Stanford Cardinal football
2025 Stanford Cardinal football team
First season	1891; 134 years ago[n 1]
Athletic director	John Donahoe
General manager	Andrew Luck
Head coach	Frank Reich (interim) 1st season, 1–3 (.250)
Stadium	Stanford Stadium (capacity: 50,424)
Field	Foster Field
Year built	1921
Field surface	Grass
Location	Stanford, California
NCAA division	Division I FBS
Conference	ACC
Past conferences	Independent (1891–1905) PCC (1919–1958) AAWU (1959–1967) Pac 8 (1968–1977) Pac 10 (1978–2010) Pac 12 (2011–2024)
All-time record	665–481–49 (.577)
Bowl record	15–14–1 (.517)
Claimed national titles	2 (1926, 1940)
Conference titles	16
Division titles	5
Rivalries	California (rivalry) Notre Dame (rivalry) Oregon (rivalry) San Jose State (rivalry) UCLA (rivalry) USC (rivalry)
Heisman winners	Jim Plunkett – 1970
Consensus All-Americans	37
Current uniform
Colors	Cardinal and white[1]
Fight song	"Come Join The Band" (official) "All Right Now" (de facto)
Mascot	None[n 2]
Marching band	Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band
Outfitter	Nike
Website	GoStanford.com

The Stanford Cardinal football program represents Stanford University in college football at the NCAA Division I FBS level and is a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference. The program was previously in the Pac-12 Conference. The team is known as the Cardinal, adopted prior to the 1982 season.^[2] Stanford was known as the "Cardinal" for its first two decades of athletic competition,^[3] then more commonly as the "Cardinals" until 1930.^[4] The name was changed to the "Indians" from 1930 to January 1972,^[5] and back to the "Cardinals" from 1972 through 1981. A student vote in December 1975 to change the nickname to "Robber Barons" was not approved by administrators.^[5][6]

Stanford has fielded football teams every year since 1892 with a few exceptions. Like a number of other teams from the era concerned with violence in the sport, the school dropped football in favor of rugby from 1906 to 1917. The school also did not field a team in 1918 (due to World War I) or in 1943, 1944, and 1945 (due to World War II).

The school participated in the first-ever Rose Bowl against Michigan in 1902, in which they were routed 49–0. Its annual Big Game against California is the oldest and most storied rivalry in the western United States. The Cardinal also compete for the Legends Trophy against independent rival Notre Dame.

The program has an all-time record of 664–478–49 for a winning percentage of .578^[7]> Stanford left the Pac-12 with winning series records against all of its Pac-12 North rivals, except for the Washington Huskies, against whom they are tied 43–43–4.^[8][9] Stanford claimed national championships in 1926 and 1940. In 1926, led by coach Pop Warner, the team was undefeated in the regular season and tied Alabama in the 1927 Rose Bowl. The 1940 team went unbeaten and untied after defeating Nebraska 21–13 in the 1941 Rose Bowl, but the team ranked No. 2 in the final AP poll released before the game was played.

Pop Warner's era predated the AP poll, but Stanford has finished at least one season in the Top 10 in six different decades under seven different coaches: Tiny Thornhill in 1934, Clark Shaughnessy in 1940, Chuck Taylor in 1951, John Ralston in 1970 and 1971, Bill Walsh in 1992, Jim Harbaugh in 2010, and David Shaw in 2011, 2012, and 2015. Coach Shaw, as of the 2017 season, has the most wins of any Stanford coach in history. Stanford's most recent season finish in the top 5 was in 2015 after the No. 5 Cardinal dismantled Big Ten West Division Champion No. 6 Iowa Hawkeyes 45–16 in the 2016 Rose Bowl to finish with a record of 12–2 (Stanford's third 12-win season ever, after 2010 and 2012) and a final ranking of No. 3 in the final AP Poll and the final Coaches Poll (Stanford's highest AP Poll ranking since 1940 and its highest Coaches Poll ranking ever).

The Cardinal have played in 30 bowl games in their history, including 17 appearances in bowls now comprising the College Football Playoff, specifically 15 Rose Bowls (the third-most appearances of any team, behind only USC's 33 appearances and Michigan's 22),^{[citation needed]} the 2011 Orange Bowl, and the 2012 Fiesta Bowl.

Quarterback Jim Plunkett is the only Stanford player to win the Heisman Trophy, doing so in 1970. Stanford players have finished second in Heisman voting six times: quarterback John Elway was second to Herschel Walker in 1982; running back Toby Gerhart was second to Mark Ingram II in 2009; quarterback Andrew Luck finished second to Cam Newton in 2010 and to Robert Griffin III in 2011; running back Christian McCaffrey finished second to Derrick Henry in 2015; and running back Bryce Love finished second to Baker Mayfield in 2017.^[10]

As of September 10, 2025, 271 former Cardinal have played in an NFL or AFL regular-season game.^[11]

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