As part of senior day celebrations held earlier this month for Stanford's final home game of the regular season, outgoing players wore T-shirts that read: "Last Walk."

Fifth-year linebacker Chase Thomas joked Sunday that players are "going to have to change the date" on those mementos.

While Andrew Luck is gone, the eighth-ranked Cardinal (10-2, 8-1) are surprisingly where they've wanted to be all along: hosting the Pac-12 Conference championship game Friday night in a quick rematch against No. 17 UCLA (9-3, 6-3), which overtook preseason No. 1 Southern California to capture the South Division crown.

A week after Stanford stunned Oregon in overtime, the Cardinal crushed the Bruins 35-17 at the Rose Bowl to seal a spot in the title game and set up a Part II.