The 2020 Stanford Cardinal football team represented

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

in the

2020 NCAA Division I FBS football season The 2020 NCAA Division I FBS football season was the 151st season of college football games in the United States. Organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at its highest level of competition, the Football Bowl Subdivision ...

. The Cardinal were led by tenth-year head coach David Shaw. They played their home games at

Stanford Stadium Stanford Stadium is an outdoor college football stadium on the west coast of the United States, located on the campus of Stanford University in Stanford, California. It is the home of the Stanford Cardinal and hosts the university's commencemen ...

as members of the North Division of the

Pac-12 Conference The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...

. On August 11, the Pac-12 Conference initially canceled all fall sports competitions due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. On September 24, the conference announced that a six-game conference-only season would begin on November 6, with the

Pac-12 Championship Game The Pac-12 Football Championship Game is an annual college football game held by the Pac-12 Conference to determine the season's conference champion. The game from the 2011–2021 seasons had the champion of the North Division against the champi ...

to be played December 18. Teams not selected for the championship game would be seeded to play a seventh game. On December 13, with a record of 3-2 and one game left to play, the program announced that it would not participate in any bowl game. The Cardinal won their final game, finishing their season with a 4-2 record.

Previous season

They finished the 2019 season 4–8, 3–6 in Pac-12 play, to finish last place in the North Division. This was Stanford's worst record since

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

and the first time that they did not earn bowl eligibility since

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

Pac-12 media day

Pac-12 media poll

In the Pac-12 preseason media poll, Stanford was voted to finish fourth in the Pac-12 North division.

Schedule

Stanford had games scheduled against William & Mary (September 5), Notre Dame (October 10), and

BYU Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day S ...

(November 28), but canceled these games on July 10 due to the Pac-12 Conference's decision to play a conference-only schedule due to the

Personnel

Coaching staff

Game summaries

At Oregon

Colorado

At California

At Washington

At Oregon State

At UCLA

Rankings

Players drafted into the NFL

References

{{Stanford Cardinal football navbox

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

Stanford Cardinal football seasons

Stanford Cardinal football The Stanford Cardinal football program represents Stanford University in college football at the NCAA Division I FBS level and is a member of the Pac-12 Conference's North Division. The team is known as the Stanford Cardinal, Cardinal, adopted pri ...