USA TODAY Sports predicted which teams would play in the bowl games at the end of this season. It has UCLA taking the field against Boise State in the LA Bowl.
With the start of the season around the corner for the Bruins, expectations continue to rise for UCLA. Erick Smith of USA TODAY had them in the bowl game conversation. As expected, the bowl game predictions are littered with team from the Big Ten and the SEC. Here is more from Smith’s article at USA TODAY Sports:
“One thing that seems likely is that the field will be dominated by SEC and Big Ten teams,” Smith wrote for USA TODAY. “But which ones? Georgia, Alabama and LSU from the SEC all start in the top 10. But there’s probably 10 or so teams capable of emerging. From the Big Ten, there’s Ohio State, Penn State and Oregon near the top with Illinois and Michigan in the mix. Could a surprise team from the league emerge as Indiana did last season?”
Obviously, they have the Bruins emerging as that surprise team, but they have them representing the PAC-12. This is a technicality. The reason is that UCLA is a Pac-12 legacy team; when the LA Bowl contract was agreed to, the Pac-12 was a partner conference in the agreement. This is what allows the Bruins to represent the Pac-12 this season, according to USA TODAY.
UCLA battling Boise State in a bowl game would not be new for college football fans. The last bowl game the Bruins played was a 35-22 win in the 2023 LA Bowl against Boise State.
Will UCLA make a bowl game? We won’t know until the end of the year, but they have the talent and potential to do so. The ball is in their court to show that they can once again become bowl eligible and take the next step of becoming a dominant force college football once again.
This article originally appeared on UCLA Wire: USA TODAY Sports projects UCLA to make LA Bowl vs Boise State
Reporting by Ryan Lorenz, UCLA Wire / UCLA Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
