Rick Neuheisel's UCLA Bruins are going to be on national tv - a lot - this upcoming season. A huge chunk of next year's TV scheduled was announced today as it looks like Bruins are scheduled to appear on national TV at least 7 times during 2010 season:
Seven UCLA football games have been selected early for television, it was announced today. ESPN has selected three games while ABC and Fox Sports Net have chosen two each.
ABC has chosen two games as part of its Big 12 agreement. The Bruins will open the 2010 season at Kansas State on Sept. 4 and ABC will televise that game at 2:30 pm CT/12:30 pm PT. On Sept. 25, the Bruins travel to Austin to face Texas and ABC will televise that contest at a time to be determined 12 days prior to the game.
On Sept. 11, the Bruins host Stanford in the home and Pac-10 Conference opener at the Rose Bowl. ESPN will televise the game nationally, beginning at 7:30 pm.
UCLA will also be featured on two ESPN Thursday night national contests - October 21 vs. Oregon in Eugene (6:00 pm) and Nov. 18 in Seattle against Washington (5:00 pm).
FSN has also made two early selections involving UCLA games. The Bruins' Sept. 18 home game versus Houston will be televised nationally beginning at 7:30 pm. In addition, their game at Arizona State on Thanksgiving Friday will also be televised nationally, beginning at 1:30 pm MT/12:30 pm PT.
The obvious angle here is that this kind of exposure could be potentially fantastic for our recruiting efforts if we continue to build on our improvements from this past season. We can also assume that the number of appearances could increase if the Bruins put themselves in position to have a solid season.
Also, the game that really stands out to me is not the one against Texas but the one against Stanford on September 11. I believe that is the game that could potentially set the tone for the entire season. If we win that game at home infront of a fired up Rose Bowl crowd against Jim Harbaugh's program, it would give us a huge boost heading into the Houston game.
If I were members of the Bruin Den and the UCLA marching band, I'd figure out a way to make sure the entire crew is available for that game. I would start organizing right now to get the crowd out for that game. That would mean figuring out how to get students who are fired up for football but don't live around LA to get to the game. Offer them to provide housing or places to crash in Westwood if you have your own apartments. It should be all about Stanford and figuring out how we can pack the Rose Bowl for that game. As mentioned above if we win that game, it could potentially set us up for a very good start to the season.
Lastly, a quick housekeeping note. The SBN schedule for UCLA football is already up on the right hand side. If you are writing about any of the games next season you can tag them up depending on which games you are discussing by selecting from "events" section in your dashboard. Looks like we are officially in football mode for 2010. Just 115 more days to go.
GO BRUINS.