Aug. 31, 2005

As the USC and UCLA football teams prepare for their respective season openers Saturday, the chase for the 2005-06 Lexus Gauntlet is just around the corner.

The crosstown rivals kick off the head-to-head, all-sports competition on Friday, Sept. 30, when defending Lexus Gauntlet champion UCLA hosts USC in women's volleyball .The Gauntlet challenge continues with a women's soccer match at UCLA on Oct. 7 and USC women's volleyball hosts UCLA on Oct. 28.

The Lexus Gauntlet fall schedule resumes with men's water polo on Nov. 19. The Bruins and Trojans will battle in football at the Los Angeles Coliseum on Dec. 3. The women's cross-country teams will be using the results of the Pacific-10 Championships on Oct. 29 in Tucson, Ariz.

Point values for the 18 sports are as follows: 10 for football, men's and women's basketball and women's volleyball, and five each for men's water polo, women's water polo, men's soccer, women's cross-country, women's swimming and diving, baseball, men's golf, women's golf, men's volleyball, women's rowing, men's tennis, women's tennis, men's track and field and women's track and field.

By defeating USC 67.5-42.5 in the 2004-05 sports season, UCLA claimed the trophy for the second time. It also won it in 2003, while USC won in 2002 and 2004.

The Southern California Lexus Dealers are proud to be the leading sponsors of both the UCLA and USC athletic departments as well as the exclusive title sponsor of every USC-UCLA athletic competition. For more than 80 years, these champion rivals have competed for the ultimate city-wide title. Now, based on the practice of knights who challenged each other to duel by throwing their armored gauntlets to the ground, Lexus has issued the absolute challenge: the Lexus Gauntlet competition.