USC, UCLA to clash at Rose Bowl amid hunt for bowl bids

This year’s crosstown rivalry game between the UCLA Bruins and USC Trojans is set for Saturday at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena as the teams seek to keep their hopes bowl-eligibility alive.

For the 5-5 Trojans, defeating the Bruins on Saturday evening or No. 6-ranked Notre Dame next week in the regular-season finale will make USC eligible for a bowl game for the fifth time in six seasons.

The 4-6 Bruins need victories over USC and Fresno State next Saturday in their final regular-season game to become bowl-eligible for a fourth straight season.

The roughly 5-point spread favors USC.

Both schools joined the Big Ten Conference this season and are 3-5 in conference play, tied for 12th among 18 teams.

The Bruins won last year’s rivalry game by a score of 38-20. Ethan Garbers threw three touchdown passes, and UCLA’s defense sacked 2022 Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams four times and limited the Trojans to 3 rushing yards.

UCLA defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn left the Bruins less than two weeks later to become the Trojans’ head defensive strategist. Cornerback John Humphrey and safety Kamari Ramsey also switched from UCLA to USC after being starters in 2023.

USC leads the series 50-34-7. The Bruins have won just seven of the past 25 meetings.

The game’s victor will receive the Victory Bell for the year. The 295-pound bell came from a Southern Pacific freight locomotive as a gift to the UCLA Alumni Association in 1939. Two years later a group of USC students stole it and hid the bell in a variety of locations for over a year.

An intervention by school administrators led to an agreement the student body presidents of both schools signed in 1942 that stipiulates the winner of the annual football game shall keep the bell for the ensuing year.

NBC will televise the game starting at 7:30 p.m.

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