UCLA, BYU announce home-and-home series for 2015-16
Strength of schedule is supposed to be a large factor in the selection of the four teams for the new College Football Playoff and to that effect, the UCLA Bruins are not messing around as they have scheduled a home-and-home series with BYU beginning in 2015.
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The Bruins will host the Cougars at the Rose Bowl on Sept. 19, 2015 and the Bruins will travel to Provo to play BYU in LaVell Edwards Stadium on Sept. 17, 2016.
“I’m exited for this series with UCLA. It’s a great matchup versus an opponent rich in football tradition, and a team that will be fighting for a Pac-12 championship,” BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe said in the official release. “It’s also a great opportunity for our large fan base in Southern California to see the Cougars play in the Rose Bowl — one of the most storied football venues in the country.”
UCLA has a scheduled series with Nevada for the 2015 and 2016 season, but the two mutually agreed to cancel the series which opened the door for the Bruins to add the Cougars to the schedule and improve their strength of schedule in the process.
The Pac-12 already plays a nine-game schedule unlike some of their counterparts and have made it a priority to schedule traditional powers to their non-conference schedule. Future schedules for UCLA include games against Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma and now BYU.
By 2015, BYU and Army will be the only two full-time independent programs in the FBS so they have two high-profile games on their schedule, including one at the famed Rose Bowl.