Phil Steele ranks Stanford's schedule as one of the toughest in the country

Stanford has a gauntlet of a schedule in 2022

Stan Szeto-USA TODAY Sports

Typically what helps a struggling program, like Stanford has been the past couple years, is to beat up on some mediocre teams to build confidence the rest of the way.

However, their 2022 schedule does them no favors as after Week 1 there is a legitimate chance that they can be beat by every team remaining on the schedule. Stanford has the pleasure of taking on all the projected top teams in the Pac-12 such as Utah, USC, Oregon, and UCLA. Not to mention that two out of their three out of conference games are against likely top-25 teams.

While ESPN's FPI ranked their strength of schedule in 30s, college football expert Phil Steele ranked the toughest schedules in the country and Stanford was much higher than the FPI had them. According to Steele, Stanford has the No. 7 toughest schedule in the country ranking above notable teams such as Texas A&M, Ohio State, and Texas. Here is what he had to say about Stanford's unfavorable schedule:

For Stanford, you might as well get the season's toughest games out of the way early, right? The Cardinal battle USC, Washington and Oregon in September before traveling to Notre Dame Oct. 15. David Shaw will know just how good this team really is by that junction and from there, Stanford will try and get to bowl eligibility against the likes of Utah and BYU the rest of the way. This is Stanford's toughest schedules in years and may include five games against top 20 competition depending on how things shake out.

Stanford will need major improvements across both the offensive and defensive line, along with a little luck to get them their this brutal schedule.