By now, you're likely aware of the implications of Saturday's tilt at UCLA, and how the winner takes a giant step in the direction of the Pac-12 South Championship. You know what the impact could mean in recruiting, with both schools jostling for supremacy in arguably the best recruiting class California has seen in a decade. You're cognizant of what a third consecutive victory could mean for Jim Mora as he tries to position the Bruins as the preeminent power in Los Angeles, and what kind of boost it could provide Steve Sarkisian in a bumpy first season in charge of the Trojans.

I don't need to tell you any of that, nor do I need to mention this: That, no matter what week of the season it is played, no matter the records of the teams going into the contest, whether the rosters are star studded or stripped bare of talent, if it determines a spot in the college football playoff or they are fighting to avoid being 2-10, USC versus UCLA will always matter.

This is a rivalry special enough to exist without context, and to shine through based on its own merits.

So instead of filling this space examining why this week matters, we're instead going to delve into why every USC-UCLA week matters; namely, the history. Saturday will mark the 84th meeting between the crosstown rivals and the eight and a half decades have provided us with every type of game, a select few of which are more special than the others. This is an attempt to rank the best of those.

We're going for overall quality here, so you won't see the 66-19 smack down nor 50-0 beating grace this list. Nor, fortunately, will you see the 13-9 upset in 2006, which reverberated through the college football landscape but was a spectacularly ugly game to actually watch. No, this is a look at the finest played games, no matter the winner, in series history. With any luck, Saturday will provide a showcase on par with any of them. Even if it isn't, though, it will be worth watching all the same. USC versus UCLA always is.

This game is most notable for two things. First, the rivalry debut for two of the more notable coaches in each school's history -- John Robinson for USC and Terry Donahue at UCLA. Second, with the Trojans ranked second and the Bruins third, it was an evenly matched contest that had enormous national implications. The difference between them came in the form of the indomitable Ricky Bell, who rumbled for 167 yard on a bad ankle. This wasn't especially close but it was far from a blowout and the historical implications -- both at the time as well as in retrospect knowing what Robinson and Donahue did for their respective schools -- place this contest on our list.

Three times that season, USC kicker David Bell had attempted a field goal. All three times, he missed. So Bell was a bit of an unlikely protagonist, to put things mildly, when he lined up to attempt a game-winning field goal that would give USC its first back to back wins over the Bruins since 1987-1988. That the Trojans had gotten within striking distance of that feat was due to sophomore Carson Palmer, who turned in what was the finest performance of his young career by completing 70 percent of his passes for 350 yards and four touchdowns against no interceptions. But the hero was Bell, who drilled a 36-yarder with nine second remaining to give Paul Hackett his final regular season win as USC's head coach.

The 1960s were this rivalry's signature decade, with three games cracking this list over a five-year span. This was the first, in which Mike Garrett's sixth-ranked Trojans squared off with Gary Beban's seventh-ranked Bruins in a battle of eventual Heisman winners. An early Mel Farr touchdown run aside, the Trojans dominated the action and led 16-6 with less than four minutes remaining in the game. That's when disaster struck, as the Bruins recovered a fumble from USC quarterback Troy Winslow, scored on a Beban touchdown pass and punched in a two-point conversion for good measure. Then, two plays after recovering the ensuing onside kick, UCLA put the game to bed on a 52-yard bomb from Beban to Kurt Altenberg. The Bruins would leapfrog the Trojans in the polls and eventually defeat Michigan State in the Rose Bowl.

The stakes were higher than they'd ever been in 1952, the first year in which both USC and UCLA came into the series without a loss or tie blemishing their records. It's only fitting, then, that a completely unprecedented scenario yielded two unheard of touchdowns for the Trojans, each one coming by the combination of back Jim Sears and wingback Al Carmichael. The first came on a botched reverse attempt, when Carmichael -- overrun by defenders and desperate not to lose yards -- pitched the ball back to Sears. Some 50-years later, a similar play by Reggie Bush would cost the Trojans dearly in the 2005 national championship game but on this night, it worked, as Sears jetted 75 yards for the score. The pair would later score a more conventional touchdown when Sears completed a short pass to Carmichael but the story was in the setup, which came by way of a 72-yard interception return by lumbering All-American guard Elmer Willhoite. The Trojans would lose their next game to Notre Dame, but recover in the Rose Bowl and edge Wisconsin 7-0 for their ninth victory in The Granddaddy of Them All.

