LOS ANGELES – Between them, the two teams have lost almost a third of their games and, yet, somehow Saturday’s regular-season-ending matchup between UCLA and USC has retained significant meaning, by virtue of the winner earning entry into the Pac-12 championship game.
There’s also an alternate source of importance, as there always is when this region’s rivals meet: Who will gain the head-to-head recruiting advantage that comes with a win?
It might be more about the future than the present. Recruiting experts say that USC and UCLA rarely find each other in direct, final-tier competition for recruits as other storied rivals do across America.