UCLA Football to play Texas A&M in Series

UCLA Football is not fooling around.

Unlike some of the lame "powers" in college football who schedule FCS teams, some deep into the season, UCLA has always prided itself on playing "Division I" teams (along with Notre Dame and Southern Cal).

UCLA always seems to play at least one tough opponent every year, as has been the case recently with Nebraska, Texas, Tennessee, etc.  I don't need to remind people of past big wins against Alabama, Michigan, and others.

Even in 2014, we will be playing Texas in the famed "neutral" site of Cowboy Stadium.

But prospects for a tough OOC schedule looked rather bleak for the following years until today's announcement.

Texas A&M will be taking the place of the series with Rutgers, which was slated for 2016-2017.  The Rutgers series is instead moved to 2020-21.  Sandwiched in between is the series against Oklahoma, and in 2022-23 UCLA will once again be playing against Michigan, which many of us consider a sister school in spirit.

Many of us recall Cade McNown's comeback win against Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl in 1998, in the middle of our 20-win streak.  Kyle Field is a raucous, intimidating place to play, much more so than Nebraska.  We will see if Coach Sumlin can keep the program going without Johnny Manziel, but the away game will be a doozy nonetheless.  And we should expect a full house when they visit the Rose Bowl.

Taking on (and hopefully beating) an up-and-coming SEC power will have many benefits for the program, least of which is more exposure in Texas and SEC territory.