National eye focuses on Las Vegas for college sports

There will come a time Saturday afternoon when millions of folks across the country turn their TVs to ABC for a college football game between Houston and San Diego State. Over on CBS, millions more will watch a college basketball doubleheader that includes three of the nation’s top seven teams.

The events share a connection far beyond similar time slots, one that is part of a much broader and significant storyline that dates back more than two decades.

Which is to say, how sports marketing has come to define the destination that is Las Vegas in a time of year when beds are always difficult to fill.

What began in 1992 with the first Las Vegas Bowl as a way to attract people to the city during a traditionally slow time for business — following the National Finals Rodeo and before Santa makes his rounds — has grown into offering the sort of vast exposure Saturday will extend the city.

And if D.J. Allen and those he works with have their way, it will only get much bigger.

The Cougars and Aztecs contest the 25th Las Vegas Bowl at Sam Boyd Stadium around 30 minutes after No. 2 UCLA tips off against Ohio State at T-Mobile Arena, which will be followed by No. 6 Kentucky against No. 7 North Carolina.

Which means over the distance of 10 or so miles and several hours, separate major college events of national significance will take place.

“This weekend is a game changer in terms of how people in and out of college athletics will view Las Vegas,” said Allen, whose firm Xs and Os Success works with local organizations to support and promote sporting events. “It’s amazing to see what is happening right now and how the city is viewed nationally.”

T-Mobile Arena was built for hockey, something that will show well when the Golden Knights begin skating for real in October. But you can’t discount the past two weeks and how the venue has and will play to basketball, beginning with a sold-out gathering for Duke-UNLV and now the CBS Sports Classic, which as of Friday had about 600 tickets remaining.

Look beyond the blowout score, and the Blue Devils and Rebels had the feeling of an opening game of the NCAA Tournament, while rankings and pedigrees alone suggest the doubleheader Saturday could play more like a Sweet 16.

These sorts of things often don’t draw substantial crowds this time of year — check out the number of empty seats at Staples Center in Los Angeles when Gonzaga played Arizona and Brigham Young met Southern California a few weeks back. The fact Las Vegas will come close to selling out college basketball events in consecutive weeks is notable.

It’s the sort of reality Allen, former UNLV athletic director Jim Livengood and others such as Las Vegas Events and MGM Resorts have envisioned, hoping times such as these prove the mere tipping point for the future.

Already, Livengood led an effort that landed the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics convention at Mandalay Bay Resort in 2020 and 2022, meaning the largest marketing arm of the NCAA returns to Las Vegas for the first time in more than 20 years.

The importance of a premiere event for collegiate athletics administrators making such a choice can’t be overstated, and it’s true antiquated and at times hypocritical views about gaming and its place here are rightly changing.

You might not have heard of NACDA, but the fact it’s returning here is huge.

It all supports the belief that championship play for the NCAA soon might be approved for Las Vegas, that those who regulate college sports really are coming around to the idea so many conferences, specifically in basketball, have adopted for years.

That the suits at the highest level of collegiate athletics are, well, finally opening their eyes.

Whispers grow that the NCAA women’s basketball tournament could ultimately host regionals and perhaps even more at T-Mobile, while the eight-team Play for Kay event at the arena next week features one of the stronger preseason fields of any such bracket.

Simply, times and, more important, views are changing.

“People and promoters are taking notice,” Allen said. “Las Vegas has always been a great destination, but now it is making a major statement about its ability to promote and stage these kinds of college events. This week is just another example of that.”

A tipping point, perhaps.

Contact columnist Ed Graney at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be a heard on “Seat and Ed” on Fox Sports 1340 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Follow @edgraney on Twitter.