UCLA closed out its college football spring practice period with its annual spring game on Saturday. The crowd did not reflect the expected attendance.
It was nowhere close.
A crowd of this size should actually be considered a win for any college football program outside of the southeast or midwest but a group of diabolical USC fans trolled their crosstown rival with inflated RSVPs. They made the Bruins look silly.
USC fans trolled their college football rivals.
It is a new era of college football in greater Los Angeles. Bob Chesney was hired as the 20th head coach in UCLA history after a successful run at James Madison. The Bruins are led by former five-star recruit and College Football Playoff quarterback Nico Iamaleava. There is a palpable buzz in Westwood and it stretches all of the way to Pasadena.
UCLA only made three mediocre bowl games in the last 10 years and finished the last two seasons below .500. That is expected to change right away. It would be a huge red flag if Chesney cannot get his new team back to a winning record in 2026. He is also building for the future.
The Bruins are currently ranked No. 4 in recruiting for the Class of 2027 with 14 total commitments. Half of them are four-star prospects.
All of this goes to say that UCLA has hope in college football for the first time in a long time. And with that in mind, the Bruins expected a much larger crowd than normal at the spring game on Saturday.
The athletic department received more than 18,000 RSVPs for the intrasquad scrimmage, which is a huge number considering that absolutely nobody showed up to regular season games last season. It even hired a mariachi band to perform outside of the entrance.
UCLA just gets it. There’s a mariachi band performing ahead of the spring game. pic.twitter.com/j48FmBmQs8
— Mike Regalado 🏀🏈🎧 (@MikeRegaladoLA) May 2, 2026
However, the amount of RSVPs was extremely inflated. A crafty group of USC fans exploited the free ticketing system, which allowed up to 50 complimentary tickets, to get the number as high as they could.
Of course, they did not plan to attend UCLA’s spring game. They did not show up.
UCLA drew a small crowd for the spring game.
The Rose Bowl holds a maximum seating capacity of more than 90,000. It did not get anywhere close to full on Saturday afternoon.
UCLA received close to 20,000 RSVPs for its college football spring game. Only a few showed up.
This was the scene with 20 minutes until the official start time:
Here was the crowd with 10 minutes remaining:
With about ten minutes to go until the official start, looks to be a decent crowd for a spring game. pic.twitter.com/jdiumq8pZp
— Bruin Report Online (@BruinReport) May 2, 2026
This photo was posted 10 minutes after the spring game got underway:
To be fair, that is actually a decent crowd for a scrimmage played at a stadium that is not easily accessible. But needless to say, the Bruins did not come anywhere close to 18,000. The Trojans won.