The Stanford Cardinal rebounded from a season-opening loss to the Northwestern Wildcats to win 12 of its next 13 games and claim a Pac 12 championship last season. The Cardinal are among the favorites to win their conference again in 2016 and repeating as champs is a very realistic goal as long as they could survive the early portion of their schedule. Here is a look at the four Pac-12 teams with the toughest schedules for the 2016 season.
USC Trojans
Opponents Combined 2015 Record: 101-58
The Trojans are among the Pac-12 teams considered most likely to challenge Stanford for a conference title, but an absolutely loaded schedule could hold them back. Their non-conference schedule has been talked about as the toughest in all of college football beginning with Alabama in their opener and ending with Notre Dame in their season finale. The good news is that they get Alabama at a neutral site, which should help, and remember that Alabama will be breaking in a new quarterback. In rough terms, USC’s team could – and maybe should – be slightly more developed than Alabama in Week 1, but that’s a big ‘if’. USC hasn’t proven to be in Alabama’s class in recent years.
As for the Pac-12 slate, it includes road games against Stanford, Utah, Arizona, Washington and UCLA. Stanford was the best in the conference last year, Utah was a Top 5 team at times last year, Washington is expected to be Top 25 caliber and a road trip to rival UCLA is never easy – regardless of circumstance. Then you look at the home games. USC will host Arizona State, Oregon, California and Colorado. That would be a tough road for any team but USC already has plenty of obstacles to deal with in Clay Helton’s first full season as head coach.
Colorado Buffaloes
Opponents Combined 2015 Record: 88-56
Colorado lost five straight to close out last season and finished with a 4-9 record overall. The expectation is that the Buffaloes will show some sort of improvement under Mike MacIntyre in 2016, but a quick look at their schedule reveals how difficult that will be. Colorado will face 10 opponents that went to bowl games a year ago including road trips to Michigan, Oregon, USC and Stanford in a span of six weeks. The Buffaloes won’t win any of those games and it will be very interesting to see how they respond towards the end of the year when they will play three of their final four games at home with UCLA, Washington State and Utah to close out the season.
Oregon State Beavers
Opponents Combined 2015 Record: 87-56
Oregon State will play only two opponents that didn’t make bowl games a year ago: Idaho State and Colorado. The rest of their schedule is absolutely loaded. The Beavers will play tough home games against Boise State, Utah, Arizona and Oregon along with back-to-back road games at Stanford and UCLA in November. The bigger challenge is that the Washington, Stanford and UCLA games are all on the road.
Oregon State finished with the worst record in the conference last year at 0-9 and things won’t get much easier for head coach Gary Anderson and his team in year two. The hope is that they show a little bit of a glimmer, so that the fan base has a little bit of optimism to cling to.
Stanford Cardinal
Opponents Combined 2015 Record: 82-72
The Cardinal get losing programs in Colorado, Oregon State and Rice in the second half of the season, but their schedules does have some very tough obstacles along the way. Stanford will face UCLA and Washington in back-to-back road games, and then will have to travel for another pair of back-to-back games against Oregon and Cal before their season final against Rice. Don’t forget that they also start the season with a home visit from Kansas State and then the USC Trojans. The Cardinal certainly have some games they should win, but there will be plenty of potential bumps in the road along the way for the defending Pac-12 champions.
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