PASADENA, Calif. -- The transfer of sports ownership in Los Angeles is trickier than it is in most cities.

In other municipalities, you can close a deal in a day or transfer it from year to year like a pink slip without much debate.

Win, and it’s yours. You own it. You run it. No debate about it.

Los Angeles, however, is different.

Ownership of the city with respect to its various sports isn’t so much an annual transaction as almost a generational one that doesn’t change hands overnight. As crazy as it might sound, head-to-head results don’t mean as much in the long term as national accomplishments.

On Saturday, UCLA defeated USC 38-20 and claimed a third straight win in the crosstown rivalry. It represents the Bruins’ longest win streak in the series since they claimed eight straight from 1991 to 1998. Not only has UCLA beaten USC three straight seasons, but each one has also been by double digits. The Bruins have scored at least 35 points in three straight games against the Trojans for the first time in the rivalry’s 85-year history.

The Bruins might own the Trojans for now, but they certainly don't own Los Angeles. Chris Williams/Icon Sportswire

After Sunday’s game, UCLA quarterback Brett Hundley, who is now 3-0 against USC, smiled and said, “UCLA runs L.A.”

Last year, UCLA coach Jim Mora pumped his fists after beating USC at the Coliseum and screamed, “We own this town!”

There is no doubt UCLA is the better football team in Los Angeles and has been for three years now. If Los Angeles were just any other city, these results would make Los Angeles a UCLA football town.

By that reasoning, such recent dominance also would make Los Angeles a Clippers town. The Clippers have beaten the Lakers four straight times and eight times in their past nine meetings and thumped them by an average margin of 35.5 points during their final three meetings the past season.

But Los Angeles is not any other city.

Despite what outsiders might think, L.A. isn’t as fickle as the weather or ever-changing standings. Teams don’t relinquish ownership of this city after three years when they’ve been running things for more than 50 years.

Winning Los Angeles will always be far more difficult than winning a division or a championship. Have a great season, and you can claim one of those, but winning Los Angeles will always take more than a good season or three. It takes sustained success over decades -- the kind of sustained success great enough to change rooting interests passed down through generations.

This season’s USC team is the last to be impacted by the three-year NCAA penalty that caps the annual roster at a maximum of 75 scholarship players and the yearly scholarship signees to 15, which is 10 fewer than the NCAA maximum in both cases. Perhaps it’s just a coincidence that UCLA’s three-year run has coincided with USC’s punishment, but the Bruins certainly have taken advantage on and off the field, as well, in recruiting during this time period.

Mora and Hundley have enjoyed unprecedented success at UCLA over the past three years. Not only have they beaten USC three straight seasons, but Saturday’s win also locked up the ninth win of the Bruins’ season. Never before in the story of UCLA football (dating back to 1919), have the Bruins won at least nine games in three straight seasons.

But unless UCLA can beat Stanford next week and Oregon the following (they haven’t beaten both in the same season since 2007), they will finish this three-year run without a conference title and without a trip to the Rose Bowl or a BCS quality bowl. The Bruins’ most recent conference title and trip to the Rose Bowl were in 1998, and their most recent Rose Bowl win was 1985.

Los Angeles is a city owned and run by the teams that win championships. It’s the only kind of currency this town recognizes. Head-to-head battles and win streaks are nice, but they are quickly forgotten when trophy cases accumulate dust. The same goes for empty seats in the crowd. As good as UCLA has been these past three seasons, they Bruins have been hard-pressed to get the Rose Bowl filled to capacity.

The Rose Bowl seats 92,542, but the most recent time a UCLA home game cracked 90,000 was in 2006, when a 7-6 UCLA squad spoiled USC’s shot at playing in the national championship. Saturday’s game drew 82,431 in Pasadena, which meant there were about 10,000 empty seats for the showdown between No. 9 UCLA and No. 19 USC.

USC has 11 national championships and six Heisman trophy winners, and 483 Trojans have been taken in the NFL draft -- second only to Notre Dame. From 2002 to 2008, USC enjoyed seven straight 11-win seasons, conference championships and BCS bowls and won two national championships. The Trojans also beat UCLA in 12 of 13 games from 1999 to 2011, culminating in a 50-0 win at the Coliseum. Sure, it’s old news and nothing more than a history lesson, but it’s what Los Angeles recognizes and respects.

Likewise, L.A. sports fans respect the Lakers’ 16 NBA championships, UCLA’s 11 national championships in college basketball and the Dodgers’ six World Series titles. Yes, their crosstown rivals might get the better of them from time to time, but until that translates into something more than bragging rights, ownership of Los Angeles won't change hands.