UCLA vs. USC: Trojans Strike First in the Battle For the Victory Bell

The UCLA Bruins and USC Trojans won't get down to business at the Rose Bowl until Saturday night, but the first blow in this year's gauntlet game for the Victory Bell has already been landed.

Students and faculty at UCLA's Westwood campus awoke this morning to find three of the school's most prominent fountains cycling Cardinal-tinged water.

With the big rivalry game around the corner, figuring out where the perpetrators came from was a no-brainer.

Of course, this is far from the first time students from one school have vandalized the other's campus.

A simple stroll down UCLA's Bruin Walk will promptly remind Bruins and Trojans alike of last year's big incident, when the famed bronze Bruin Bear was doused in red and yellow paint.

Whether the wooden box around the statue serves to protect the bear during its "hibernation" any better than the failed canvas covering from last fall remains to be seen.

Past pranks include everything from the mundane—like today's fountain-taintings—to the elaborate, as when UCLA students used an alumnus' helicopter to drop blue...errr...matter on top of the statue of Tommy Trojan at USC's downtown Los Angeles campus.

No suspects have yet been singled out by the UCLA campus police, though it seems like a pretty safe bet that they reside somewhere along the 10-East freeway.

The only question now is, how will the Bruin faithful respond?

Perhaps the better question is, how SHOULD they strike back?