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UCLA’s move from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten is officially official.
While many of the conversations in the past week have been about finances, media deals and further realignment, the Bruins will eventually have to play against a whole new lineup of conference opponents come 2024. That means a whole new schedule rotation across all sports and, inevitably, new rivals.
USC, making the move alongside UCLA, will obviously still remain public enemy No. 1 in Westwood. As it currently stands, though, Bruin fans will have to replace Stanford, Cal, Oregon and others when it comes to secondary rivalries on the gridiron.
Based on history, geography, culture and personnel, here are the schools All Bruins has picked as the most likely candidates to become UCLA football’s next biggest rivals.
Michigan
All-Time Head-to-Head: Michigan 8, UCLA 3
As two of the top public schools in the country, UCLA and Michigan will likely beef right off the bat.
The two schools do have a bit of a history on the gridiron, too, consisting of several home-and-homes and bowl matchups. The Wolverines took the first four regular season meetings, plus the 1981 Bluebonnet Bowl, but then the Bruins flipped the script in 1982.
In their first season playing home games at the Rose Bowl, UCLA finished 10-1-1. Two of those wins came against Michigan – one in Ann Arbor in front of 105,413 fans, and the other in the Rose Bowl Game in front of 104,991.
The Wolverines rattled off three wins in a row against the Bruins from the late 1980s through the 1990s, but UCLA intercepted Tom Brady’s first career pass attempt in 1996 and won the last meeting in 2000.
There’s also the added layer of Michigan backing out of a home-and-home versus UCLA scheduled for 2022 and 2023 in favor of home games against Hawaii and East Carolina. As it turns out, the Wolverines won’t be able to dodge the Bruins for much longer, and the two teams will have to face off despite one side’s preference not to.
Ohio State will always be Michigan’s biggest rival, just as USC will always be UCLA’s, but two of the biggest brands in college sports feel destined to bump heads.
Northwestern
All-Time Head-to-Head: UCLA 3, Northwestern 3
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If Michigan is UCLA’s rivalry replacement for Cal – a top-tier public university that wears navy blue and yellow – then Northwestern can be the replacement for Stanford.
Like the Cardinal, the Wildcats are a solid program at an elite private institution with a head coach under the age of 50 who has been around for over a decade. Swap out the Bay Area for Chicago and David Shaw for Pat Fitzgerald, and you get Northwestern.
Of course, Northwestern has not had nearly as much historical success as Stanford, since they don’t exactly have equals to John Elway, Jim Plunkett and Andrew Luck on their list of notable alumni. The Wildcats had been to just one bowl game prior to 1995 – the 1948 Rose Bowl, which they won – and they are nearly 100 games under .500 all-time.
Still, Northwestern has been extremely competitive under Fitzgerald, who has taken his team to 10 bowl games in the past 14 years. The Wildcats have played in two Big Ten championship games in the past four seasons, and they tacked on a pair of 10-win seasons in the three years leading up to that.
Northwestern’s final game of the pre-Fitzgerald era was a loss in the 2005 Sun Bowl to UCLA. The two booked a home-and-home for 2033 and 2034 in April, but this move will guarantee that the Bruins and Wildcats meet up far sooner.
Wisconsin
All-Time Head-to-Head: UCLA 7, Wisconsin 4
The Bruins have more experience against the Badgers than they do against any of their new conference foes outside of Illinois, and a lot of their bouts have held major postseason stakes.
Wisconsin won the first-ever matchup in 1938, only for UCLA to string together a seven-game winning streak in a 30-year span. The two teams played four years in a row from 1979 to 1982, and the Bruins averaged 38.3 points per game with a 25.5-point average margin of victory in those contests.
Once the lights got brighter, though, the Badgers flipped the script. Wisconsin beat UCLA by five points in the 1994 Rose Bowl, then further buried what once looked like a national championship Bruin squad in 1998 by beating them in the 1999 Rose Bowl.
Wisconsin beat UCLA in the 2000 Sun Bowl as well, and they have made a bowl every year since 2002.
Getting revenge for that string of postseason failures will surely be on the front of Bruin fans’ minds once UCLA arrives in the Big Ten.
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