STANFORD, Calif. — Andrew Luck threw four touchdown passes to set a single-season school record and No. 7 Stanford stated its case for a berth in the Bowl Championship Series by beating Oregon State 38-0 Saturday night.
Stepfan Taylor ran for 115 yards and a touchdown and Doug Baldwin caught two TD passes for the Cardinal (11-1, 8-1 Pac-10), who set a school record for wins with an emphatic close to the regular season.
Now Stanford needs to wait a week to learn its bowl fate, hoping for an at-large berth in the BCS with No. 1 Oregon having already wrapped up the Pac-10’s automatic berth.
The Beavers (5-6, 4-4) need to beat the Ducks at home next Saturday to make it to a bowl game for a school-record fifth consecutive season. Ryan Katz threw three interceptions and lost a fumble as Oregon State failed in its first attempt to become bowl eligible.
The weekend got off to a good start for the Cardinal before this game even kicked off. With Boise State losing Friday night and LSU falling to Arkansas earlier Saturday, Stanford has a chance to move up from sixth to fourth in the BCS standings — guaranteeing a berth in one of the high-profile bowls.
While TCU has the inside track for the Rose Bowl, Stanford would be an option for the Fiesta, Orange or Sugar bowls with the Fiesta or Orange being the most likely destinations.
If the Cardinal don’t finish in the top four, they could end up in the Alamo Bowl because they lack the strong following bowls look for as they try to sell out their stadiums. That was evident in the large number of empty seats for a rainy regular-season finale with the students on break for the Thanksgiving holiday. Stanford has sold out its 50,000-seat stadium just once all season against USC, drawing 38,775 Saturday.
This also could be the final home game for Luck and coach Jim Harbaugh. Luck could enter the NFL draft where he would be a high pick and Harbaugh could have offers from higher-profile colleges or the NFL.
If this was the end of an era, Luck made it another memorable one. He broke the Stanford record of 27 TD passes in a season held by John Elway and Steve Stenstrom when he connected with Tyler Gaffney on a 52-yard scoring strike on the opening play of the fourth quarter. Luck finished 21 for 30 for 305 yards.
Taylor scored on a 62-yard burst up the middle midway through the third quarter to make it 31-0 and put him over the 1,000-yard mark for the season — just the sixth Stanford back to reach that total.
The defense did the rest, forcing the five turnovers and holding Jacquizz Rodgers to 76 yards rushing in Stanford’s third shutout of the season.
Luck picked up where he left off in the Big Game last week when he led the Cardinal to scores on all eight drives he played against California. Luck completed all six passes on the opening drive, capped by a 21-yard scoring strike to Zach Ertz.
Oregon State drove into Cardinal territory on its first drive and was poised to go for it on fourth-and-1 from the 34. But coach Mike Riley decided to punt after a false start and Luck drove Stanford 91 yards, capped by a 42-yard pass to Baldwin, for his ninth straight drive that ended in a TD.
The Beavers finally stopped Stanford on the next drive thanks to a sack by Stephen Paea. But Stanford added a 20-yard field goal by Nate Whitaker and a 29-yard TD pass to Baldwin that made it 24-0 at halftime.
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