UCLA also played in the Pac-12 Conference championship game shortly after facing USC in 2011 and 2012, losing both times. The emotional hurdle of playing another game so quickly after facing their archrival has been difficult to clear for the Bruins. “I don’t know why a UCLA athletic director ever schedules a game after a USC game,” former UCLA quarterback Gary Beban, the school’s only Heisman Trophy winner, recently told The Times. A victory in the makeup game would have thrust the Bruins into the first Bowl Championship Series title game in the Fiesta Bowl. In recent years, UCLA playing a regular-season game after facing USC has been less about scheduling quirks and more about television revenue.

Source: Los Angeles Times November 22, 2017 20:39 UTC