At first glance, USC squaring off with Stanford for the Pac-12 championship on Saturday feels pretty darn normal. The Trojans were picked to win the South Division and the conference in the preseason, and the Cardinal have won two of the past three conference titles.
That "feels pretty darn normal" description, however, is why you need to read the whole novel and not just the ending. The journey matters, and it's been plenty weird in the conference this fall.
You can start with these two teams having already played a surprising game. On Sept.