I wonder when is the last time Stanford wasnt in the West Region
2005, when they beat UConn in the sweet 16 in KC
The way the seeding rules work now, Stanford will almost always be in the West unless they are displaced by another PAC team, or if the "West" regional is some place like Denver that might actually be close to some non-West teams. And given that the west regional typically has weak attendance, it needs all the help it can get.
I think there's a decent chance both Stanford and Cal are in Spokane (the committee has certainly done that before -- UConn-RU '08, TAMU-Baylor '11).