[Spiny_Norman]

What counts is we can go to the Rose Bowl . . . .

Let's just beat UCLA twice -- which will be tough but look at how we played Saturday -- and take the real prize, which is being the Pac-8* team in the Rose Bowl.  Of course I'd like to see us in the Rose Bowl AND national champions, but the Rose Bowl is a much bigger deal.

Could not agree more.  You play the game to win championships.  As Coach Shaw said after the game, no one is giving Stanford a trophy for beating Oregon.  Still more work to do.

Look at it this way, Stanford has won 1 outright conference championship (and two shared in 1992 and 2001) in the last 40 years!  This team has a chance to make history.  I'm pretty darn excited at the prospect of playing for a championship and a Rose Bowl berth.  Who cares what the nattering nabobs have to say about our prospects.

[Spiny_Norman]

What counts is we can go to the Rose Bowl . . . .

Let's just beat UCLA twice -- which will be tough but look at how we played Saturday -- and take the real prize, which is being the Pac-8* team in the Rose Bowl.  Of course I'd like to see us in the Rose Bowl AND national champions, but the Rose Bowl is a much bigger deal.

Could not agree more.  You play the game to win championships.  As Coach Shaw said after the game, no one is giving Stanford a trophy for beating Oregon.  Still more work to do.

Look at it this way, Stanford has won 1 outright conference championship (and two shared in 1992 and 2001) in the last 40 years!  This team has a chance to make history.  I'm pretty darn excited at the prospect of playing for a championship and a Rose Bowl berth.  Who cares what the nattering nabobs have to say about our prospects.

[Treebound]

Apologies OF,
I realized that I was confusing you with "OT" on Wilner's comment section.  OF/OT, it's too late for me!  Love the optimism as I have the same issue.  As long as you're not "Milo" we are all just fine. 

Looking forward to seeing how our D comes in after their best game of the season if not the decade.  Franklin will be a challenge as he reminds me of our own Stepfan! 

[Treebound]

Apologies OF,
I realized that I was confusing you with "OT" on Wilner's comment section.  OF/OT, it's too late for me!  Love the optimism as I have the same issue.  As long as you're not "Milo" we are all just fine. 

Looking forward to seeing how our D comes in after their best game of the season if not the decade.  Franklin will be a challenge as he reminds me of our own Stepfan! 

[OutsiderFan]

Here's an AP voter ballot that shows some proper thinking, and demonstrates some others out there believe Stanford should have a shot at Miami:

http://www.pollspeak.com/component/optio...,730/w,13/

Obviously this is the AP poll and not the coaches or Harris, but I just wanted to show there are others out there who share my perspective on Stanford as BCS CG worthy.  In fact, this guy has Ohio State #3 and Stanford #5, and Ohio State is in eligible, so he already has Stanford in Miami if N.D. Loses to USC and Stanford beats UCLA twice, if he was a coach or Harris voter, because Georgia or Alabama will lose.

[OutsiderFan]

Here's an AP voter ballot that shows some proper thinking, and demonstrates some others out there believe Stanford should have a shot at Miami:

http://www.pollspeak.com/component/optio...,730/w,13/

Obviously this is the AP poll and not the coaches or Harris, but I just wanted to show there are others out there who share my perspective on Stanford as BCS CG worthy.  In fact, this guy has Ohio State #3 and Stanford #5, and Ohio State is in eligible, so he already has Stanford in Miami if N.D. Loses to USC and Stanford beats UCLA twice, if he was a coach or Harris voter, because Georgia or Alabama will lose.

[81alum]

[quote author=Oasis link=topic=6946.msg52971#msg52971 date=1353366955]What counts is we can go to the Rose Bowl . . . .

Let's just beat UCLA twice -- which will be tough but look at how we played Saturday -- and take the real prize, which is being the Pac-8* team in the Rose Bowl.  Of course I'd like to see us in the Rose Bowl AND national champions, but the Rose Bowl is a much bigger deal.

Could not agree more.  You play the game to win championships.  As Coach Shaw said after the game, no one is giving Stanford a trophy for beating Oregon.  Still more work to do.

Look at it this way, Stanford has won 1 outright conference championship (and two shared in 1992 and 2001) in the last 40 years!  This team has a chance to make history.  I'm pretty darn excited at the prospect of playing for a championship and a Rose Bowl berth.  Who cares what the nattering nabobs have to say about our prospects.
[/quote]
Agreed.  Frankly, I hate the whole BCS/National Championship fiasco, twisted as it is by distorted polls and arcane computer machinations that too often are beyond the control of the guys who actually play the game.

