Card Clicks: Stanford Would've Beaten Auburn or Oregon

by Scott Allen on Jan 11, 2026 10:33 AM PST

Tim Kawakami says Stanford would've beaten Auburn or Oregon in last night's BCS National Championship Game. After watching the Tigers maul the Ducks' offensive line and Cam Newton make some hardly Heisman-worthy throws, I agree. Oh well, Stanford had its shot in Eugene. | Mercury News

Newton didn't do anything to improve his draft stock last night. | Bruce Jenkins

Oregon finished third and Stanford finished fourth in the final AP and Coaches' polls. | ESPN

Jim Harbaugh could have some competition for Vic Fangio's services and not only from Stanford. The Dallas Cowboys interviewed the Cardinal's defensive coordinator on Monday. | Dallas Morning News

Zach Zimmerman says it's up to Johnny Dawkins to accelerate the Cardinal's improvement. | Stanford Daily

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Improvement

Many Duck fans were claiming towards the end of the regular season that they were grateful that the game against Stanford was toward the beginning of the season and at Autzen. While we can’t judge how Stanford would look in a game against Oregon now, it’s clear to see why they were happy they played Stanford when they did. While I wouldn’t make the claim, I could see how some people said Oregon regressed towards the end of the season with their play against Cal, OSU, and Auburn (the Arizona game being the exception).

As for Auburn, when was the last time Stanford even played an SEC team? It’s been at least 15 years, if not longer.

by RedOscar on Jan 11, 2026 4:48 PM PST reply actions

The last time Stanford played an SEC team...

Wow, I just checked. Try the 1978 Bluebonnet Bowl against Georgia. Stanford won 25-22.

by Scott Allen on Jan 11, 2026 5:32 PM PST up reply actions

As much of an SEC problem

as a Stanford problem. The SEC does not like to schedule BCS opponents for non-conference games. Stanford has not been in many bowl games over the same time period and the SEC and Pac-10 don’t have a bowl tie-in, anyway. Prior to the BCS Championship (cough, cough) Game, the last bowl match-up was the 1989 Freedom Bowl (Washington 34 Florida 7).

by jterry94 on Jan 11, 2026 6:34 PM PST up reply actions

I think Kawakami has a point...

The entire Stanford program did a fantastic job of getting everybody focused so that they would play well in the Orange bowl (although the second half was far better than the first). Neither Auburn or Oregon looked good at all in the championship game. That may be partly due to the great defenses, but those were supposed to be some rather potent offenses too, and they looked really, really flat.

For whatever reason, the whole Stanford team showed up to their bowl game ready to play, and Auburn and Oregon did not. On any given Saturday during the regular season, I don’t think Stanford has the edge (or if they do, it is very slim). In this bowl game, I think the edge is there, and it is quite significant…

by RickeySteals on Jan 12, 2026 12:17 AM PST reply actions