Both the Arizona and BYU football teams arrived in Las Vegas on Tuesday in preparation for Saturday's Las Vegas Bowl, which will offer perhaps the season's most awkward mix of Americans.
The Wildcats -- a team that had to suspend a player this year when his sex tape showed up online -- are headquartered at The Venetian. The BYU Cougars -- a traditionally Mormon program that still considers pseudo-bad boy QB Jim McMahon a scandalous alum -- are staying at Planet Hollywood.
That leaves both teams in the middle of America's legalized prostitution capital.
The strangeness of the entire situation came into crystal clear focus last week, when BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall and Arizona coach Mike Stoops posed between two mostly-naked women.
As the incomparable Every Day But Saturday points out, "Mendenhall looks as comfortable standing between two showgirls as we look in church. Meaning: obviously and visibly praying for a fire to break out so he can leave. Even the [BYU] helmet looks actively disdainful here."
And while the Wildcats may seem more in line with the city's libertine leanings, they definitely aren't cool. That became abundantly clear with the announcement that Arizona over-enthusiast David Hasselhoff will sing the national anthem on Saturday. Hasselhoff's daughter is an Arizona student, and the actor has become something of a second mascot at football games, leading cheers and mugging for attention in the stands.
As With Leather writes, "Hasselhoff, Mormons, and Vegas. It blows my mind that this is an actual, real-life event, and not a TV pilot or the basis for an episode of 'CSI.'"
Local oddsmakers like the Wildcats, which seems to suggest they think the team can stay relatively sober through Saturday night.
