We have to take some time out here for a collective head-scratching - because, even though it involves our cross-town rivals, this is bafflingly inept.

So we've heard from a Bruin that the "monopoly over" ad in the LA Times was directed at the bruin faithful to get them energized about the new season and the new coaching staff. Fair enough, even if it played differently to those outside that group.

The ucla marketing department have excelled themselves now, however: according to the LA Times, they've been advertising in the Fresno Bee to encourage fans to attend the ucla - Fresno State game. Fresno State fans, that is, since there are empty seats and... the seats have to be filled? It's a regional broadcast on ABC, so it's not like the rest of the country will be tuning in to see a partly empty Rose Bowl. The Pac-10 territory knows that the bruins are off to a rocky start, so there's not much of a PR hit there.

I can only assume that the people in the marketing department who thought this up are the victims of an unfortunate fall that left them with their heads up their fundaments - a rectal - cranial inversion, as they say. If I recall, the point of marketing is to show your product in the best possible light, and in football terms I'm pretty sure that doesn't mean inviting people to show up and cheer against the team you're supposedly promoting.

Neuheisel, Chow, and Walker have quite a season ahead of them, as do the bruins players who have to be at least somewhat demoralized. I don't really care if they do better or not, but the least that the ucla marketing department could do is not make the hill to climb that much higher. If SC's marketing department did something that asinine, I'd want them fired. No doubt bruin fans are thinking much the same about their own marketing gurus.

UPDATE...Here is the story in the Fresno Bee. I am also reading that the ucla AD sent out broadcast email that the tickets for all remaining home games are going for the bargain price of $10.00. Next thing you know you will get two free tickets whith your pizza delivery...Paragon