What happens during bowl week?
Outside of the actual game and preparation there are a lot of great NON-Football things that players get rewarded with by going to a bowl game. Here is a quick list.
1. A Week-Long Vacation, all expenses paid* (All travel costs are covered to and from the Bowl Game site, plus a per diem for food, gifts, etc.) The real bonus here is that if you are married the school pays for your wife (and kids) too. I got married 4 days after the Utah to make sure that my wife would be with me in Vegas.
2. Goodie Bags from the school and Gifts from the Bowl. When I went as a Freshman in 2001 to the Liberty our gifts were about 95% clothing, with a nice commemorative watch being the highlight. At the three Vegas Bowls things were much better. Coach Mendenhall believed that we earned the right to choose our gifts. So we were given a $ amount to spend on each player and were presented with a bunch of options from Nike, Ogio, Skullcandy, and then any ideas from DVD players to Xbox to whatever would fit in the budget. The leadership council voted on how the money would be spent on what gifts. From the Bowl we got 1st year – iPod Nano; 2nd year – GPS Device; 3rd year – iTouch.
3. Entertainment in the city of the Game Site. In Vegas this was 2 trips to the Blue Man Group and one trip to KA – Cirque du Soleil. This is sponsored by the Bowl. We have a night at the ESPN Zone playing video games and eating dinner. We have the Battle of the Bands and Outback Dinner and then the day before the game we have a Luncheon with both teams. 1 out of 3 times this was awesome. The first year we had Lee Corso as our Guest Speaker and he was a total jerk. He just kept building up Cal and ripping on BYU. The second year it was Lou Holtz and he was AMAZING! If you didn’t like Lou before then, you would have after, even with that lisp. Last year it was The Schmuck from Monday Night Football who does sideline stuff (Just saw him last week and it gave me chills) and he was the most offensive person I have ever heard speak. I remember talking to President Samuelson afterwards at him saying he had to put his hand on Coach’s leg to make sure Coach didn’t end up on Sportscenter for the wrong reason.
4. Service opportunities. We have had great service opportunities set up by members in the area the last two years. From painting homes to playing with kids at the Boys and Girls Club, the most memorable part of the bowl for a lot of players is the service activities.
By Markell Staffieri
I remember there being a little bit of tension in bowl when BYU played Oregon with Coach Belotti creating some bulletin board material for the Cougars and an Oregon player trying to disrupt the haka. Was there ever any jealousy that the PAC-10 team always got the nicer hotel?
Who is the sideline guy? I thought there were two ladies that did the sideline work.
Who was the ESPN guy you were talking about? An announcer or reporter or what?
Oh, was it McGwire or whatever his name is?
Yes, this is what the bowl games are about! not the money or the rankings! it is about rewarding the players for a hard years work. could somebody please send this to the ESPN guys that always say,
“The only games that matter are the BCS games and all the others should be done away with. All these .500 teams is just dumb there are too many bowls.”
I hate it when they say that. Enjoy the Bowl fans and let the players enjoy the week.
Seasider, I don’t think there was jealousy but there was definitely resentment in the fact that every treated the Pac-10 team like they were so Holy, when they were always a mediocre team.
I think we always just got ticked off because they acted so superior to us, and we were always coming in as the Champs.
Zak…That’s him, Paul Maguire! That guys has even less class than the Ute Fans. I have no respect for him whatsoever. It wasn’t just that he was off color, but down right rude and derogatory.
It is one thing to make playful jabs, but to just launch into a tirade of personal attacks??? It was ridiculous.
Why does the Pac-10 opponent get a nicer hotel? This always irritated me because it seemed like classism was at play.
Yeah, I agree with it seemingly like the bowl was treating the Pac-10 team better than our Cougars, but that changed last year when Bronco made sure that BYU was the home team instead of the visiting team because we were conference champs. Also, last year, I believe the team stayed in a nicer hotel than the previous two years, but I may be wrong about that.
Yeah, the first two years it is my understanding that the team stayed at the Golden Nugget (G-Nugs), and then last year they stayed at the Planet Hollywood. Planet Hollywood is the old Alladin, or something that used to be a hole but is now actually pretty nice. Same Casino they filmed 21 in…
This year its the same, but the Pac-10 stays in the Venecian… The Planet Hollywood hotel is nice… But there is a difference between Planet Hollywood…. and the Venecian.
I guess the Pac-10 has history on their side.. but if the MWC keeps the train rolling and continues to roll over Pac-10 teams like they did this year, we could earn some respect.
I prefered to call it the Golden Noozsh-ae, you have to say it like a Frenchmen in hopes that somehow simply saying the word would transport you out of the filth.
What about the fireside? I remember last year Coach Mendenhall touched on the way the media had been disrespectful. I love, love the firesides. What do you think about the firesides?
Vegas Fan –
That comment about the media was 95% directed to Paul Maguire. (See Above Comments). I know the players love the firesides. I gives us an opportunity to calm the nerves and realize there are bigger things than football. I think it is the perfect way to prepare for the game, kind of the “Quiet Before the Storm.”
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