Winning our conference (although this North/South thing is an unwelcome corruption to me) and playing the representative of another big conference and beating them--the way it has generally been done for a century--that is what I want to see.  If American football has any import in our lives we should cherish and protect the traditions that have grown with it.  Without those traditions it is no better than any other game--and interest will fade as increasingly powerful video games and artificial reality take deeper and deeper root with young people over the next century.  But protect those traditions and it becomes more than a game--it is a part of Americana and our cultural community. 

A victory in a game steeped in a hundred years of rituals is infinitely more satisfying than some unconnected opponent in the stadium of the year arranged by a bunch of polls and computers. 

[81alum]

[quote author=Oasis link=topic=6946.msg52971#msg52971 date=1353366955]What counts is we can go to the Rose Bowl . . . .

Let's just beat UCLA twice -- which will be tough but look at how we played Saturday -- and take the real prize, which is being the Pac-8* team in the Rose Bowl.  Of course I'd like to see us in the Rose Bowl AND national champions, but the Rose Bowl is a much bigger deal.

Could not agree more.  You play the game to win championships.  As Coach Shaw said after the game, no one is giving Stanford a trophy for beating Oregon.  Still more work to do.

Look at it this way, Stanford has won 1 outright conference championship (and two shared in 1992 and 2001) in the last 40 years!  This team has a chance to make history.  I'm pretty darn excited at the prospect of playing for a championship and a Rose Bowl berth.  Who cares what the nattering nabobs have to say about our prospects.
[/quote]
Agreed.  Frankly, I hate the whole BCS/National Championship fiasco, twisted as it is by distorted polls and arcane computer machinations that too often are beyond the control of the guys who actually play the game.

Winning our conference (although this North/South thing is an unwelcome corruption to me) and playing the representative of another big conference and beating them--the way it has generally been done for a century--that is what I want to see.  If American football has any import in our lives we should cherish and protect the traditions that have grown with it.  Without those traditions it is no better than any other game--and interest will fade as increasingly powerful video games and artificial reality take deeper and deeper root with young people over the next century.  But protect those traditions and it becomes more than a game--it is a part of Americana and our cultural community. 

A victory in a game steeped in a hundred years of rituals is infinitely more satisfying than some unconnected opponent in the stadium of the year arranged by a bunch of polls and computers. 

[cardcoug]

I'm pretty sure I'll be the odd man out here, by a long shot, but here goes:

I think playing in the BCS championship would be simply amazing, and I would absolutely prefer that Stanford did that to playing in the Rose bowl. (which is not to say that I think we have a remotely realistic chance to do so this year.) The reason is not 'national respect' or anything like that, its because we would go up against the absolute best competition possible. People have said a lot about how the BCS matchups are arbitrary, computer based, etc..., but I don't care: they are usually very good and entertaining matchups. (Besides, "tradition" here is just another arbitrary rule based on a longstanding contract, no?) And as long as I'm spouting heresy, I might as well admit that I would prefer us to play the BIG 12 champ in the fiesta to a mediocre Big 10 champ in the rose bowl if it didn't require us to lose another game, though I would feel completely different if Ohio State were eligible.

I recognize that the reason i feel this way is just a difference in my history as a Stanford fan in comparison to most of you, who I gather have been Stanford fans for a long time. I'm in my fourth year of grad school on the farm, and I've been a loyal fan since I got here, but I'd never given a moments thought to the Cardinal before that. (I've been a lifelong BYU fan, and their situation has always been unique - because they were in a crappy conference, conference titles were basically a gimme for years, and so they didn't really mean anything to many of us as fans. It is the occasional matchup against a big traditional power that gets us really excited, regardless of where and when it happens. Independence has greatly exacerbated this situation.) There's a good chance that a few more years of Cardinal football could condition me out of this; I've already realized how awesome it is to have a genuinely interesting conference race, and perhaps actually experiencing a rose bowl (if we're in, I'm there!) will show me how great the tradition is. But from the outside looking in, the Big 10/Pac 10/rose bowl marriage has always struck me as something that just gets in the way of having the best possible matchups in the post season (remember when Illinois got in a few years back?). I do think its an absolute shame that traditional rivalries go by the wayside in conference realignment, but Stanford/Cal (or BYU/Utah, for that matter) seems completely different to me than the Pac 10/Big 10 connection. I run into cal fans all the time, and its fun to jab back and forth with them. we compete for recruits. families have people on both sides. Cal is full of stanford rejects. none of that is true for an arbitrary connection between two conferences on opposite ends of the country.
Maybe I'm the embodiment of the newfangled nontraditional world of college football, but I just want to watch good games.

