A few Top-10’s for your Wednesday morning enjoyment.

Things to be excited about if you’re a Cougar:

1. Las Vegas doesn’t have ten inches of snow on the ground.
2. The JW Marriot hotel is spectacular.
3. You get a free Wii and some extra per diem cash to spend on holiday gift.
4. At least you get another game to erase the Utah loss out of your mind. That’s more then the 2004 team received after their loss to the U.
5. Call me crazy, but Vegas is way better then Boise and Albuquerque. If a couple of those late game winning stops/scores went the other way it would have been a different –much colder- type of disappointment.
6. The Cougars know the routine. The ESPN zone, Outback Bowl, convention team luncheon and Las Vegas show and then it’s game time. There shouldn’t be any surprises!
7. BYU will -once again- meet the same Las Vegas mayor show girls. They have a 5 year contract. Some guys will have three years worth of pictures with the same two show girls. Seriously, how often does that happen?
8. The awesome, themed rooms at the Planet Hollywood Hotel. Last year my wife and I had a giant Catwomen poster over our bath tub. Next door the Hutchinson’s had Woopie Goldberg’s cast enshrined in a case next to their bed. Ah…the Hollywood experience.
9. You can always hit up the outlet mall just off the strip to find your lady friend a discounted Christmas gift. You know she’s not the one, so why pay full price?
10. BYU gets another shot to rub a Pac-10 loss in Lee Corso’s and Kirk Herbiestreet’s face. That alone is worth the treacherous drive through the snow and the price of admission to the game.

Things that might not be the best the fourth time around:

1. After a few time to Vegas the tables start to look very alluring. Keeping your distance from the tables wasn’t hard the first and second year. Last year you barley made it out alive without putting it all on red. This year, you could get a little antsy around the dice and I’m sure someone gained a little confidence in their 21 abilities after watching the movie about the MIT guys. Hit me!
2. The Vegas Bowl committee has had enough, so they went ahead and booked the Golden Nugget for next year. (Just in case BYU come back for the fifth year. Is there such a thing as a 5 year reunion?)
3. With the current economic slump Las Vegas officials were hoping for a drunken, gambling Yewte crowd. Instead, 4 hotels filed chapter 7 bankruptcy minutes after Hall throw the interception to Paul Kruger.
4. Will the crowd rush the field after a win over Arizona? I’m just saying…last year the crowd rush was nice. This year it could get awkward when 6 fans bust through security and hoist Harvey on their shoulders only to drop him after a short jaunt to midfield.
5. What’s Bronco Mendenhall going to say at the Freemont St. pep rally? I am predicting a very short, very repetitive speech. “Stoops, have you lost a few pounds? I bet it feels good to still have a job. Oh yeah, thanks Pioneer, your great…strike up the band, hit it.”
6. Let’s hope that the ESPN zone center has some new video game.
7. This will be the first year that the Pac-10 team is actually excited and fortunate to be going to a bowl game. Let’s just hope Stoops can keep his guys out of the strip clubs.
8. Because BYU has had firesides at almost every stake center in Las Vegas Bronco decides to take his fireside to the street and institutes the inaugural street contacting night before the game. The Janimal has a ferocious street approach and Dallas shows some great footwork, which he perfected on the streets of Frankfurt, Germany.
9. Instead of staying in a hotel this year you decied your going to invest in some real estate down in Las Vegas, maybe a time share with a few friends. (when these thoughts start running through your head, it’s time to pack it up and head to a different venue.)
10. Honestly how many time can you walk the strip!