No, the Arizona State Sun Devils football team won't be able to do the usual traveling and sightseeing that most college teams are able to enjoy before their bowl games.
But ASU's fifth-year senior quarterback said the luxury of playing just down the road from your home stadium is a nice consolation prize.
"Some of these young guys, they're not going to experience traveling and whatnot, being in a city they've never been in," Mike Bercovici said about ASU's date with West Virginia at the Motel 6 Cactus Bowl at Chase Field in Phoenix on Saturday.
"But selfishly, for this senior group, it's a great way to go out as seniors, to be right up the freeway here, and it's just going to be kind of fun to have a home-field advantage, I guess you can say, and just show these fans we really care about this program and sending off these seniors in the right way."
Coming off a disappointing 6-6 regular season, Bercovici is understandably antsy to get back on the field to finish the season and his Sun Devil career on a positive note.
But Berco knows a victory over the Mountaineers would also help set a positive tone heading into the Devils' 2016 campaign.
"We've got over, it feels like, five months to prepare for this football game," he said with a laugh. "But coach (Todd Graham) talks about honoring the seniors, and from that perspective, as a senior, we're honoring the program moving forward.
"To go get this seventh win is huge, and just to start 2016 on the right foot for these younger guys, because everybody knows the senior group loves this younger group. It's a huge game."
