Andrew Luck and the Stanford Cardinal decimated the Washington Huskies 65-21 this past weekend for their first win over a ranked opponent on the year. The polls are taking notice this week, including SB Nation's very own Blogpoll rankings. Stanford is ranked fourth this week, three spots ahead of their ranking from a week ago.
Stanford makes its biggest move of the season on the strength of its win over the Huskies and a few big losses near the top of the leaderboard. The Oklahoma Sooners, ranked third last week, drop all the way down to 11th after a 41-38 loss to Texas Tech. Similarly, the Wisconsin Badgers dropped from fourth last week to 12th this week following their heartbreaking 37-31 loss to Michigan State (ranked 10th this week) on a last-second Hail Mary.
The Cardinal find themselves firmly the top five and have an opportunity to move up further over their next two games. Stanford faces a 6-1 USC Trojans squad (ranked 21st this week) on the road in a match-up that will be featured on ESPN College GameDay.
Following that, Stanford will get a chance to avenge its lone loss last year in two weeks when the Oregon Ducks come to town. The Ducks moved up two spots in their Blogpoll ranking from ninth to seventh this week.
If Stanford can secure wins in those games, there's no reason that the Cardinal can't climb even higher in future weeks.
For a full look at the Blogpoll rankings this week, click here. For more Stanford coverage, check out Rule Of Tree.