A few days ahead of Stanford’s season opener against Northwestern, a few members of The Daily Sports Staff — Do-Hyoung Park (DHP), Michael Peterson (MP), Neel Ramachandran (NR), Vihan Lakshman (VL), Sanjay Srinivas (SS) and Ashley Westhem (AW) — provided their predictions on how the Cardinal will fare this season and which other teams will emerge as among the top in the nation.
Predict the games:
| Opponent | DHP | MP | NR | VL | SS | AW |
| @NW | W | W | W | W | W | W |
| UCF | W | W | W | W | W | W |
| @USC | W | L | L | L | L | W |
| @OSU | L | W | W | W | W | W |
| ARIZ | W | W | L | W | L | L |
| UCLA | L | L | W | L | L | W |
| WASH | W | W | W | W | W | W |
| @WSU | W | W | W | W | W | L |
| @COLO | W | W | W | W | W | W |
| ORE | W | W | W | L | W | L |
| CAL | W | W | W | W | W | W |
| ND | W | W | L | W | W | W |
Predict the Pac-12 Championship:
DHP: Arizona State over Stanford
MP: Arizona State over Stanford
NR: USC over Stanford
VL: Arizona State over Oregon
SS: USC over Stanford
AW: USC over Oregon
Stanford offensive MVP:
DHP: Austin Hooper
MP: Kevin Hogan
NR: Kevin Hogan
VL: Christian McCaffrey
SS: Kevin Hogan
AW: Christian McCaffrey
Stanford defensive MVP:
DHP: Solomon Thomas
MP: Peter Kalambayi
NR: Blake Martinez
VL: Blake Martinez
SS: Aziz Shittu
AW: Peter Kalambayi
Newcomer of the year:
DHP: Brennan Scarlett
MP: Dalton Schultz
NR: Solomon Thomas
VL: Dalton Schultz
SS: Brennan Scarlett
AW: Isaiah Brandt-Sims
Conference champions:
| League | DHP | MP | NR | VL | SS | AW |
| ACC | Georgia Tech | Clemson | Clemson | Georgia Tech | Louisville | Florida State |
| Big Ten | Ohio State | Ohio State | Ohio State | Ohio State | Ohio State | Ohio State |
| Big 12 | Baylor | Baylor | TCU | Oklahoma | Baylor | TCU |
| Pac-12 | Arizona State | Arizona State | USC | Arizona State | USC | USC |
| SEC | Georgia | LSU | LSU | Auburn | Auburn | Georgia |
Predict the playoff:
| Seed | DHP | MP | NR | VL | SS | AW |
| 1 | Georgia Tech | Ohio State | Ohio State | Ohio State | Ohio State | Ohio State |
| 2 | Ohio State | Arizona State | LSU | Auburn | Baylor | TCU |
| 3 | Georgia | Baylor | TCU | Arizona State | USC | Georgia |
| 4 | Arizona State | LSU | USC | Georgia Tech | Auburn | USC |