Why UCLA has everything it takes to be competitive in the Big Ten

On Thursday morning’s edition of Dear Andy with Andy Staples over on the On3 YouTube channel, he answered questions from fans, one of which asking if UCLA is set up to become a program on the level of Indiana and Northwestern in the Big 10.

The person asking the question was not using the Hoosiers and Wildcats as part of a compliment. However, Andy Staples responded that no, the Bruins would not fall down the pecking order to the mediocre middle-to-bottom where NW and IU sort of stay. Simply, Staples sees a lot more selling points at UCLA than he does those two schools.

“UCLA does not have to resign itself to being like Indiana or like Northwestern. UCLA can be a very good Big 10 program,” said Staples. “UCLA has access to players, it has a great education to sell, which, I know people say, ‘oh, that doesn’t matter in the NIL era.’ It still matters. There’s still moms and dads out there who, when their son becomes a big football recruit, they’re still looking at what the degree means, even in the NIL era”

Solid school, fertile recruiting ground, exceptional location — UCLA has plenty to offer.

“So, UCLA has all of that to sell. Incredible location, very good players nearby. You go back to the Jim Mora era, when he had Adrian Klemm on his staff, and they were getting really good players. You can do that. You can absolutely be a good team in the Big 10.”

Now, Staples isn’t saying that UCLA will become regulars at the Big 10 title or anything like that. There are some other former Pac-12 powers he thinks can be regular winners in the Big 10, but just not the Bruins yet.

“Can you dominate the Big 10 year in or year out? Are you going to be like Ohio State or Michigan? No, probably not. I think Oregon has that capability, I’m not sure UCLA does. I think USC has the potential to do that. We’ve seen them be able to do that. We’ve not see UCLA in the modern era be able to sustain something like that.”

To wrap up his comments, Andy Staples reiterated one last time that UCLA can certainly have success in their new conference, even if they aren’t perennial contenders.

“Can they have good years where they make the playoff, where they compete for Big 10 titles? Yes.”

With Michigan and Ohio State and Penn State and even Oregon and USC from the Pac-12, the Big 10 is loaded up front with not just great teams but national title contenders of the last two seasons, and one winner in Michigan. It’ll be hard to crack that top five for UCLA, but as Staples lays out, there’s no reason to believe the Bruins can’t regularly finish right behind that.