The Stanford football team stated its case for a BCS bowl berth in emphatic fashion on Saturday night, defeating Oregon State, 38-0, in the final game of its regular season. The Cardinal will now be forced to wait for a week before learning its final bowl destination, as the final games of college football’s regular season don’t wrap up until next weekend.

No. 6 Stanford (11-1, 8-1 Pac-10) now has the most wins in the program’s history, which stretches back to the founding of the University in 1892.

In a game that Stanford head coach Jim Harbaugh described as “thorough all the way around,” the Cardinal dominated the Beavers on both sides of the ball. Stanford’s offense rolled up yards on Oregon State’s defense, with a balanced attack generating yardage through the air and on the ground.

Sophomore Stepfan Taylor led the running attack—he gained 124 yards on 14 carries, punctuated by a long 62-yard touchdown run in the third quarter. With his performance, Taylor went over 1,000 yards rushing on the season, becoming only the sixth Stanford back to accomplish that feat. Overall, Stanford gained 165 yards on the ground.

However, the story of the day on offense was the passing game. Redshirt sophomore quarterback Andrew Luck turned in a complete game, annihilating the Oregon State secondary with a 305-yard, four-touchdown performance. Of course, Luck was helped by his receivers, who turned in some great plays of their own.

One such play came late in the second quarter, when Luck completed a pass over the middle to senior receiver Doug Baldwin. Baldwin caught the ball on the left hash mark, eluded one defender’s grasp and juked around two more players on his way into the right corner of the end zone. Overall, Baldwin scored two touchdowns on the day on five receptions for 97 yards.

“Andrew gave me the eye saying it was okay to go up behind [the linebacker],” Baldwin said. “I got the ball in the perfect place, and I just let my instincts take over after that.”

Stanford also got another great catch-and-run from sophomore tailback Tyler Gaffney. On the first play of the fourth quarter, Gaffney lined up as a wide receiver on the right side. Luck hit him with a short screen, and Gaffney simply raced past the defense up the right side of the field. He eluded a final tackler inside the 10-yard line and went into the end zone for a touchdown. The 52-yard play was Luck’s longest pass of the game.

Stanford’s defensive play was also very impressive. The game marked the third time the Cardinal has shut out a Pac-10 opponent this season—Stanford also pulled the feat against UCLA in its first conference game of the season and against Washington at the end of October.

“Our defensive coordinator, Vic Fangio, can’t get enough praise,” said redshirt sophomore linebacker Chase Thomas. “A shutout is the best compliment you can give the defense.”

Thomas had an excellent game himself, leading the Stanford defense in a number of statistical categories. He led the team in sacks with 2.5, tackles for loss with 3.5, and overall tackles with nine, as well as forcing a fumble and deflecting a pass.

With Stanford among the country’s best teams at 11-1, the Cardinal must now contemplate the various possibilities that could see it land in one of the prestigious BCS bowls. While Stanford is ranked highly in every major poll, including the BCS standings, it is not guaranteed a spot in a BCS bowl unless it finishes in the top four of the BCS standings or wins the Pac-10—an impossibility due to Oregon’s position at the top of the conference.

However, both the players and Harbaugh believe that the team is worthy of a BCS invitation.

“I think we are the best one-loss team in the country,” Thomas said. “Our offense is really hard to stop right now, they’re so reliable, and our defense made so many strides from last year. I don’t see why we shouldn’t go to a BCS game.”

“Our guys have stated the case on the field,” Harbaugh said. “We’re not lobbyists, we’re not campaigners.

“We’ve impressed the heck out of 11 teams we played this season,” he continued. “The voters should be impressed—this is one heck of a football team.”

While some coaches publicly stump for their teams to be included in bowl games, Harbaugh reiterated that he has no plans to do something similar.

“I think we’ve done all the lobbying we can do on the field,” he said.

Unlike Stanford, Oregon State is still trying to gain bowl eligibility. The Beavers need just one win to become eligible, but their only remaining game is a rivalry game next weekend against the country’s No. 1 team, Oregon.

“Our only deal left for this team is to do everything we can to prepare for that game next week and win it,” said Oregon State head coach Mike Riley.

Luck also garnered a lot of postgame praise, both for his performance against the Beavers and throughout the season. With his performance, Luck is over 3,000 passing yards for the season, only the fourth Stanford quarterback to reach that mark in a single season. His four touchdown passes also give him 28 for the season, a total which breaks the mark held by John Elway and Steve Stenstrom for the most by a Stanford quarterback in history.

Luck is also currently in the running for the Heisman Trophy, presented to the country’s top college football player, and Harbaugh gushed with praise after the game.

“He’s the best player, he’s the most valuable player, on maybe the best team in the country,” Harbaugh said. “He has done everything a guy could do in this season that plays the quarterback position…I really feel like Andrew is head and shoulders above them all.

“[He has] the quality of playing great when the game is on the line,” Harbaugh added later. “That quality separates the great ones from the very good ones. He’s got it. It’s an “it” thing, maybe, but he’s got it.”

However, Luck himself wasn’t quite as effusive when discussing his candidacy.

“I don’t really have an opinion on what my chances are,” he said. “My whole philosophy toward it has been: if I’m good enough to win it, I’ll win it; if I’m not, I’m not. I’ll just let my play do the talking.”