On one side stood Rob Johnson, the strapping 6-foot-4 quarterback who would leave USC with his name in the record books en route to a 10-year NFL career. On the other was John Barnes, a walk-on who began the year as UCLA's fifth-string signal caller, who would never again play football after that night. USC was tied for the conference lead; UCLA had just one week earlier wheezed past Oregon 9-6. This, needless to say, was a mismatch of titanic proportions and for three quarters it would play out as expected, with the Trojans leading by as much as 21. But early in the fourth quarter the tide turned when Barnes orchestrated the most unlikely comeback in the history of the rivalry, ripping more than 175 yards of passes to JJ Stokes in that quarter alone, including an astonishing 90-yard catch and run that put UCLA in front 38-31. The Trojans would score one last touchdown with 41 seconds remaining but the Bruins would bat down the ensuing two-point conversion, sealing the victory. As for Barnes, he finished with 385 yards and three touchdowns, and became one of the signature UCLA heroes in the rivalry.

Nearly a decade before Michael Jordan's famed flu game, Rodney Peete carved out a place in USC lore with the measles game. Peete missed nearly the entire week of practice leading up to the clash with the sixth-ranked Bruins, and what was supposed to be a widely hyped battle between Peete and UCLA's Troy Aikman instead figured to pit USC sophomore Pete O'Hara against the future NFL star. Instead, Peete stunned the Rose Bowl crowd by not only playing, but leading second-ranked USC to a convincing victory over their fourth-ranked crosstown rivals and a spot in the 1989 Rose Bowl.

Few Trojans ever were more talented than the mercurial Todd Marinovich, and his performance in this game as a redshirt sophomore provided the best glimpses of what could be after a tumultuous season that saw him benched earlier that year. That it ultimately represented the pinnacle of his USC career makes his time at Troy one of the great "What if?" questions in school history. There was no shortage of pyrotechnics in this one, which featured six combined touchdowns and four lead changes in the fourth quarter alone. But the enduring moment is the game-winner, which came courtesy of a pinpoint 23-yard rope from Marinovich to Johnnie Morton with 16 seconds remaining. It became the defining moment in the All-American career of "Johnnie Hero," and figured to be the first of many for Marinovich. Instead, it wound up becoming the last, too.

Unlike other back-and-forth rivalries, the crosstown battle is largely marked by one team dominating entire decades; the 1980s -- which saw UCLA edge USC five wins to four -- is the only decade in which one school has less than a four-win advantage over the other since they began playing regularly in the 1940s. So perhaps it's no surprise, then, that just one game in the history of the series has gone to overtime. Nor, given how many classics the two teams have produced, should it be a shock that it was arguably the most electric game they've ever competed in together. No game in the series produced more points than this one, which required not one extra period but two to decide the winner after USC's Adam Abrams had his game-winning 39-yard field goal attempt blocked as time expired in regulation. Abrams came through in overtime -- as did UCLA's Bjorn Merten -- but the Bruins escaped the Rose Bowl with the win when Skip Hicks scampered into the end zone for a decisive 25-yard touchdown.

Was it a catch, or wasn't it? 45 years later, Sam Dickerson's decisive 32-yard touchdown still sparks debate between fans of both schools. Both the scoreline and the circumstances -- each school was undefeated and playing for a spot in the Rose Bowl -- mirrored the 1952 game, as did the eventual result. The conclusiveness is another story. The throw itself was a beauty, as Jimmy Jones -- erratic all day -- whipped the ball to the back right corner of the end zone. That's where Dickerson, working inside a postage stamp of space, snagged it and dragged his right leg to complete the catch. But with so little space and far fewer camera angles than we have today showing the play, the footage is far from decisive. So, was it a catch?

Just as Reggie Bush had Fresno State in 2005 and Anthony Davis had Notre Dame in 1972, OJ Simpson had UCLA in 1967. This was the only possible choice for the best game in the series, the rare contest with Game of the Century billing that not only lived up to the hype, but perhaps even exceeded it. There were stakes -- a trip to the Rose Bowl, for starters, and the overwhelming likelihood that the winner would be declared national champion. There was star power in the form of Beban, the eventual Heisman winner that year, and Simpson, who would win the year after. There were big plays galore, from Beban's 52-yard touchdown bomb to Earl McCullough's 53-yard reverse for USC to maybe the greatest play in USC history, Simpon's historic 67-yard slalom down the left sideline for a 64-yard touchdown in the third quarter to put USC in front for good. The two stars lived up to the billing, with Beban throwing for 301 yards despite playing with bruised ribs and Simpson finishing with 177 yards and two touchdowns. And there was a clear victor despite the tight final score, as the Trojan defense did not allow UCLA to cross midfield after Simpson's run. Nearly fifty years later, it still holds up, not just as the greatest game in a great rivalry but one of the best games the sport has ever seen.