The Stanford Cardinal rolled to victory Saturday over the UCLA Bruins with a convincing 45-19 home victory. The Cardinal will eventually face some stiff competition in the form of Oregon and USC, but as it currently stands, Stanford is the team to beat in the Pac-12. If they can hold on to win the conference, they will be guaranteed a BCS berth. The question is whether their wins will put them in a position for a possible national title appearance. Only the rankings will tell.
The new AP and USA Today/Coaches polls will be out later this morning, and I would not expect a whole lot of change for the Cardinal. Chalk ruled for the most part as all the top teams dominated. It could get interesting with No. 7 Wisconsin who dominated No. 8 Nebraska en route to a 48-17 victory. They could climb in the rankings thanks to the convincing nature of their win.
The No. 5/6 Oklahoma State Cowboys were inactive on a bye this week, so it's hard to tell what voters will do with them. If you combine that with Wisconsin's victory, Stanford could either gain a little ground over Oklahoma State, or we could see the Cardinal and Cowboys both leapt by Wisconsin. It's fairly unpredictable at this point.
If I had to make a prediction, I'd go with the following completely unreliable predictions:
AP Poll
1. LSU
2. Alabama
3. Oklahoma
4. Boise State
5. Wisconsin
6. Stanford
7. Oklahoma State
USA Today/Coaches Poll
1. Alabama
2. Oklahoma
3. LSU
4. Stanford
5. Boise State
6. Wisconsin
7. Oklahoma State