| 2008 Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||
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 Las Vegas Bowl logo | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Date | December 20, 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Season | 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Stadium | Sam Boyd Stadium | ||||||||||||||||||
| Location | Whitney, Nevada | ||||||||||||||||||
| MVP | QB Willie Tuitama, Arizona | ||||||||||||||||||
| National anthem | David Hasselhoff[1] | ||||||||||||||||||
| Referee | Jeff Flanagan (ACC) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 40,047[2] | ||||||||||||||||||
| Payout | US$1,000,000 per team[3] | ||||||||||||||||||
| United States TV coverage | |||||||||||||||||||
| Network | ESPN | ||||||||||||||||||
| Announcers | Mike Patrick, Todd Blackledge, Holly Rowe | ||||||||||||||||||
| Nielsen ratings | 2.2 | ||||||||||||||||||
The 2008 Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl was an NCAA-sanctioned Division I FBS post-season college football bowl game between the BYU Cougars (third place overall in the Mountain West Conference) and the Arizona Wildcats (fifth pick from the Pacific-10 Conference). The game was played on December 20, 2008, starting at 5 p.m. PST at 40,000-seat off campus Sam Boyd Stadium of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.[4]
The Wildcats stunned the 16th ranked Cougars in the coldest Las Vegas Bowl in history, 31–21. It was televised on ESPN. The announcers were Mike Patrick and Todd Blackledge with the sideline reporting by Holly Rowe. Starting in 2001, the Las Vegas Bowl featured a matchup of teams from Mountain West and the Pac-10.
- ^ Kansas City [dead link]
- ^ "BYU football: Reed ends Cougar career with statement game". Deseret News. Archived from the original on December 21, 2008. Retrieved December 22, 2008.
- ^ "SportingNews.com - Your expert source for NCAA Football stats, scores, standings, and blogs from NCAA Football columnists". Archived from the original on December 19, 2008. Retrieved September 1, 2011.
- ^ "BYU and Arizona to meet in Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl XVII". lvbowl.com. December 7, 2008. Archived from the original on December 10, 2008. Retrieved December 7, 2008.