Oregon-Stanford Pac-10 Showdown: We'll Leave the Light On

When I was in elementary school, my parents established a strict rule: be in bed by 8:30 pm Monday-Thursday.

Now thanks to my brother Mike and I's pre-law reasoning and ability to break down my parents' will, all at the ripe old age of eight, this Fowler Law was amended in the years to come.

We eventually bartered with them to allow us the privilege of staying up until 9 pm one school night a week.

Without hesitation, my weekly extra 30 minutes of dramatic bliss would fall on Mondays.

Only one Angus MacGyver could do so much with so little in a confined space from 8 to 9 pm.

They say imitation is the ultimate form of flattery—though I'm surprised it took MacGruber 18 years to make a splash on Saturday Night Live.

Yes, this entire third grade scrapbook, footy pajamas retrospective ties into this weekend's Pac-10 Showdown. The undefeated Stanford Cardinal traveling to Eugene, Oregon to take on the Ducks in one of the most eardrum-shattering stadiums in the country is not to be missed.

If I were a young tot who loved, ate, slept, and breathed (you remember the t-shirts) football, I would throw the red flag on the 9 pm bedtime. This is the type of prime time event that is worth staying up for, and thanks to advertising dollars, many of you parents are lucky it's on so early.

Otherwise, it would be YOU ready to hit the hay before halftime. This game was originally slated to kick off at 11:15 pm Eastern Standard Time.

WhatIfSports: CFB Game of the Week

"As a quarterback, I am looking forward to watching Oregon's Spread Offense versus Stanford's Pro-Style system," Chris Rix said. "With the showdown being nationally televised, I believe that a lot of college football fans across the country will be willing to stay up and watch a Pac-10 team, other than USC, as well."

Three hours is all that's denying most of the nation from a conference on the rise. It's why I reached out to Fox Sports college football analyst Chris Rix to get his thoughts on the Pac-10's "while you were sleeping" climb to the top of the BCS conversation in 2010.

"It seemed like just yesterday, I called it the 'WAC-10,'" Rix said. "The football conference on the left coast had USC on the 'conference throne,' and everyone else was privileged to be sitting on the steps that cardinal and gold royalty walked on en route to BCS. Now, it looks like the conference has shaken the beach sand out of its ears, and I surprisingly find myself referring to the conference as the 'MAC-10.'"

But Rix isn't suggesting the Pac-10 pack a spread-offense clip and start an East Coast-West Coast college football, NCAA student-athlete, field turf war. The SEC mantle is loaded with crystal footballs and, thus it's their conference and everybody else for now.

"I feel that the SEC still remains the strongest conference in the country as well as the most consistent year in and year out," Rix said. "The past four national champions have come from the SEC (Alabama '09, FLA '08, LSU '07, FLA '06). Notice I didn't say the past two or even three or four straight. Until a national champion emerges from another conference, I don't believe that we can start to take the title as 'power conference' away from the SEC."

Rix, however, was quick to take a 10-step drop on crowning the SEC top dog THIS year.

"Even though the SEC still possesses four undefeated teams with Alabama, Auburn, Florida, and LSU, the Pac-10 rivals that with four undefeated teams of their own. On top of that, an average UCLA team just went into Austin and corralled the Texas Longhorns 34-12. Not too shabby."

As for whom college football fans east of the Mississippi should pull for on Saturday night, it is much like deciding on a right-before-bed dessert. Just make sure your kid brother and you receive the same amount of mint chocolate chip ice cream.

"With the businesslike approach Jim Harbaugh instills and the razzle-dazzle, hi-def, plasma-swagger that Chip Kelly displays, the only question is whether you prefer the blue-collars of Stanford or the blue-rays of Oregon," Rix said.

This leads to another practical question: Do you think MacGyver DVDs are available in HD yet?