Joey Johnston

On Saturday, the Florida Gators and Texas Longhorns will come dressed as national-title contenders.

Florida, seeking to recover from its recent offensive hangover, faces Georgia in the “World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party.’’ Texas goes to Oklahoma State, facing one of its biggest tests, but confident that it has the right stuff to hang in the race, maybe even leaping to No. 1 with another overwhelming performance.

But the biggest game is Halloween night at Autzen Stadium — USC at Oregon — where the stakes couldn’t be higher for the Pac-10 (or college football’s BCS Cinderella story).

USC (6-1, 3-1) is trying to keep alive its streak of seven consecutive seasons with at least a share of the Pac-10 title. (Won’t it be fascinating to see if Pete Carroll’s crew can summon back their big-game mojo? Or are you thinking more along the lines of watching Carroll raise another trophy — this one from the Holiday Bowl?)

Oregon (6-1, 4-0) has snuck back into the national consciousness after the season-opening 19-8 knockout loss at Boise State. (This could be one of the biggest games Autzen Stadium has ever seen. What uniform combination will Oregon players wear for the occasion?)

And speaking of Boise State, the Broncos are the world’s largest Oregon fans. Boise State (7-0) is hoping for calamity after calamity to hit the contenders — an unlikely prospect, indeed — but its flimsy BCS platform is supported ONLY by Oregon running the table. If the Ducks go down, Boise State’s candidacy slips through the drain.

A month or so ago, USC-Oregon seemed like an afterthought.

The Trojans, after all, had inexplicably fallen at Washington 16-13.

The Ducks were seemingly erased from existence after losing at Boise State.

Now USC-Oregon could be for the Pac-10 title — and perhaps a whole lot more.

The Trojans have moved to No. 5 in the BCS standings, jumping up two spots, and proving that the loss against Washington already has been forgiven. Let’s say USC goes 11-1. With its schedule (visits to Ohio State and Notre Dame, plus a swing through the juiced-up Pac-10), the Trojans will have a case for muscling into the national-title picture.

Oregon is at No. 10 and poised for a springboard leap if it can defeat USC. Let’s say the Ducks finish 11-1 — with 11 straight victories. Tough to call that anything other than impressive.

How did USC and Oregon restore their relevance?

The Trojans haven’t lost in the six games started by freshman quarterback Matt Barkley. The defensive effort has been alternately exhilarating and frustrating, but always enough to get the job done. It’s almost as if USC has been on auto-pilot, knowing when it needs to rev up the engine in key moments, but content to play out the string and let the landscape evolve.

The Ducks, with first-year coach Chip Kelly, a rough opening-night loss at Boise State and the all-time disastrous punctuation mark (LaGarrette Blount’s punch) on those proceedings, seemed ready to be dismissed early from the table and sent to bed.

Who knew that the next two under-the-radar nail-biters — beating Purdue 38-36 and Utah 31-24 — was simply setting the stage for growing confidence and steamrolling momentum? Who knew that this Oregon team was capable of such resilience and camaraderie, which kept it together in the dark moments.

USC-Oregon: The Pac-10 needs this one to be great. The league, which hasn’t produced two BCS bowl teams since 2002, needs the East Coast television viewers, fresh from trick-or-treating, to say, “Wow! Look at that! Best game I’ve seen all year.’’

You can’t go wrong with USC. Everyone knows about the Trojans.

But don’t sell the Ducks short. Maybe this is Oregon’s time to shine in the BCS race. The Ducks were jobbed by the computers in 2001 — it should’ve been Oregon vs. Miami for the national title, let’s be honest — and they seemed headed to a title opportunity in 2007 before Dennis Dixon’s knee crumbled.

USC-Oregon.

Slideshow   Ugliest uniforms in sports Take a look at some of the worst attire worn by athletes in sports history.

No game means more this weekend.

We’ll be watching Florida-Georgia, sure, but the Gators should be in control.

We’ll be following Texas-Oklahoma State, but the Longhorns are simply better than the Dez Bryant-less Cowboys.

USC-Oregon?

Toss-up.

No matter which way it breaks, there’s a season’s worth of interesting subplots that could follow.

When is the last time we could really say that about a midseason game in the Pac-10, which has generally been the personal playground of the USC Trojans? For now, USC has its biggest test of the season, the proving-ground game before a rabid crowd in what is predicted to be a rainy, damp evening.

It’s good for USC and Oregon. It’s good for the Pac-10.

And in the bigger picture, it’s great for college football.

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