In what looks to be one of the biggest college football weekends of the season, both Ohio State and Penn State will travel close to 2,500 miles west this weekend for their first Big Ten Conference road games in the Pacific time zone.
 
Saturday's high-profile matchups are highlighted by the second-ranked Buckeyes visiting Eugene for a prime-time matchup against third-ranked Oregon, while the fourth-ranked Nittany Lions battle USC in Los Angeles at the Coliseum.
 
Results of these contests will have an impact on who qualifies for the Big Ten Championship Game and has a leg up on the journey to the College Football Playoff with a first-round bye. The programs have built themselves to the top of college football and re-shaped the landscape on a national level.
 
Although they may be non-traditional conference foes now, their impact on the postseason lives forever.
 
The Buckeyes dominate the series with the Ducks, winning nine of 10 games. Of the nine wins, none is larger than Ohio State's 42-20 victory in the inaugural College Football Playoff National Championship in Dallas for the 2014-15 season.
 
The Penn State-USC series is more balanced with the Trojans holding a 6-4 all-time advantage. The first matchup occurred in 1923 when USC won, 14-3, in the first New Year's Day bowl game hosted in Pasadena's new stadium called the Rose Bowl.
 
Fifty-nine years later to the day, history came in the Arizona desert when the Nittany Lions and Trojans played in the Fiesta Bowl's first New Year's Day game.
 
This was a major step for an organization that only hosted 10 bowl games in its history. It was always the Fiesta Bowl's dream to move to New Year's Day and ultimately to become a national championship game host.
 
"I remember being in a hospitality suite at the 1981 NCAA Convention in Miami when I overheard the Sugar Bowl would move to a night game," said Bruce Skinner, who served as Fiesta Bowl Executive Director from 1980-90. "Their broadcast partner, ABC, wanted to go head-to-head with the Orange Bowl. This left the Cotton Bowl as the only game in the morning."
 
Skinner kept this groundbreaking news quiet until he left the convention. There was a lot of excitement in Arizona, but they still needed to get a major approval before beginning the process.
 
"Our first call was to our broadcast partner NBC since they had to approve it," recalled Skinner. "They believed we could compete with the Cotton, but more importantly it would give them all-day programming on New Year's Day, including the Rose Parade, Fiesta Bowl, Rose Bowl and Orange Bowl. There was not a lot of channel surfing back then so it would help their ratings."
 
Although there were no rules that prevented a bowl from moving its date, the NCAA Post-Season Football Committee declined the initial request. The Fiesta Bowl appealed to the NCAA Council who ruled the committee had no authority to determine a date or time for any bowl game.
 
The Fiesta Bowl officially became a major bowl game hosted on January 1, 1982, starting with a Penn State/USC matchup.
 
The advantage the Fiesta Bowl had over the other New Year's Day bowl games was that it did not have a contractual relationship to host a conference champion. This opened their playbook on potential matchups, but also increased pressure on having the best matchup before a nationally televised audience.
 
Entering the 1981 season, both Penn State and USC had their eyes on a national championship and for the Trojans, another Pac-10 Championship and Rose Bowl appearance.
 
USC was powered by 1981 Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Allen who ran for more than 2,000 yards and 22 touchdowns. Penn State was also committed to the ground game with Curt Warner rushing for more than 1,000 yards and 12 touchdowns. Todd Blackledge, in his first full year as starting quarterback, added 12 touchdown passes.
 
Both teams started strong and during the season were ranked No. 1 by the Associated Press at various times.
 
With both the Nittany Lions and Trojans having two losses but still ranked in the top 10, the Fiesta Bowl saw its opportunity to have a premier matchup for its inaugural New Year's Day game. They did not wait until the season concluded to make their bids to host the Nittany Lions and Trojans.
 
"Ratings were important to our success and growth," said Skinner. "We could compete with the Cotton Bowl and other bowls in terms of ticket revenue, but the opportunity was in television.
 
"There wasn't an expectation from NBC we would beat the Cotton Bowl. They wanted it to be competitive. Things opened when we got Penn State and USC for our first matchup. These were two storied programs located in incredible media markets."
 
A capacity crowd of more than 70,000 fans attended the game at Sun Devil Stadium.
 
Penn State jumped out to an early 7-0 lead before USC's defense tied the game in the first quarter when Chip Banks intercepted a Blackledge pass for 20 yards and a touchdown.
 
The Nittany Lions followed with 17 unanswered points highlighted by a 52-yard TD pass from Blackledge to Gregg Garrity in the second quarter and Warner's second TD of the game in the third.
 
Penn State won its third Fiesta Bowl win in five years, 26-10, over the Trojans.
 
When Ohio State-Oregon and Penn State-USC get together this weekend, it will once again be historic. The only difference is that it will count in the conference standings in the new world of college football.