Apparently, I have been gone so long that the notion of USC defeating Stanford, in the Coliseum, is such a surprise that fans flood the field.

For most of my life, and we’re talking more than a few decades now, USC beating Stanford was How Things Worked. Football players attended Stanford to have some fun before taking over a Fortune 500 company; USC’s guys went to Troy to polish their game for the NFL.

So, of course, USC dominated the rivalry. If you could rightly call it a “rivalry”. Actually, it was hardly more than a series — dominated by one team.

To wit:

From  1958 through 2008, USC beat Stanford 40 times in 51 meetings, including one tie — and Stanford needed John Elway to manage that, in 1979.

A couple of the Stanford victories happened in 1970 and 1971, when Stanford had Jim Plunkett and then Don Bunce and won the Rose Bowl twice.

Then the world returned to its proper axis, and the Trojans went back to beating Stanford like a drum.

Even during the 1990s, when USC was changing coaches every few years and losing to UCLA all the time, the Trojans usually beat Stanford. Before that, they had a stretch of 15 years without losing to the Indians-cum-Cardinal, that tie against the Elway team being Stanford’s only moment of semi-glory, and then Pete Carroll beat Stanford five straight and six out of seven.

Then, two things happened, just as I was getting out of Dodge:

1) The NCAA began digging into infractions at USC, flushing Carroll out of town, and producing three years of sanctions, and 2) Stanford hired Jim Harbaugh, one of those maniac guys with ideas and great leadership skills and (it’s hard to conceive of this), Stanford ran off four consecutive victories, 2009-2012. Longest Stanford winning streak in the 92-game series — which USC still leads 60-29-3.

I grasp the idea that college students have short careers, generally four years when it involves a school as expensive as USC, and some fifth-year seniors at USC had never known a victory over Stanford. But, geez, shouldn’t they have noticed, while they were growing up, that Troy owns The Farm?

It led to the most embarrassing episode of the season — USC students charging onto the field. For a home victory over Stanford. Yes. It happened. Wait till the 1:40 mark of the video.

That’s just wrong. USC beating Stanford, after four defeats, should be seen as normalcy returning to college football. And received with grim satisfaction, not giddy enthusiasm.

An upset? Perhaps in terms of gamblers. I prefer to think it marks a return to the regular order of things — and USC students won’t bother coming out of the stands for a win over the Cardinal for the next couple of decades.