UCLA Football: 3 bowl game possibilities for the Bruins

3. Heart of Dallas Bowl (Cotton Bowl Stadium/Dallas, Texas vs. Big 12)

The Big Ten’s loss could be UCLA’s gain. Unlike the Pac-12, which features only a half-dozen league affiliations with bowl games, the Big Ten boasts 10 different bowls with which it is affiliated. This year, however, only eight of the Big Ten’s 14 members reached six wins. And given that several of its bowl-eligible teams are likely to play in a New Year’s Six bowl, that leaves a lot of slots to fill.

It has been two decades since UCLA last played at the Cotton Bowl Stadium in Dallas. The Cotton Bowl game is now played at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, but the stadium still hosts the Heart of Dallas Bowl. And this year, the Bruins could get another chance to play at the historic venue.

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That would be quite the prize for a Bruins team hoping to finish strong leading into the Chip Kelly era. If the Heart of Dallas Bowl chooses to invite UCLA to its game, they would get the chance to close out the year against one of the Big 12 schools that qualified for postseason play this year. It would be a fitting finale to the careers of many Bruins stars, as the Cotton Bowl scoreboard would get quite a workout.