I'm a sucker for college football tradition, and no one has more of it than Notre Dame, who comes to Husky Stadium on Saturday.

Here is some of what the Irish is bringing with them: 11 recognized national championships, 21 seasons when awarded the national championship by at least one selector, seven Heisman Trophy winners, 12 unbeaten and untied seasons, 42 College Football Hall of Fame players, five Hall of Fame coaches, 10 players in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, 181 first-team All-Americans, 61 NFL first-round draft picks and 28 bowl appearances. Notre Dame has 928 all-time victories and an all-time winning percentage of .738, both second-highest (behind Michigan) in college football history.

Also, the ghosts of:
Knute Rockne, the Hall of Fame coach who made the iconic “Win one for the Gipper” speech, and who died in a plane crash on March 31, 1931;
George Gipp, the great player immortalized by Rockne who died of a throat infection Dec. 12, 1920, at the age of 25; and Harry Stuhldreher, Jim Crowley, Don Miller and Elmer Layden, the famed Four Horsemen.

Last, but certainly not least, an alumni band that will play the “Victory March,” the great fight song originally written in 1908.

In a season with a sadly small number of thrills, those golden helmets running onto the field on a blue, grey October day is something worth soaking in.

Here is today's game preview and this brief highlights box:

NOTRE DAME (4-2)
AT WASHINGTON (0-6,04)
Kickoff: 5 p.m., Husky Stadium
Television: ESPN2. Radio: 950-AM.

The series: Notre Dame leads the series, 6-0. The teams first met in 1948. The most recent meeting came in 2005, a 36-17 Irish win at Husky Stadium.

What to watch: Some fans will be watching the interactions of UW coach Tyrone Willingham and ND coach Charlie Weis, although they have downplayed their relevance all week. The Irish are a heavily pass-oriented team. They use a pro set and sometimes line up with the quarterback alone in the backfield. The UW defense might respond with more of its nickel package. Through six games, Notre Dame has seven interceptions and seven fumble recoveries. The Irish kickoff return team ranks second nationally allowing 16.4 yards per return. Both teams use young players: 12 true freshmen have played for the Huskies, nine for the Irish. Eighteen of Notre Dame’s 21 touchdowns have been scored by underclassmen.

What’s at stake: A loss eliminates the Huskies from bowl consideration and dooms them to their fifth straight losing season. UW is looking for its first win against Notre Dame. An Irish win would move them to within one game of bowl eligibility after falling short last season. However, Notre Dame’s hopes reach considerably beyond mere bowl eligibility and all the way to the kind of major bowl bid they once took for granted.

Another sign of the season's changing: It's time for me to file my predictions in the Pac-10 men's basketball preseason media poll.

My vote is due Monday, so as has become our custom, I'll post a first draft here and you guys can tell me what I might want to reconsider.

Here's the way I'm leaving (influenced somewhat by yesterday's events out of Arizona):

1. UCLA: Lost enough talent to sink almost any program ... except UCLA.

2 USC: Subtract one-and-one O.J. Mayo, add one-and-done DeMar DeRozan. Bring back some solid veterans, add some mostly forgotten injured guys. Who knows what comes out? I don't really see a clear second-best team in the conference this season, so this is sort of a vote that Tim Floyd's system is about to click in.

3. Arizona State: Two huge building blocks in James Harden and Jeff Pendergraph, but I'm not as taken with the rest of the roster as some others are. This is mostly last season's team, plus a year of experience. And last season, they were 9-9 in the conference. (Plus, I picked the ASU football team No. 2, and look where that got me.)

4. Washington: Talented young players complemented by a solid core of veteran leadership. You can count on Jon Brockman as a conference player of the year candidate. But after that, optimism calls for some leaps of faith: That Isaiah Thomas will be a difference-making freshman. That Quincy Pondexter and MBA take solid steps up. That the free-throw hex has passed. If so, the Huskies could go dancing again.

5. Arizona: The Wildcats have become wild cards with the awkward retirement of Lute Olson leaving a lot of confused and probably unhappy players. Will the band together in adversity or fall apart?

6. California: There's a disturbing lack of proven big men, but I think Mike Montgomery might be able to do something with the talent on hand.

7. Washington State: A lot of people I respect don't think the Cougars will fall nearly this far. And Aron Baynes and Taylor Rochestie gives a nice inside-outside foundation for the rebuilding. But I'd be surprised if the replacement parts will be ready this quickly.

8. Oregon: The Ducks paid dues with young players and then got progressively better as they matured. Now it's back to dues-playing time again.

9. Stanford: Goodbye Lopez twins. Goodbye Trent Johnson. Hello rebuilding.

10. Oregon State: New coach Craig Robinson will have to build from the ground up... actually from the basement up. Sticking with the analogy, it's hard to imagine anything but a foundation being laid this season.