To pursue this issue a bit more - how do you all feel about the coming playoff?

[cardcoug]

I'm pretty sure I'll be the odd man out here, by a long shot, but here goes:

I think playing in the BCS championship would be simply amazing, and I would absolutely prefer that Stanford did that to playing in the Rose bowl. (which is not to say that I think we have a remotely realistic chance to do so this year.) The reason is not 'national respect' or anything like that, its because we would go up against the absolute best competition possible. People have said a lot about how the BCS matchups are arbitrary, computer based, etc..., but I don't care: they are usually very good and entertaining matchups. (Besides, "tradition" here is just another arbitrary rule based on a longstanding contract, no?) And as long as I'm spouting heresy, I might as well admit that I would prefer us to play the BIG 12 champ in the fiesta to a mediocre Big 10 champ in the rose bowl if it didn't require us to lose another game, though I would feel completely different if Ohio State were eligible.

I recognize that the reason i feel this way is just a difference in my history as a Stanford fan in comparison to most of you, who I gather have been Stanford fans for a long time. I'm in my fourth year of grad school on the farm, and I've been a loyal fan since I got here, but I'd never given a moments thought to the Cardinal before that. (I've been a lifelong BYU fan, and their situation has always been unique - because they were in a crappy conference, conference titles were basically a gimme for years, and so they didn't really mean anything to many of us as fans. It is the occasional matchup against a big traditional power that gets us really excited, regardless of where and when it happens. Independence has greatly exacerbated this situation.) There's a good chance that a few more years of Cardinal football could condition me out of this; I've already realized how awesome it is to have a genuinely interesting conference race, and perhaps actually experiencing a rose bowl (if we're in, I'm there!) will show me how great the tradition is. But from the outside looking in, the Big 10/Pac 10/rose bowl marriage has always struck me as something that just gets in the way of having the best possible matchups in the post season (remember when Illinois got in a few years back?). I do think its an absolute shame that traditional rivalries go by the wayside in conference realignment, but Stanford/Cal (or BYU/Utah, for that matter) seems completely different to me than the Pac 10/Big 10 connection. I run into cal fans all the time, and its fun to jab back and forth with them. we compete for recruits. families have people on both sides. Cal is full of stanford rejects. none of that is true for an arbitrary connection between two conferences on opposite ends of the country.
Maybe I'm the embodiment of the newfangled nontraditional world of college football, but I just want to watch good games.

To pursue this issue a bit more - how do you all feel about the coming playoff?

[OutsiderFan]

If this was 2014 Stanford would absolutely be right in the thick of they playoff discussion, only having to get to #4 to make it, and that, to me, is orders of magnitude better than the prospect of playing Nebraska or Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl.

The Rose Bowl simply lost its luster for me with the BCS.  When the winner of the PAC can get out of playing in the Rose Bowl, and non PAC and Big Ten teams can play in it, it just isn't that special.

[OutsiderFan]

If this was 2014 Stanford would absolutely be right in the thick of they playoff discussion, only having to get to #4 to make it, and that, to me, is orders of magnitude better than the prospect of playing Nebraska or Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl.

The Rose Bowl simply lost its luster for me with the BCS.  When the winner of the PAC can get out of playing in the Rose Bowl, and non PAC and Big Ten teams can play in it, it just isn't that special.

[CowboyIndian]

Winning our conference (although this North/South thing is an unwelcome corruption to me) and playing the representative of another big conference and beating them--the way it has generally been done for a century--that is what I want to see.

Agreed...about the North/South thing especially. In the good old days - two years ago, for instance - if we won this weekend, we'd be Pac champs and going to the Rose Bowl. Now we have to do it 2x, which sucks.

(Spelling edit)

[CowboyIndian]

Winning our conference (although this North/South thing is an unwelcome corruption to me) and playing the representative of another big conference and beating them--the way it has generally been done for a century--that is what I want to see.

Agreed...about the North/South thing especially. In the good old days - two years ago, for instance - if we won this weekend, we'd be Pac champs and going to the Rose Bowl. Now we have to do it 2x, which sucks.

(Spelling edit)