The 115th edition of the Big Game will not start a new tradition of midseason rivalry clashes between Stanford and Cal. But this year the Bay Area drew the short straw from the Pac-12, which ran into TV scheduling conflicts with the addition of a conference championship game.

At least the Stanford players and coaches are focused on the bright side of things — and a sunny outcome.

“I don’t like it,” Stanford coach David Shaw said. “I think it’s weird. I think it’s different. But at the same time, The Big Game week is always a snapshot in time. You don’t worry about what happened before, you don’t worry about what’s going to happen afterwards. This week is its own entity.”

“People really get into it,” said Stanford nickelback Usua Amanam, who played high school football at Bellarmine Prep in San Jose. “I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, where I guess you could say people don’t love their football as much as they would naturally in Texas or the South or something like that. But it’s good to see my classmates and people that I went to school with and people around the area really just getting into the aura of the Big Game — like it’s the biggest game. Because it is. I guess that’s why they call it that.”

Shaw finished high school across the Bay before his playing days at Stanford in the early 1990s. That meant he had a grasp of the rivalry as a freshman, although many don’t because the Cardinal, due to its academic standards, tends to recruit from a national pool of talent.

“I didn’t really look too hard into the rivalries with Stanford,” sad senior linebacker Chase Thomas, who hails from Georgia. “Growing up in SEC country, it’s more Georgia-Florida or Auburn-Alabama. But being here for five years now, it’s definitely grown on me every year since.”

“When freshmen come in, and the week starts, it feels like any other week to them,” Shaw said. “And then by the time Friday kind of rolls around, they realize that this is different. And once gameday shows up, they realize that the atmosphere is going to be different than any regular-season game.”

Even Amanam didn’t pay close attention until Jim Harbaugh’s first year at The Farm, when the Cardinal upset Cal in 2007 — 20-13.

“If you live in the Bay Area, you’re around the Big Game and you’re aware of it at a very young age,” Amanam said. “And I always followed it, but not really that closely until I really started getting recruited by Stanford.”

Stanford already played emotional games against some of its other rivals, like the upset of USC and last week’s overtime loss at Notre Dame. But there’s something different about the Big Game.

“With this one, you feel it a little bit more just because they’re so close,” Cardinal tight end Levine Toilolo said. “You can kind of feel it within the community and on campus. And playing for the Axe is definitely a different feeling that you get. I think you feel it more as you get older into the program. My freshman year, I didn’t really feel the sense of a rivalry game with them. But I think this year it’s definitely exciting to take part in it.”

The more things change, the more they stay the same. That’s the common sentiment about what to expect at Memorial Stadium once the Big Game kicks off at noon on Saturday.

“It’s a little awkward because ususally the Big Game is our last game of the season,” Amanam said. “But it is what it is because of the new Pac-12 schedule and TV contracts. I think everyone will be ready to go regardless of the weather outside. It’s Stanford-Cal.”

Amanam stands 5-foot-10 and 176 pounds. That’s hardly the most imposing figure on a high school football team, let alone a nationally ranked NCAA Div. I program. “He’s not the biggest guy out there,” Shaw said. “He’s typically the littlest guy out there, and he goes hard. He is physical and he has no fear.” It was one thing when Amanam tried to run over players on offense, but Amanam made the shift from running back to cornerback during the 2011 spring drills. “No one can ever really be too big for you,” said Amanam, who played both ways at Bellarmine. “I think the biggest thing is just having confidence, trusting in your abilities. Regardless of how big a person is, as long as you have the right technique you can always bring them down. I’ve always been the smallest guy on the field, so it’s nothing new.”

The offense has yet to score a touchdown on the road, with Thomas the only player to reach the end zone last week after a fumble recovery. At least the Big Game’s shift to October could turn into a positive after the downpour at Notre Dame. “I’m concerned,” Shaw said of the Cardinal’s struggles on the road. “I’m better that we’re closer to home. I’m also glad that weather should not be an issue in this game.”