Sports Illustrated Bowl Blog

Las Vegas rolls out red carpet for best game in years

SI.com's Arash Markazi will be on the road for the next two weeks, hitting up five bowl games -- the Las Vegas, Insight, Holiday, Fiesta and Rose -- and chronicling his journey in a daily Bowl Blog. His first stop was in Sin City for Cal-BYU on Thursday night.

There's something about being in Las Vegas for the holidays that just isn't right. I'm not sure whether it's the constant sound of ringing slot machines, the scantily clad cocktail waitresses offering up free booze or the sleazy dudes lining the streets passing out smut flyers. All I know is it just doesn't fit, even if the casinos are piping in Christmas carols. Despite lacking the holiday charm of Rockefeller Center or the Magnificent Mile, Sin City has something New York and Chicago don't have -- a bowl game, and this year's matchup between BYU and Cal was probably the best they've had in years. It was also the first stop in my journey to five bowls in two weeks. I arrived in Vegas around noon on Thursday without a place to stay knowing that in a city built around hotels, I'd be able to find a place fairly easily. I ended up lucking out when an old friend was gracious enough to hook me up with a room at the Bellagio for a couple of nights at the last minute. After all, what's a trip to Vegas without a comp here and there? The room wasn't exactly the "Rain Man Suite" but at a nightly rate of "nothing" I wasn't about to complain about the canopy-covered king-size bed and the Jacuzzi in the bathroom.

Some of my friends at Cal insisted I stay at the Hard Rock Hotel, where the team, band and most of the school's fans were headquartered, but there were a couple of things wrong with that proposed plan. First, I have no problem with Cal fans, but there's nothing worse than walking into a casino and being surrounded by a horde of super fans, frat dudes and old alums wearing their school's colors. That was basically the blue-and-gold scene at the Hard Rock this week. Second, the Hard Rock is about two miles from the Strip, which means you have to cab it to any other hotel unless you want to try to navigate your way there on foot after a few Dewar's on the rocks. No thank you. Then again, that's not nearly as bad as the Golden Nugget, where BYU and its fans were headquartered. That place is located downtown, five miles from the Strip, and its clientele is older than cash. Need proof? Its next headline act is Regis and Joy Philbin "singing songs from the American classics" on Jan. 20. Seriously. But as any cabbie in the city will tell you, there's no worse drive in Vegas than the one from the Strip to Sam Boyd Stadium -- which is practically in Henderson -- on gameday. Although UNLV and the Thomas & Mack Center are within walking distance from some hotels, Sam Boyd, site of the Las Vegas Bowl, is a good 10 miles away and a half-hour drive with traffic. "I spent $40 getting a cab over here from the Mirage," said one late-arriving reporter. "I thought the stadium was on campus." Nope, the stadium is literally in the middle of nowhere, with only the desert and a few barren mountains visible from the press box.

Its odd location notwithstanding, there's a certain charm about the venue formally known as the Silver Bowl. The home and visiting locker rooms are located in two small brick buildings -- which are not connected to the horseshoe-shaped stadium -- and have grass front yards and walkways that lead to the field. The only thing missing is a white picket fence. It's actually pretty cute. Not as cute as the grade schoolers who line the walkways before the game and give the players high-fives as they walk onto the field, but cute nonetheless.

Notes on a Scorecard

• Adam Duritz from Counting Crows has to be the best celebrity college fan, beating out Ashley Judd and Nick Lachey for the prestigious honor. Duritz was on the field two hours before kickoff, chilling on the bench with Cal offensive lineman Mike Tepper and nervously pacing the sideline as the team warmed up. He stood around the 50-yard line, within earshot of coach Jeff Tedford for much of the game. "I wouldn't miss a game like this," said Duritz, who doesn't miss much of what Cal does as he also makes time to attend football practices as well as men's and women's basketball games.

• You know you are at the Vegas Bowl when two feather-headed showgirls accompany the officials to midfield for the coin toss and legendary lounge lizard Clint Holmes croons both God Bless America and The Star-Spangled Banner back-to-back, finishing off the latter with "Don't forget to tip your waiters and waitresses. Good night everybody!" OK, I made that last part up, but it would have fit the mood perfectly.

• The crowd of 40,053 was the first sellout in the Las Vegas Bowl's 14-year history and a big increase from last season, when 27,784 watched Wyoming beat UCLA, 24-21. Yeah, that's right, 27,784 for a bowl game. No wonder the NCAA was ready to revoke the bowl's certification before organizers lucked into a Cal-BYU matchup that attracted more Mormons and liberals than the Strip could handle.

• Just wondering, but are we required to say "ESPNU signature anchor" every time we say Mike Hall's name? The former Dream Job winner was introduced that way every time he spoke at the Las Vegas Bowl luncheon Wednesday. Hall was also promoting a one-hour all-access show about the Vegas Bowl that will air on ESPNU at 8 p.m. EST on Dec. 31, which raises a pressing question: Why would anyone want to watch a show about the Las Vegas Bowl nine days after the game and four hours before New Year's?

• Pioneer PureVision might not roll off your tongue like Tostitos, FedEx or Nokia, but give the electronics giant credit. It supplied the press box with a couple of sweet HDTV big screens that attracted a crowd before and after the game. For the record, ESPN sideline reporter Alex Flanagan looks just as amazing in person as she does on TV.

• Although bowl organizers provided participating players with a gift bag that included an iPod Nano and an Oakley watch, they also stuck them with tickets to the Blue Man Group at the Venetian Hotel on Monday night, a show they were basically required to attend as part of the welcome reception. Luckily they were spared from having to watch Carrot Top at the MGM Grand as well.

• No matter how big the Las Vegas Bowl gets -- and I seriously doubt it will get bigger than this -- I will always remember Sam Boyd Stadium as the birthplace of the XFL in 2001, when the Las Vegas Outlaws beat the New York/New Jersey Hitmen as WWE owner Vince McMahon ushered in a football revolution that would grip the sports world for all of three months. My favorite XFL moment actually came this summer when I asked then-Cowboys kicker Jose Cortez if he ever got his championship ring for being the kicker of the first and only XFL champion, the Los Angeles Xtreme. "I would have," he said. "But they wanted me to pay for it."