The UCLA Bruins have added the Alabama State Hornets and the North Carolina Central Eagles to their future football schedules, it was announced on Wednesday.
UCLA will host Alabama State at Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, Calif., on Saturday, Sept. 10, 2022. North Carolina Central will make the trip to face the Bruins the following season on Saturday, Sept. 16, 2023.
Alabama State is a member of the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC), while North Carolina Central competes in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC), both in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). Both schools are historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs).
The Alabama State contest will mark UCLA’s first-ever contest against an HBCU opponent and first game against a team from the FCS.
“Adding two HBCUs to our football schedule is special,” said the Alice and Nahum Lainer Family Director of Athletics Martin Jarmond. “It’s exciting to give our student-athletes and fans a new experience and to bring a little bit of the South to Southern California.”
UCLA was previously scheduled to play the Michigan Wolverines in a home-and-home series in 2022 and 2023, but the Wolverines backed out of the series in 2019.
“This is an exciting time for Alabama State and our football program,” Alabama State Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Jennifer Lynne Williams said. “When we recruit student-athletes to come to Alabama State we let them know they will have the opportunity to showcase their talents against some of the best competition in the country. In doing so, we don’t just stop at the Southwestern Athletic Conference or FCS for that matter, we go nationwide to display ‘Hornet Pride!’ The pageantry of the Rose Bowl venue and everything that comes along with it is special. This will be something our student-athletes will remember for a lifetime.”
Alabama State’s “The Mighty Marching Hornets” and North Carolina Central’s “The Sound Machine Marching Band”, will perform Rose Bowl Stadium.
“We are excited about the opportunity to play UCLA, a member of the Pac-12 conference,” said NCCU football head coach Trei Oliver. “For our young men to be able to play in the Rose Bowl, the most storied venue in all of college football, is an experience of a lifetime.”
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