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Report: Rutgers withdraws from home-and-home series with UCLA
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Hopefully Rutgers fans weren’t too excited about the arrival of Chip Kelly at UCLA. The Scarlet Knights were set for a home-and-home series with the Bruins that would begin in 2020 and 2021, but that’s no longer the case.
According to Sports Illustrated’s Bruce Feldman, Rutgers backed out of the series:
#Rutgers has withdrawn from a two-game football series with #UCLA scheduled for 2020 & 2021. AD Dan Guerrero was officially informed of RU's decision to cancel the series via e-mail last Thurs. Per the agreement, Rutgers must pay UCLA a $500K termination fee w/i 30 days of demand
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) February 1, 2018
The only non-conference matchups on the slate for Rutgers in 2020 and 2021 would be Temple. Per the B1G conference agreement, the Scarlet Knights would still have to add a Power 5 non-conference opponent.
Rutgers just completed a home-and-home series with Pac-12 power Washington, which swept the two games. It’s unknown what exactly led to Guerrero’s move to cancel on UCLA. Usually matchups are canceled if there’s another more intriguing series in the works.
In other words, don’t be surprised if Rutgers replaces the non-conference series sometime soon.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Tradition. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.