Someone Bet $3,000 on Stanford at 100-1 to Win the Title

All the Pac-12 hype, as usual, centers aroundUSC andUCLA, partially because of what happened with each school in the offseason, and also because they’re the most storied programs in conference.

Looking for a sleeper? Stanford, which we’ve ranked 18th in the country. After Jim Harbaugh departed for the NFL in 2011, David Shaw took over the team and proceeded to go 11-2, 12-2 and 11-3 before dipping to 8-5 last year.

Why are the Cardinal a sleeper? QB Kevin Hogan had a sneaky-good 2014 season – 65% completions, 19 TD passes, and he looked sharp in the late-season rout of UCLA, offsetting a terrible performance in an October loss to Notre Dame. He’s a mid-round NFL prospect.

The offensive line has four senior starters, led by tackle Kyle Murphy, who will be drafted in 2016.

The schedule is favorable. Toughest road game? USC. After that? Northwestern, Oregon State and Washington State all had losing records in 2014, and won’t be much-improved. The last three games in the USC/Stanford series have been 1-score games.

Why bring up Stanford at all? Via ESPN Chalk:

"• The MGM Mirage took a $3,000 bet on Stanford at 100-1 to win the national championship from a house player in August. The same bettor also put approximately $1,750 on Boise State to win it all at 175-1."

USC’s schedule is more much challenging, with trips to Arizona State, Notre Dame, California (which has a potential 1st round pick at QB) and Oregon.

UCLA has a true freshman starting at QB.

If you’ve got a shekel or two, Stanford’s not a bad longshot to win the title.