It already started moving.

There was no single omen, no warning, no specific tell-tale sign, but it's already happening.

It's already on its way.

The pendulum is starting to swing.

For much of this decade, the Cal football team has owned the Big Game, the Axe, the glory.

The Bears didn't always dominate-most teams don't in rivalry games like this one-but they were the champions of Bay Area college football.

Ever since Jeff Tedford arrived in Berkeley in 2002, it was Cal's game to lose-the Bears won five Big Games in a row under their new head coach.

Stanford was supposed to crumble no matter where the game took place.

Look at 2004, when Cal tramped its Pac-10 neighbor, 41-6, at Memorial Stadium. Take 2005, when the Bears thumped their arch-nemesis, 27-3.

Now, though, things are beginning to look a little bit different.

The last three installments of the annual showdown have gone back and forth, the average margin of victory a humble 12.33 points.

The pendulum, it seems, is somewhere in the middle of its path. But it will stay in motion.

It, along with Cal for the 112th Big Game at Stanford Stadium on Saturday at 4:30 p.m., will be heading to Palo Alto. And if the Cardinal possesses any sense of its own trajectory, it will stay there.

The private school, which had the upper hand towards the end of the previous decade, claimed seven straight Big Game victories from 1995 to 2001.

And while Tedford has accrued a 6-1 record in the rivalry, Stanford has gone under the radar, quietly putting together what looks like a sustainable comeback.

It seems the Cardinal is here to stay. The squad that Tedford called "the hottest team in the country" at Monday's media conference doesn't see an Ice Age in its future.

It sees an enlightenment.

Its jaw-dropping demolitions of Oregon and USC, Tedford said, were not flukes.

Even after this season, when senior bowling ball Toby Gerhart is no longer ripping through Pac-10 defensive lines, Stanford shouldn't have too much of a drop-off.

Rather, the success that Jim Harbaugh has harbored in his three years with the Cardinal is a foundation for the future. Harbaugh, who is currently working on a contract extension, said he enjoys coaching at Stanford and would love to stay there.

Redshirt freshman Andrew Luck is, well, a redshirt freshman. When Gerhart is gone, he'll continue providing stability under center.

First-year players like punt returner Drew Terrell, defensive back Quinn Evans and defensive end Chase Thomas have also made impacts on the field this season, giving the Cardinal lots to look forward to in the coming years.

Do the Bears have those kinds of prospects?

Sure.

Do those prospects have what it takes to keep Cal a contender?

Perhaps.

But can they keep the momentum of this historic series from swinging out of Berkeley?

Unlikely.

Even before Saturday's game, there's a chance that it's already swung.

Tags: BIG GAME, CAL, CALIFORNIA GOLDEN BEARS, CAL FOOTBALL, STANFORD