Utah takes on BYU in the Royal Purple Las Vegas Bowl on Saturday, the Holy War re-engaged in Sin City to kick off the bowl season.
That is just... beautiful. Among our 42 bowl games, none will approach the behind-the-scenes, soap-operatic emotions of this one.
Neither team is particularly happy to be in Las Vegas, which offers temptations that large percentages of both fan bases strenuously avoid. Both teams desperately want to win, as much because of the frustrated disappointment victory inflicts as the joy it produces. There is a wonderful brew of misery and zeal and emotion and visceral dislike here, one that differentiates itself from other state rivalries because there is a religious dimension.