 12-2 and beat Iowa in the Rose Bowl. Stars such as Andrew Luck and Toby Gerhart give Stanford some credence that outshines the mediocre stretches of the past few seasons.

Historically, Stanford has a lot to offer, too, with alums such as NFL legend John Elway and 1970 Heisman Trophy winner Jim Plunkett. In one of the great college football rivalries proving that smart guys can play well, too, Stanford faces off annually against Notre Dame.

Stanford brings in the Bay Area with it in the discussions of media markets. A suitable geographic partner would be Cal, which helps the Golden Bears on this list.