Dallas Trip Costly for Bruins

DALLAS — There’s an irony shaping up at the Cotton Bowl that bothers UCLA Athletic Director Pete Dalis.

USC, Oregon State, California and Stanford, which do not play in a bowl this season, will make more off the Cotton than the Bruins.

“It looks like we’ll have to go into the general budget for about $150,000 to $200,000,” Dalis says.

He bases that on the sale of game tickets. UCLA is contractually obligated to sell 12,500, the same as Texas A&M;, but has sold only about 4,000.

“They told us that Texas A&M; would probably come to us for tickets,” Dalis says.

But the Aggies, down after a 54-15 thrashing by Nebraska in the Big 12 championship game, had sold only about 7,000 tickets as of Christmas Day.

The Pacific 10 budgets $750,000, plus 325 full-fare airline tickets, for expenses for its entry in the game, and the total is about $1.1 million to $1.2 million.

If UCLA ends up with 8,000 unsold tickets, as projected, that’s a $440,000 bite, and the expense account won’t cover all of it.

“I went to the Pac-10 for relief,” Dalis said. “Some of the conferences do that. I know Nebraska and Colorado had to go to the Big 12 for relief when they couldn’t sell all their tickets last year. The conference talked with the athletic directors for us and they said no.”

The Cotton Bowl is expected to pay the Pac-10 about $2 million this year, which after expenses comes out to about $80,000 per school.

Or, in UCLA’s case, red ink on the athletic budget.

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A Bruin alumnus was a visitor at Sunday’s practice, and it brought back memories.

“We practiced here,” said Troy Aikman, looking around Texas Stadium, his place of employment as the Dallas Cowboys’ quarterback.

Aikman was the UCLA quarterback in its only other Cotton Bowl visit, on Jan. 1, 1989, when the Bruins beat Arkansas, 17-3.

“It was a little different then because the Cowboys had the first draft choice,” Aikman said.

That was going to be Aikman, and then-Dallas coach Tom Landry, coming off a 3-13 season, visited with the future Cowboy quarterback, with cameras recording their every move.

Dallas made Aikman its No. 1 pick, but by then Landry had been fired and the Cowboys had been sold to Jerry Jones.

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Backup roverback Eric Whitfield jammed the little finger on his right hand during a pass drill Sunday, but after a brief time with trainers, he returned to the field. . . . Backup receiver Brian Mitchell dislocated his shoulder, but he too should be available for the Cotton Bowl. It’s a recurring problem and off-season surgery is planned. . . . UCLA practices on grass today at Irving High School. . . . Backup cornerback Damian Allen will return kickoffs with Jermaine Lewis. Allen will be subbing for Keith Brown, who sprained a knee ligament during practice Dec. 15.