Stanford Cardinal players take a knee before the start of a NCAA Football game between the Washington Huskies and the Stanford Cardinal at the Stanford Stadium in Stanford, California. Valerie Shoaps/CSM (Cal Sport Media via AP Images)

By Matt Harrington

PALO ALTO–What a performance what an upset for the Stanford Cardinal in a convincing win over the visiting Washington Huskies Saturday night at Stanford Stadium. There will be people who will tell you that they predicted Stanford to win this game with Washington playing on the road and having a short week and this non sense but that was a huge upset for the Cardinal taking out a number nine team like Washington.

It’s great for the Cardinal not great for the Pac 12 that kind of hurt the strength of their conference in terms of moving forward, in terms of margins of victories, it pretty much ended any hopes that Washington would have of going on to play in the playoffs at the end of the year. It hurts the visibility of the Pac 12 but on the other hand it really raises the visibility of Stanford football.

The Cardinal now definitely have a chance to win the Pac 12 and they could end up playing in the Pac 12 Championship. Teams to the south of that conference are pretty much on the weaker side. Stanford has a good chance to win the Pac 12 this when at one time they were in the middle of the pack. That’s really saying something for Cardinal head coach David Shaw.

Matt Harrington does the Stanford Football podcasts each Saturday at http://www.spoortsradioservice.com