UCLA can’t give away tickets. Why should Bob Chesney stick around?

UCLA can't offer away college football tickets. Why would Bob Chesney stay?

Key points

• Despite launching a complimentary ticket promotion, a crowd of 24, 611 turned up last weekend to watch UCLA beat Nevada, 27-0.
• Down in Florida, governor-elect Byron Donalds endorsed Chesney for Florida State's coaching vacancy.
• Ninety-five percent of people do not recognize you, Kiffin informed me, and the 5% that do, 95% of them don't say anything to you.
• In case you haven't noticed, and judging by the attendance at Rose Bowl Stadium, Angelenos haven't, UCLA football is undefeated.
• As the coaching carousel gains steam, UCLA is working on a raise and an extension for Chesney, USA TODAY Sports colleague John Brice documented this week.

UCLA can't offer away college football tickets. Why would Bob Chesney stay? UCLA is undefeated and nobody cares. How long before Bob Chesney leaves? Blake Toppmeyer USA TODAY.

In case you haven't noticed, and judging by the attendance at Rose Bowl Stadium, Angelenos haven't, UCLA football is undefeated. A basic rule of Hollywood remains: Stars sell tickets, not teams.

Bob Chesney might look like he's straight out of a movie studio's casting department, but he's coaching a team full of no-names. Hayes: Tennessee embarrassed Alabama. CFP committee embarrassed itself.

UCLA is winning with a quarterback who transferred in from the FCS and began the season as the backup, plus a running back off the James Madison portal pipeline, and a defense that answers every bell.

For context, the Bruins are overachieving, they're taking advantage of a subdued schedule, and their odds of making the playoff improve with each passing Saturday.

Despite launching a complimentary ticket promotion, a crowd of 24, 611 turned up last weekend to watch UCLA beat Nevada, 27-0. In the South, they might call such a crowd the "west sideline attendance."

Here's the key question: Does Chesney care that L.A. Doesn't care regarding his team?

If Chesney wants to coach where an undefeated team would be the major ticket in town, he'll need to eventually leave the city where they literally can't provide away enough tickets to fill the stadium. Florida politician endorses Bob Chesney for FSU football.

It's a quiet coaching carousel so far, but if it heats up, you think schools wouldn't salivate over for Mr. All I Do is Win?

"Bob Chesney did great at James Madison. He's doing great at UCLA, " a smiling Donalds remarked at a campaign stop this week. Donalds' son played for Chesney at Holy Cross. Toppmeyer: Kentucky is drunk on football. Will Stein makes winning intoxicating.

Fraud alert! Indiana, Ohio State exposed, and Fraud Court delivers its harshest verdicts yet.

FSU's athletics department is in such a jumbled state that the Seminoles probable lack the clout to uproot Chesney from the Sizeable Ten, but it's early November, and firing-and-hiring season is only just starting to heat up. More jobs will open.

Chesney's breakout season in Year 1 makes a salary boost an projected development, but unless an extension includes non-compete language or cost-prohibitive exit fees, then it's just a raise, and not a firm tether, and I'm still wondering whether it bothers Chesney to march toward the playoff in relative obscurity.

Sports are entertainment, and entertainers performing at the top of their game typically don't relish playing to the crickets.

Chesney notes all the right things concerning loving where he's at, but what'll he say the next time the Michigan job opens? From the Major Empty to the Sizeable House!

You could say UCLA playing a cupcake opponent tanked last weekend's attendance, and I could say Nebraska would sell out its stadium if a team from the California Penal League came to Lincoln.

In practice, the top attendance figure for any of UCLA's five home games this season was a rousing 36, 045 on hand for a 17-7 win against Wisconsin, within a stadium that seats more than 91, 000 when the tarps are off.

Lane Kiffin once put it like this: Los Angeles is not a football place.

Lane Kiffin, who once left a primo SEC job to be Southern Cal's coach, described to me a number of years ago what it's like to return to Los Angeles as the former USC coach.

"Ninety-five percent of people do not recognize you, " Kiffin informed me, "and the 5% that do, 95% of them don't say anything to you. If they do, it's, 'Good luck, Coach.' And, usually, if they say something, they're not from there. They're from the South somewhere, and they're visiting."

Kiffin additionally stated, "L.A. Gets mad when you say this, " but it's not a football place.

"Like I used to say, " Kiffin remarked, "there's a lot more famous people" in L.A. Than the football coach.

If the UCLA football coach wants to spot a celebrity, he doesn't look in the mirror. He heads to Craig's in West Hollywood or the Polo Lounge on Sunset Boulevard and scans the clientele.

Look, we can tick through all the explanations for UCLA's attendance woes.

UCLA's conference realignment to the Major Ten boosted media rights revenue, but it did no box-office favors. UCLA traded Pac-12 rivalries with teams like Cal and Stanford for conference home games against Purdue and Illinois.

Although you could argue Chip Kelly's heel turn and the subsequent Foster disaster ought to create them more appreciative of this season, bruins fans might still be battle scarred from the short-lived DeShaun Foster era.

As compared to L.A., a bustling city where colleges exist, when new coaches spurred uprisings at success-starved Indiana and Kentucky, those fan bases went all-in on football, but then again, Bloomington and Lexington are college towns.

And, of course, there's the obvious caveat with UCLA: It plays its home games at a leased stadium located 26 miles from campus, and a trek to the Rose Bowl involves battling traffic.

Each of these arguments holds some merit, but in certain parts of the country, fans would walk 26 miles to the stadium to watch an undefeated team, especially if the university distributed complimentary tickets like they're Tootsie Rolls on Halloween. As Kiffin remarked, L.A. Just is not a football place. Does Chesney care regarding that?

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's senior national college football columnist. Listen to his podcast, "College Football Unfiltered." Email him at [email protected] and follow him on X @btoppmeyer. Share your feedback to support improve our site!

For now, UCLA can't give away tickets. Why should Bob Chesney stick around? Remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.