For the second straight year, the Stanford Cardinal will make at least one appearance on ESPN's College Gameday.

This season, Stanford will make its first appearance on the premier college football pregame program when they face off against the USC Trojans in Los Angeles this Saturday night. And perhaps the top pro prospects in the country in Andrew Luck and Matt Barkley get to tilt in the Coliseum the weekend before Halloween.

Stanford hopes it goes better than last year, when Stanford made their trip to Autzen Stadium in what turned out to be the de facto battle for the Pac-10 conference title. The Cardinal jumped out to a 21-3 lead, only to get obliterated in the second half as the Ducks scored 28 unanswered to cruise to victory.

It's not like Stanford can hope to escape Oregon yet.  Even if they beat USC, Stanford will likely be featured on College Gameday a few weeks from now in Palo Alto--when they take on Oregon.

For more discussion of Stanford football, hit up Rule of Tree.