Ranking UCLA's 3 Non-Conference Football Games

UCLA has three non-conference football games this season, all against West Coast schools. Two involve teams from lesser conferences, and one brings back an old-school in-state rivalry.

But where do each of these matchups rank in difficulty and importance?

1. Season Opener at Cal

The UCLA-Cal game is easily the Bruins' most intriguing nonconference matchup in 2026. Sure, the Golden Bears aren't some overly menacing football program these days after barely making a bowl game last season, but there's even more on the line than winning and losing.

It's the renewal of an old PAC-12 (10) in-state rivalry and the first road game of the year. It's Bob Chesney's UCLA debut against a fellow first-year head coach in Cal's Tosh Lupoi. It's the game that sets the early tone for the season and tells us exactly what UCLA needs to work on and fix throughout the year.

2. Home Opener vs. San Diego State

San Diego State is the winningest team on UCLA's nonconference schedule. The Aztecs are coming off a nine-win campaign and have been a consistently solid and durable Group of Six program overall. In a way, that provides a test for the Bruins in their first home game of the season.

Ordinarily, a G6 team is expected to get blown out when visiting a P4 team. However, in this case, SDSU might actually have the better product. It all depends on how the game goes. If UCLA wins, it can be taken as a positive sign of progress because it would have beaten a decent opponent, especially if it moves the Bruins to 2-0. If UCLA loses, it faces the backlash of losing to a program from a "weaker" and smaller conference.

3. Hosting Nevada

This should be UCLA's easiest non-conference game, and it carries little significance, largely because of its timing. The Wolfpack visit the Rose Bowl on October 31, after the Bruins have already played five conference games and seven games in total. That means there's a chance UCLA could be facing bowl eligibility or even ineligibility.

As far as the opponent. Nevada has fallen dormant after a few decent seasons. The Wolfpack went 13-1 in 2010, which kicked off a run of five winning seasons in six years, but it hasn't won more than three games in a season since 2021. Jeff Choate is the third different coach to attempt a revival in Reno, and he's entering the ever-pivotal third year.

This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/ucla as Ranking UCLA's 3 Non-Conference Football Games .

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This story was originally published June 15, 2026 at 5:00 AM.