UCLA’s marketing department buries the news

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You’ve got to take them one game, er, marketing campaign at a time.

UCLA was a little red-faced at the site of all those red-clad faces at last week’s game -- the result of ads paid for by the UCLA marketing department that urged Fresno State fans to turn out at the Rose Bowl.

This week athletic department officials took a small step forward. They know what school they are marketing, they just don’t know what conference the Bruins play in. A posting in ‘Bruins Locker Room,’ the athletic department’s online newsletter, said that tickets were still available this week under the heading: ‘Bruins play final non-conference contest.’

UCLA plays Washington State, which is believed by some to be a fellow Pacific 10 Conference team. So either UCLA officials have pulled out of the Pac-10 and forgot to tell anyone, or it was another week of growing pains for the marketing department.

But if the Bruins really are no longer part of the Pac-10, they had better choose their next conference wisely. UCLA has already shown it can’t beat the top teams in the Mountain West (BYU 59, UCLA 0) and WAC (Fresno State 36, UCLA 31) this season.

-- Chris Foster