Stanford Needs a Very Big Game

The Stanford-California football game is 102 years old today and for only the fourth time, it’s actually worth something more than Bay Area bragging rights, alumni pride, a weather-beaten ceremonial ax and a bunch of post-tailgate-party headaches.

If Stanford wins, it’s going to the Rose Bowl. This is semi-new territory for the Cardinal because the Rose Bowl has not been on the line for Stanford in this rivalry since 1940. This must be considered unusual, even in a series that has seen practically everything else and has, through the years, been about as zany as any mayoral race around here . . .

(See Cal’s 57-yard, five-lateral kickoff return for a touchdown, scored by Kevin Moen, through the Stanford band and over trombonist Gary Tyrell in 1982).

Anyway, here’s the situation: Stanford is 6-3, and 6-1 in the Pacific 10. Quarterback Todd Husak of Long Beach is sound. California is 4-6, and 3-4 in the Pac-10. Its quarterback, Kyle Boller, has a separated shoulder.

Husak is a two-year senior starter for Stanford and he’s ready to pass the Cardinal into the Rose Bowl.

Boller, Cal’s freshman quarterback from Newhall Hart High, was injured last week at Oregon and is being replaced by Wes Dalton, a fifth-year senior who wasn’t even on scholarship until three months ago.

This hasn’t been a banner year for the Pac-10, but Stanford’s players do not really care. The situation for them is simple. If Stanford wins, it will play in the Rose Bowl for the first time since 1972.

There are other scenarios with Rose Bowl implications, and they all will be settled in today’s games:

* If Stanford loses and Washington defeats Washington State, the Huskies will go to the Rose Bowl.

* If Stanford and Washington lose and Oregon defeats Oregon State, the Ducks will go to the Rose Bowl.

* If Stanford, Washington and Oregon all lose, Stanford will go to the Rose Bowl.

If anything else happens, they’ll probably flip a coin. However, one thing is certain. The Stanford-Cal game won’t be shown on ABC, which has angered the suits in the Pac-10 office and absolutely infuriated the Stanford and Cal people.

Instead of showing Stanford-Cal at 12:30 p.m., with the Rose Bowl on the line, ABC opted for UCLA-USC, with zip on the line--but with the chance for better ratings because of the larger L.A. market.

As it turns out, ABC’s exclusivity time for Pac-10 football runs from 12:30 p.m.-3:15 p.m.--not 3:30. So Fox Sports Net decided it will cut into the game live at 3:15, show the postgame celebration and then start over at the beginning of the game on tape delay.

Now, if that sounds sort of unusual, it is, but that’s the way things are done around here.

And for the record, that 1940 game, when Stanford had to beat Cal for the Rose Bowl? The Cardinal won, 13-7.

The last time winning the Big Game meant going to the Rose Bowl for either team was in 1924. Stanford went that time too, even though the game ended in a 20-20 tie. Stanford’s 3-0-1 conference record was better than Cal’s 2-0-2.

In 1958, Cal needed a victory over Stanford to make the Rose Bowl and Joe Kapp led the Bears in, 16-15.

The Stanford-Cal series began in 1892 and Stanford holds a 51-39-11 edge (there were no games for seven years during World Wars I and II). Stanford has won the last four. Can the Cardinal make it five? Maybe they’ll just flip a coin.