It is uncommon for most teams to play a non-conference game in the month of November. It's even more uncommon for a non-conference game in November to feature huge BCS implications. Although, against all odds, that's exactly what will transpire on Saturday evening.
With the bright lights on from Palo Alto, the Stanford Cardinal will face the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in their final regular season game of the year. According to Odds Shark, Andrew Luck and the Cardinal opened the week as 6 and 1/2 point favorites, while various gambling websites have the point spread at an even seven points for the showdown.
Stanford still has hopes for a BCS bowl bid and a win over the nationally ranked Irish would be a big boost to their resumé. They also have an outside shot at the Pac-12 Championship game should Oregon to lose to Oregon State. For Notre Dame, while they are experiencing one of their better years of the last decade or so, they only have one big time win thus far, which came against Michigan State. A road win over Stanford would be huge for Brian Kelly's program and could land the Irish in a January bowl game.
For more on the game, head on over to Rule of Tree.