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Las Vegas • As a potential NFL Draft pick, risk is relative for Colorado State quarterback Garrett Grayson.
Not many players in Saturday's Las Vegas Bowl will have set aside $100 from each of this season's stipend checks for a roll of the dice.
That's what Grayson did — although to be precise, he said, he's more likely to play roulette or blackjack than craps.
"I came in with quite a bit. If I lose it, I lose it, but I want to go out with a bang and enjoy my last trip being with these guys."
It's the only bowl at which quarterbacks beg folks to hit them.
A 2012 NCAA study shows that college athletes, like the greater population, aren't averse to games of chance. Nineteen percent of male student-athletes had gambled in a casino. Twelve percent had played slots. Twenty-seven percent had played cards for money.
Utah senior safety Brian Blechen was among those who thought he might try his luck with the cash left over from his compensation for gas mileage.
But he was realistic:
"If you start off lucky, then maybe you'll be able to keep going. If not, it will be a really short experience."
Neither team has made the casino floor off-limits to players — who are, after all, staying in casinos. Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham wouldn't divulge team rules, but Colorado State interim head coach Dave Baldwin said that as long as they honor the nightly curfews, they have carte blanche.
The Rams earned his trust, he said, by going 10-2 and making the right choices on and off the field.
When a reporter asked him to explain his lack of worry, he cracked, "I am worried. I told them when they walk around, there's going to be Coach Baldwin with a mask on every corner."
For each meal that isn't provided by the team, Utah's players receive the standard government per diem for Las Vegas — $71 — divided by three: So on Thursday, because the team fed them just once, the Utes each earned $47. Add to that $30 per day for incidental costs, and it's enough to kill some time at the nickel slots.
But most of their time is accounted for: Eating Outback steaks on Fremont Street or practicing at Bishop Gorman High or doling out shoes and socks to underprivileged children at an elementary school or riding a 550-foot Ferris wheel at The LINQ or watching magician Criss Angel at Luxor.
If they can squeeze in a few hands, rolls and spins between all that, nobody's too bothered, so long as they don't bet on sports.
The same 2012 NCAA study found that 26 percent of male athletes had wagered on sports — a violation of NCAA rules — and that 59 percent of male athletes felt that "most athletes in college violate NCAA sports-wagering rules." More than half — 57 percent — thought it was OK to bet as long as it wasn't on your own sport, and 41 percent thought coaches wouldn't mind unless the bets were on a player's own game.
Despite that, Vegas Bowl executive director John Saccenti, working his 13th game, said that it hasn't ever been a problem before.
Wherever Saccenti goes, people ask him what the line is (Utah is favored by three) and whom he likes, but he said he doesn't pay any attention to it. Teams instruct their players not to bet, and the bowl does likewise to its officials.
"We wouldn't go near it with a 10-foot pole," he said.
And players room as far away from the casino floor as the bowl can keep them — while still on The Strip, at least. When they travel to and from team events, they use routes that bypass sports books.
Former Utah head coach Ron McBride said that when Utah visited in 1999 and 2001, the U. brought along two police officers to patrol the hallways after bed checks, and kept another watchful set of eyes in the Golden Nugget lobby. They had no issues.
Utah punter Tom Hackett, fresh off winning the Ray Guy Award as the nation's best punter, isn't sure if he'll test his luck alongside Grayson and Blechen.
"We'll keep that between me and me, I think."
Nobody knows how many touchdowns will be needed Saturday.
But in the meantime, for some, three sevens will do nicely.
Twitter: @matthew_piper —
Las Vegas Bowl
P Utah vs. Colorado St.
Sam Boyd Stadium Saturday, 1:30 p.m.
TV • Ch. 4