The Big Ten is preparing for its next big expansion move with the additions of USC and UCLA in 2024. You read that correctly. The two iconic programs are leaving their long-standing history with the Pac-12 to join the Big Ten in all sports in just a couple of years, which gives us all plenty of time to think about west coast trips to sunny Los Angeles in October and those road trips for the LA schools to Minnesota or Wisconsin in November.
Penn State’s football history with USC is a fun one to dive into, although the Nittany Lions have a losing record in the all-time series with their future Big Ten foe. Penn State is 4-6 all-time against USC. Four of those meetings have taken place in bowl games, including three in the Rose Bowl.
Penn State and USC first met in the 1923 Rose Bowl, when the Trojans were a part of the Pacific Coast Conference. USC took the first meeting in the series by a 14-3 score. It would be quite a while before the next meeting in the series. The two schools met in the 1982 Fiesta Bowl, with Penn State winning 26-10.
The two schools played four regular-season games from 1990 through 1994 as Penn State began making its move into the Big Ten with the home team winning each meeting. The regular season meetings continued with a pair of matchups in the old Kickoff Classic in Giants Stadium. No. 11 Penn State dominated No. 7 in 1996, but the Trojans were dominant in the 2000 meeting.
Since then, Penn State has gone 0-2 against the Trojans in the Rose Bowl, including the most recent meeting in the epic 2017 Rose Bowl that was full of offensive highlights.
Penn State is also on the losing end of the all-time series with UCLA, although the two schools have not met in football since 1968. Penn State won the first meeting in 1963 and the most recent meeting in 1968. But UCLS strung together four wins in between.
It will be great to see these schools work their way back onto Penn State’s regular-season schedule. How often Penn State and other Big Ten teams will see the Trojans and/or Bruins is just one thing to figure out for the conference. But odds are Penn State won’t have to wait too long to get a crack at either LA school.
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