If alterations are made, if 12 is suddenly 16 teams or even more, if how the College Football Playoff is constructed becomes different from how we know it, John Saccenti is convinced his game will be ready.
That the Las Vegas Bowl could play a central part in the advancement of it all.
“If they want to change the format at all, I like the position we’re in,” said Saccenti, the game’s executive director. “If they keep it as is, there’s no Vegas as part of that group. But if they decide to expand, we’re a West Coast game in a $2 billion state-of-the-art stadium and in a destination everyone wants to be in.”
The latest Las Vegas Bowl played out Friday night when USC tangled with Texas A&M at Allegiant Stadium.
The 12-team playoff will be in place through next season, after which those running things will examine it based on a two-year sample size. Saccenti is right. Should the powers that be decide things can be improved by adding teams — and essentially more games — the Las Vegas Bowl should be a primary candidate for inclusion.
It has too much going for it.
Not if, but when
It’s much like the praise heaped upon Las Vegas by the NFL after the Super Bowl. How smoothly things ran. How the infrastructure was in place, the hotels were in place, the meeting space was in place. All points, be it on a smaller scale, a CFP game would be interested in.
“When the (CFP) makes a decision on the next couple of sites and destinations, I think we’re fooling ourselves just to say, ‘If they come to Vegas,’” Saccenti said. “It’s ‘when they come to Vegas.’ They’ll see exactly how we do things, and nobody does it better.”
One of Saccenti’s main concerns is how teams are selected for the bowl game now. He wants the process looked at more closely. He wants more flexibility instead of being locked into a specific pick from a conference.
He doesn’t like merely being slotted into, say, a predetermined choice from the Big Ten.
“I think we ought to be able to dip into a bigger pool,” he said. “We should be able to slide a little bit. The matchup has to work with the destination. That’s going to be my goal going forward with the next cycle. At the end of the day, I want the best matchup for our game and for TV.”
His job changes every year, and it’s no different now with the CFP. Perhaps his most difficult challenge is discovering a way to keep fans engaged during bowl season. What he doesn’t want, what no non-CFP bowl game wants, is for fans to be so disappointed their team didn’t make the playoff that it keeps them and a community from being interested.
The Kickoff Classic between USC and LSU in September set attendance records at Allegiant Stadium and offered a thrilling finish that saw the Trojans prevail 27-20. It was the type of springboard Saccenti hopes can fuel another game each year.
“We have to make sure the bowl is also a marquee event that locals want to go to and be part of, but also that the fan bases we are inviting are excited and engaged,” Saccenti said. “(Las Vegas) now hosts almost every massive major event in the world. We’ve been a little spoiled in that sense. The Las Vegas Bowl has to be a top-tier event much like what you saw with LSU-USC.”
A small window
The Las Vegas Bowl was created to draw tourism before Christmas. But the CFP now schedules games on that Saturday, making things complicated for Saccenti’s bowl.
The town wants it over before New Year’s Eve, and availability of the stadium must be coordinated with the Raiders. There is only a small window of opportunity. He’s not overly concerned, though.
“We’re always going to be in good shape, and we’re always going to be a place people want to come,” Saccenti said. “I will put our bowl week events up against anyone in the country. Nobody does events like this. Nobody does gifting to players like we do. That’s what it’s all about — to make sure we take care of these teams.”
Who knows — one day soon they might be taking care of those in a CFP game.
Ed Graney, a Sigma Delta Chi Award winner for sports column writing, can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com. He can be heard on “The Press Box,” ESPN Radio 100.9 FM and 1100 AM, from 7 to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday. Follow @edgraney on X.