Photo: University of Southern California.

USC plays doormat Arkansas State in its season opener Saturday night at the unusual time of 8 p.m. local time at the Expo Line-adjacent Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. UCLA opens their season against creampuff Virginia at 12:30 p.m. in Pasadena at the Rose Bowl, which can be reached via the Gold Line and a free bus shuttle near the Memorial Park Station.

The Expo Line will run every six minutes before and after the game –as usual on Saturday nights, all Metro Rail lines and the Orange Line will run until 2 a.m. The Gold Line will be running every seven or eight minutes during the day Saturday.

The Expo Line has two stations that are both a short walk from the Coliseum:

And here’s the map that shows how to take the Gold Line to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena:

USC is ranked eighth and UCLA ranked 13th in the preseason Associated Press poll. It should be a pretty exciting college football season as both teams vie for a spot in the playoffs on Dec. 31 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas and Orange Bowl in Miami.

Please note that Metro will be running extra service for each of the USC games this season. The Gold Line already runs more frequently most of the time. I encourage fans to consider the transit option as parking at the Rose Bowl and Coliseum can be a very, very expensive proposition — not to mention the aggravation of sitting in traffic.

If you need helping planning a transit trip, we recommend trying Google Transit or the Metro Trip Planner. Some useful tips for those who are new to riding Metro Rail:

Pay Before You Board

• One-Way Trip – $1.75 (includes transfers to other Metro lines for up to 2 hours to complete a one-way trip)
• Day Pass – $7
• Fares are sold on TAP cards; buy them at TAP vending machines at Metro Rail stations or from a Metro representative.
• Tip: Load your TAP card with $3.50 round-trip fare in advance to avoid waiting in line.

Tap Your Card on the Farebox When Boarding or Transferring

• Use one TAP card per person only

Choose the Nearest Station

• Coliseum east side: Use Expo Park/USC Station
• Coliseum west side: Use Expo/Vermont Station

It’s a fairly quiet evening around town on Saturday big event-wise. The Dodgers are out of town Saturday night but there is an 8 p.m. Chayanne concert at Staples Center.