Fresno State adds UCLA, Stanford home games. How conference realignment helped Bulldogs

Fresno State is moving ahead of the curve with conference realignment impacting the often messy business of scheduling non-conference football games — landing home dates with two California programs that had in the past shown no willingness to play the Bulldogs on their home field and in front of the Red Wave.

UCLA and Stanford are coming to the central San Joaquin Valley.

The Bruins will make their first trip up Highway 99 for a football game on Sept. 4, 2032, and Fresno State will host the first game in a home-and-home series against the Cardinal on Sept. 2, 2028, with the return game on Sept. 1, 2029.

“These games are really a compliment not just to coach Jeff Tedford, the program that he has built, and the university, but also also a compliment to this community and our fan base,” said athletics director Terry Tumey, who has built a scheduling strategy around trying to get Power Five conference opponents to come to Fresno.

“They’re great programs, and we need to try to bring great programs here. I think this is the start of something. In the future I would hope it would not be such an anomaly. I would hope this would be a common thing for our program, our university and the San Joaquin Valley because I think we deserve that.”

UCLA has played home-and-home or 2-for-1 series against Group of Five programs: The Bruins have traveled to San Diego State, Memphis, Cincinnati and UNLV, but they’ve played the Bulldogs mostly in the comfort of home.

Fresno State and UCLA have played 10 times, nine in Los Angeles and once in the 2005 Silicon Valley Classic bowl game in San Jose.

Stanford also has played Group of Five teams on the road in recent years — it opened this season at Hawaii — but the Bulldogs and Cardinal have not played since 1928.

The Bruins and Cardinal are not alone. USC has played the Bulldogs six times, four in Los Angeles and twice in bowl games. Cal has played Fresno State just three times: in Berkeley in 1995, at Bulldog Stadium in 2000 and at a neutral site at Candlestick Park in San Francisco in 2011.

To get the home date against UCLA, Fresno State agreed to move a game against the Bruins at the Rose Bowl next season to Nov. 30 from Sept. 14. It also will receive a larger guarantee — it was to receive $1.2 million, according to the game contract, but will now get an additional $150,000 that will go into the football operating budget.

Fresno State makes winning move

Moving the date back could also serve as a valuable shot of late-season adrenaline for the Bulldogs in the first season that the highest-ranked Group of Five conference champion is guaranteed a spot in a 12-team College Football Playoff.

Fresno State, if in contention, could jump past another Group of Five program in the CFP rankings with a late road win at what could be a weary Big Ten school. UCLA next season plays non-conference games at Hawaii (5,112 air miles, round trip) and at LSU (3,340) and in the Big Ten at Rutgers (4,950), at Penn State (4,474), at Nebraska (2,558) and closer to home at Washington (1,908).

Tumey and associate athletics director Frank Pucher, who handles the match-making and money in the scheduling of non-conference football games, started to explore possibilities with schools ditching the Pac-12 to join the Big Ten (Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington), the Big 12 (Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah) and the Atlantic Coast Conference (Cal and Stanford), given potential travel issues in the future due to the conference realignment.

UCLA, according to the addendum to the game contract, could buy its way out of the game at Fresno State for $500,000 if more than 12 months prior to the date of the game or $800,000 if within 12 months of the game.

But travel for those teams creates a need or at least a desire to play non-conference road games closer to home.

UCLA, for instance, opens its 2024 season with a flight of nearly six hours to Hawaii and a flight to Fresno would take about 40 minutes. The Bruins also play at Georgia in 2026, at Hawaii in 2027 and at Auburn in 2028.

UCLA does not have another game scheduled in 2032, at this point.

“The regionality of it is one element, but I also think the quality of the program is equally important,” Tumey said.

Fresno State could land more home games against the schools departing the Pac-12, but with the addition of the games against UCLA and Stanford the Bulldogs have a Power Five opponent on their home schedule in 2027 (Washington State), 2028 (Stanford), 2029 (Texas Tech), 2030 (Kansas) and 2032 (UCLA).

Bulldogs have Power Five home games lined up

Tumey and Pucher landed those opponents while maximizing revenue from guarantee games on the road and actually paying less to teams playing in Fresno.

The Bulldogs played at USC in 2022, 2019 and 2014, receiving $1.1 million for each game. They will get $1.75 million in 2028 when next playing the Trojans.

Fresno State received $1.3 million to play at Purdue this season, the most it had ever paid for a non-conference game. Pucher also got $1.85 million for a game at Michigan next season and $1.75 million for a game at Washington in 2027.

The Bulldogs, while increasing guarantee game revenue, paid Eastern Washington just $300,000 this season and will pay Sacramento State less for games in 2024 and 2026 ($350,000) than they did for a game in 2016 ($385,000), even as the price tag for those games against championship subdivision opponents has increased. In the Mountain West this season, San Diego State paid Idaho State $475,000 for a game, San Jose State paid Cal Poly $450,000, Colorado State paid Utah Tech $400,000, Wyoming paid Portland State $400,000 and Nevada paid Idaho $400,000.

“We talk about the importance of continually preparing for when opportunity knocks,” Pucher said, on the games against UCLA and Stanford. “In this instance, realignment offered an opportunity that we have been working diligently on for years in terms of strategic scheduling, relationship building and perhaps most importantly, meticulous attentiveness toward our scheduling efforts.

“The reward in this case is that the Red Wave will get experiences that they have deserved for generations.”

Fresno State future schedules

2024

Aug. 31 - at Michigan

Sept. 7 - Sacramento State

Sept. 21 - New Mexico State

Nov. 30 - at UCLA

2025

Aug. 23 - at Kansas

Aug. 30 - Georgia Southern

Sept. 6 - at Oregon State

Sept. 13 - Southern

2026

Sept. 5 - at USC

Sept. 12 - Sacramento State

Sept. 19 - at Washington State

2027

Aug. 28 - Utah Tech

Sept. 4 - at Washington

Sept. 18 - Washington State

2028

Sept. 2 - Stanford

Sept. 9 - at USC

Sept. 23 - at Georgia Southern

2029

Sept. 1 - at Stanford

Sept. 15 - Texas Tech

2030

Sept. 7 - at Texas Tech

Sept. 14 - Kansas

2031

Sept. 13 - at Kansas

2032

Sept. 4 - UCLA

Sept. 11 - at Texas Tech