My brother and I recently met up for a 5-day long vacation together in Phoenix, AZ. About 4 months ago, I decided it was time for us to see a major college football game. I’d never seen one (having only played at the Division III level) and my brother had only been to one before (and that was an IU-Purdue game, which isn’t usually a very fun one to watch). We talked about it a bit and then I decided to buy some tickets to the Fiesta Bowl because it had been of consistently high quality the last few years.

We ended up lucking out because the game featured the two squads we both wanted to see the most: Kansas State and Oregon. I was cheering for Kansas State because of Colin Klein, but mostly I was excited about seeing a good football game and hanging out with my brother.

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Glendale, AZ. It was really nice for the price and was within walking distance of several shopping centers and the stadium. We had a good time just hanging out together, but the highlight of the visit was definitely the game. If you’ve never been to a big college football game before and you genuinely like the sport, you almost owe it to yourself to attend one. The atmosphere and pageantry were amazing. Every time one of the schools’ cheer squads stood up and rang out a cheer, the entire population supporting that team would ring back in reply. We got lucky, too, in that the view from our seats was amazing for watching the game. You could see all the action!

We had a great time, and I think this is something I want to make a tradition. We’re still trying to decide whether to rotate bowl games or go to the same one every year, but whatever we decide, I know it will be a blast.