Shameless UCLA Should Fully Commit or Drop Football

By Rock Westfall

Once upon a time, UCLA truly cared about football and had national brand cache in the sport. Rose Bowl appearances were not uncommon and the Bruins could compete with the best programs in America.

Consider that UCLA won 17 Pac-12 Conference championships. In modern times, the Bruins reached their peak in the mid-1980s under head coach Terry Donahue with three Rose Bowl wins in four seasons, the last one in 1985. From 1982-1988, UCLA finished in the Top 10 five times. Head coach Bob Toledo nearly took the Bruins to the national championship in 1998. A litany of College Football Hall of Famers played for UCLA, including Troy Aikman .

But since 1999, the Bruins have been mediocre more often than not with only four Top 25 finishes and no Rose Bowls or comparable major bids across that timeframe. Still, UCLA was respectable enough to occasionally be a national player. As recently as 2013 and 2014, head coach Jim Mora Jr. had consecutive 10-win seasons and the program’s last Top 10 campaign.

Under head coach Chip Kelly , UCLA finished 9-4 and 21 ^st in the polls in 2022, its only Top 25 finish in eight years. But after one more season, Kelly shocked the school by surrendering his head coaching position to become offensive coordinator for Ohio State . No more profound statement about UCLA’s lack of commitment to championship football could have been made.

We now live in a world where Vanderbilt is more committed to football than UCLA.

Seriously.

Nobody is Buying What UCLA Is Selling

So far this season, the Bruins are off to a 1-5 start and there is no end to the misery in sight. Overmatched rookie head coach DeShaun Foster answered the call of his alma mater and walked into a kitchen with no groceries. He doesn’t stand a chance and it's not fair to Foster that UCLA put him in this position.

UCLA still has a football program, but in name only. Nobody, especially Los Angelenos, takes it seriously. Nor should they.

Since that 2014 campaign, the UCLA program has eroded into irrelevance. Even Kelly's hiring and modest success made little difference. Rose Bowl Stadium, where the Bruins play, has become a cringe-worthy embarrassment of empty seats.

Former and potential UCLA fans can see past the façade and refuse to back a program that is not committed to excellence. In fact, they saw what Chip Kelly could see : UCLA has no chance for success because of its toe-in-the-water approach. Without a serious NIL commitment, top stars in the still fertile Southern California recruiting footprint are going elsewhere.

With all of the diversions offered in Southern California, including two teams in each of the four major professional sports leagues and the rival USC Trojans offering a fully committed college football program, UCLA’s obvious lack of effort doesn’t sell.

UCLA Football is a Welfare Case

UCLA takes great pride in being an all-sports school and boasts of its 123 national championships. If that is what you want out of an athletic department, great, but it has become a drag on a football program with only one national title (1954).

The all-sports emphasis has become a point of arrogance for the UCLA leadership elite. They come off as being above supporting a “football factory” and too sophisticated for the sport. And being in California, the all-sports culture is as politically correct as it gets.

The problem is that California is being transformed with an increased deemphasis on football. Even at USC, where they still passionately care, it is becoming more difficult to field quality interior lines and develop the physical approach necessary for success in the Big Ten .

Furthermore, California’s extremely high cost of living, insanely high taxes, and suffocating regulations put additional burdens on football programs hoping to attract quality coaches and staff. In turn, California’s quality of life problems are driving prospects away from their home state to schools in more appealing and affordable locales.

Lost in the shuffle is that winning football actually helps the other sports more. The SEC used to be the inverse of UCLA, caring only about football. But because of football’s dominant success, the SEC began investing in the other sports and is now a powerhouse in all of them.

In fact, a strong case can be built that UCLA’s lack of commitment to football has become a drag on its once dominant basketball program. The John Wooden glory years were six decades ahead of the times with NIL before there was NIL, thanks to a guy named Sam Gilbert . But along with Gilbert's checkbook, Wooden's hoopsters were complemented by a quality football program that people cared about and supported.

In 2022, UCLA was forced to join the Big Ten out of desperation. The athletic department is deeply in debt and the Pac-12 was not going to pay the bills. So, now, UCLA is perpetrating the fraud of fielding a football team to serve as cannon fodder while collecting Big Ten TV checks in an attempt to put its finances in the black. The entire charade has zero to do with winning football games.

Judging from the vast sections of empty seats, La La Land figured out the scam long ago and refused to buy into it.

UCLA football is a welfare case.

NIL Beats Good Weather

When asked why he would surrender his UCLA head coaching gig to become an Ohio State assistant coach, Chip Kelly succinctly answered that “NIL defeats weather.”

Indeed, it does.

Haughty UCLA must get over itself. It must realize that championship football will enhance all of its sports to greater heights and lend further prestige to what is considered to be the top public university in America.

UCLA football, in its current form, is hideous graffiti on what has become a tone-deaf university intoxicated with the sound of its own smugness.

An empty Rose Bowl and losing product in free fall should humiliate UCLA, but that doesn't mean that it does. Apparently there is no level of shamelessness that UCLA won’t stoop to in order to collect its Big Ten welfare checks.

It’s time for UCLA to fully invest and make a complete commitment to football. If not, it should be honest, admit it doesn’t care, and drop the sport. The reality is that the approach they are taking now is virtual surrender.

UCLA football used to be an appointment television. It was a nationally respected product, and those letters and iconic uniforms made for a powerful and attractive brand. But those days have ended.

UCLA has outsmarted itself.