University of Hawaii football team to play three-game series with UCLA

If you can’t join ’em, you might as well play ’em.

The University of Hawaii football team filled its future schedules with one of the premier teams in the Pac-12 Conference. UH, an affiliate member of the Mountain West Conference, and UCLA reached agreement on a three-game series beginning in 2020.

The teams will play Sept. 5, 2020 at Aloha Stadium. The next two games will be Aug. 28, 2021 and Sept. 18, 2027 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif.

With the addition of UCLA, the Rainbow Warriors will play three Pac-12 teams in 2020. They are scheduled to play a road game against Arizona on Aug. 29, and a home game against Oregon on Sept. 19. UH’s other nonconference opponents that year are Fordham and New Mexico State.

The Warriors will play Oregon State, a Pac-12 member, in 2021. That season, seven of the Rainbow Warriors’ 13 regular-season games will be played on the mainland. In addition to games at Oregon State and UCLA, the Warriors will have road meetings against New Mexico State and four Mountain West Conference opponents.

UH and UCLA have met three times previously, with games in 1935, 1939 and last year. In the 2017 game at the Rose Bowl, the Bruins, led by quarterback Josh Rosen, routed the Warriors 56-23. Rosen was the Arizona Cardinals’ first-round selection in April.

The Warriors reportedly earned $600,000 as an appearance fee for last year’s game against UCLA. That deal was negotiated by Ben Jay, who was UH’s athletic director when the contract was signed. This time around, the Bruins are writing a $750,000 check to play host to the Warriors at the Rose Bowl. The Warriors will only have to pay $400,000 for the Bruins to come to Aloha Stadium.