UCLA's Schedule to be Affected by Notre Dame's New Agreement

The UCLA Bruins' annual rivalry may move to a permanent date.

Nov 23, 2024; Pasadena, California, USA; UCLA Bruins tight end Moliki Matavao (88) dives over USC Trojans safety Bryson Shaw (27) to score a touchdown in the third quarter at Rose Bowl. Mandatory Credit: Robert Hanashiro-Imagn Images | Robert Hanashiro-Imagn Images

In the modern era, UCLA has typically played crosstown rival USC in the second-to-last game of the season. There's a reason for that. UCLA would play its annual rivalry with Cal, while USC would host Notre Dame in their respective season finales whenever it was the Fighting Irish's turn to come west.

With Notre Dame's new impending schedule, the lack of dates for the USC-Notre Dame rivalry past 2026 and the Big Ten typically scheduling all its in-state or historic rivalries for the final week of the season, we could see the Battle for the Victory Bell moved towards becoming UCLA's last game of the season once again.

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Clemson Tigers finalized an agreement that will see the two sides meet annually until 2038, back in the first week of May.

Notre Dame is already a de facto member of the ACC in terms of scheduling, having a deal to play teams in the ACC five times a season, and the Clemson game will count towards one of those commitments. However, that could be subject to change.

That arrangement could change regarding Notre Dame's five-game agreement. Here's why. Florida State and Miami could demand to play the Fighting Irish annually, which could lead to Notre Dame committing more games to the ACC. Their athletic directors have already said they want such an arrangement publicly and are the other 2/3rds of the ACC's financial triangle.

Notre Dame already plays Stanford annually as well, so it's doubtful the ACC would want four set games and one other game on a rotating basis for every other team.

If that's the case, that's even more of a reason for Notre Dame to abandon its rivalry with USC, especially with the Trojans being publicly not committal with wanting to extend the series.

Thus, the Big Ten may want UCLA to play Cal when they resume the series during week three, the same week Oregon played Oregon State and Washington played Washington State in 2024, to set up the final nationally televised "big" game of the season to be UCLA vs. USC.

It's great exposure for the schools, the Big Ten gets the final ratings win over the SEC, and they would dominate the final week of the season.

While the SEC has Georgia, South Carolina, and Kentucky playing in non-conference rivalry games, the rest of the conference plays marquee rivalry matchups that dominate the afternoon, such as the Iron Bowl and the Lone Star Showdown.

The Big Ten owns the morning with Michigan versus Ohio State. In order to get a leg up, they can start and end rivalry Saturday.

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