Cincinnati Bengals Practicing at UCLA Ahead of Super Bowl LVI, Staying on Campus

The AFC champions will be operating out of Westwood before facing the Los Angeles Rams, setting up shop just 12 miles away from SoFi Stadium.

For the second year in a row, a team is playing in its home stadium for the Super Bowl, and it just so happens to be the Bruins' neighbors to the south.

The Rams will represent both Los Angeles and the NFC in the big game, and their blue and yellow color scheme even emulates the blue and gold of UCLA football. There aren't any former Bruins on the Rams' roster, since they dealt away linebacker Kenny Young in the fall, but running back Johnathan Franklin is the team's Director of Social Justice & Football Development.

Despite the ties to the Rams, it's actually the AFC Champion Cincinnati Bengals who will be calling Westwood home heading into Super Bowl LVI.

The Bengals' players and staff are staying at the Luskin Conference Center – often heralded by Bill Walton as the greatest hotel in the world – smack dab in the middle of campus, and they are using the Wasserman Football Center for their practice location. The team arrived Tuesday, with five days to go until kickoff.

#Bengals arrive at hotel on UCLA campus pic.twitter.com/1pFA8S0sVE

— Jay Morrison (@ByJayMorrison) February 8, 2022

There are banners hanging up in the lobby of the Luskin Center welcoming the Bengals, while the rest of Westwood Village is plastered with posters and signs celebrating the Super Bowl being played in Los Angeles for the first time since the Rose Bowl was the host site for event in 1993.

UCLA, for all of its connections and history with the Rams, has embraced the Bengals. There are decorations all over the Wasserman Football Center, with the locker room, weight room and practice field all getting temporary redesigns, and the school's football equipment staff welcomed their brief takeover across the facility on social media.

The Wasserman Football Center was completed in 2017 and cost over $65 million to construct.

Make yourselves at home!
Welcome 🤝 @Bengals #Equipment pic.twitter.com/oeALRhjykF

— UCLA Football Equipment (@UCLA_EQ) February 8, 2022

There is increased security all over campus, and there have been groups of fans scoping out the Luskin Center from afar to try and catch a glimpse of some behind-the-scenes action. Students gathered in groups on Bruinwalk on Tuesday afternoon, sharing pictures and calling their friends to brag about seeing Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow leave the hotel moments earlier.

Cincinnati does boast one former Bruin – two-time All-Pac-12 offensive lineman Xavier Su'a-Filo – but he spent most of the year on injured reserve and is now on the team's practice squad.

Perhaps the most interesting connection between UCLA and the upcoming Super Bowl, however, is how the matchup lined up for UCLA men's basketball coach Mick Cronin. After being born and raised in Cincinnati, then coaching the Bearcats for over a decade, Cronin came out west to Los Angeles, with his old home team and his new one facing each other on the biggest stage.

There won't be any Bengals banners hanging in Pauley Pavilion or the Mo Ostin Center, though, since Cronin said he essentially renounced his fandom nearly 25 years ago. At this point, he isn't picking a side.

"That's a tough one, brother, cause I'm an LA guy now," Cronin said on Feb. 1. "When you grow up there, I gave up around '97 I think, so you can only take so much pain."

Cronin said he is more so looking forward to the Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime Show, which will feature Los Angeles-based hip-hop artists Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Kendrick Lamar, in addition to rapper Eminem and singer Mary J. Blige.

But between sharing a campus with the Bengals for the next week and his Cincinnati roots, Cronin may have a clear option for who to root for come Sunday.

Super Bowl LVI will kick off from SoFi Stadium on Sunday at 3:30 p.m.

Follow Connon on Twitter at @SamConnon
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