A Pro-USC Billboard In UCLA Territory Was Mysteriously Removed

by Jordan Rabinowitz | 9:40 pm, August 28th, 2012

The USC Trojans recently put up 30 billboards around Southern California featuring a hopeful Matt Barkley’s face and the slogan, “We Play To Finish” emblazoned to the left of it. That’s OK. What wasn’t OK for someone, or some entity, was the fact that one variation of the booster could be found on the corner of Westwood Boulevard and Lindbrook Drive, which according to Google Maps is a 0.8-mile walk from the UCLA campus. The billboard made it one whole week before being mysteriously blacked out.

Mysterious is the operative word here, since nobody has taken responsibility for blacking out the billboard — a billboard, by the way, that was financed by an agency worth hundreds of millions of dollars, run by a few USC alum, one of whom has a practice field named after him on campus. The caper of the blacked-out billboard rages on in SoCal, and according to ESPN Los Angeles, neither school is the culprit.

“USC was not involved in the decision to take any billboard down,” USC spokesperson Tim Tessalone told ESPNLosAngeles.com. “We do not agree with the decision, nor were we involved in the decision to take it down.”

UCLA spokesperson Nick Ammazzalorso told ESPNLosAngeles.com’s Peter Yoon via text message that the school had no involvement, either, though UCLA fans had complained about the billboard on Internet message boards.

Well, nobody’s owned up yet, but it seems fans in Los Angeles are munching on some very sour grapes. I can’t blame UCLA fans for being pissed, especially considering their cross-city rivals start the season atop the rankings with the Bruins and everyone else in the country in their rear view. I’m wondering though, what rogue fan has the time and resources to trek up to a billboard and black it out without being seen. If I’m playing Sherlock here, this was the work of a greater power. And there are a lot of those in L.A.

Regardless, this is a strong sign (get it?) that college football is back in a major way. Can’t say we’re boiling over with anticipation here in the Northeast, but if this is your kind of thing, embrace it.

[ESPN Los Angeles, photo via]

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