UCLA gets invite

Steve Guiremand

Monday, Dec. 9, 2002 | 10:22 a.m.

The Las Vegas Bowl on Sunday morning found out again just how valuable its tie-in with the Pac-10 Conference is.

Even when the bowl didn't get the team it had hoped for, Steven Jackson-led Oregon State, there was still reason for optimism.

"We probably got the best scenario without even realizing it," Las Vegas Bowl executive director Tina Kunzer-Murphy said about landing UCLA (7-5) to face New Mexico (7-6) on Christmas Day at Sam Boyd Stadium.

With the game only two weeks from Wednesday, travel could have been a costly problem for fans from Oregon or Washington, another team the Las Vegas Bowl thought it might end up with as recently as last week. But UCLA fans, much like USC's last year, can make the four-hour drive from Los Angeles on the morning of the 1:30 p.m. game if they so desire. And there are also plenty of cheap flights from several Southern California airports.

"The people from Oregon and Washington might have had a hard time getting here with just a little over two weeks to go to the game," Kunzer-Murphy said. "Do you realize the teams get here in less than two weeks?"

There are several other big plusses for having UCLA in the game.

In fact, the Holiday Bowl, which picks three spots ahead of the Las Vegas Bowl, gave UCLA a strong look for those same reasons before electing to go with Arizona State.

"If you had told me two years ago that we would have USC one year and UCLA the next year, I would have been estatic," Kunzer-Murphy said. "We've gotten probably the two most prominent teams from the Pac-10 in our bowl game. We're hoping the UCLA fans will be like the USC fans and make the short trip over here for the game."

Another interesting twist to the matchup is that it matches Bruin head coach Bob Toledo, known for his wide open offenses and gadget plays, against his ex-defensive coordinator, Lobos head coach Rocky Long.

One of the negatives in getting UCLA is that the Bruins are coming off back-to-back lopsided losses to Orange Bowl-bound USC (52-21) and Rose Bowl-bound Washington State (48-27). And the Bruins don't have a great reputation for traveling to bowl games.

Of course, neither did USC and the Trojans turned out in surprisingly large numbers for last year's 10-6 loss to Utah.

"Everybody loves to have a reason to visit Las Vegas," Kunzer-Murphy said.

The two teams will both receive payouts of $800,000 for playing in the game. Each school is also required to purchase 12,500 seats to the game.