For those on road trip, Vegas the place to let it ride

Editor’s note: This is the third in a series of stories on the “Road 2 Natty.”

LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Bet the Ducks can win the BCS National Championship Monday?

John Tierney, a 2006 University of Oregon graduate, wagers they can. And what better place to place a bet on the Ducks to beat No. 1 Auburn than here? Inside a massive green-and-yellow building?

“I’m going to bet $50 on the Ducks,” said Tierney, a former producer at KVAL-TV in Eugene who is now a special projects producer at KATU in Portland.

Tierney and friend Tamra Grubb, also a 2006 UO graduate who attended Willamette High School in Eugene and now lives in Portland, too, made their bets Friday at the MGM Grand casino here, that large kelly green building with “MGM Grand” in big, neon yellow block lettering at the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue.

All dressed in their green-and-yellow Duck colors, Tierney and Grubb, along with friends Steve Hadley of Eugene, another 2006 UO graduate, and his fiance, Claire Clarkson, a 2007 UO graduate who attended Willamette High with Grubb, looked like their own personal Oregon Duck rat pack as they sat in a row at MGM Grand’s race and sports book area Friday afternoon.

They were gathered with scores of others in the black chairs with the school-desk-like tables, looking up at three giant TV screens and about 40 smaller screens filled with college football, NBA basketball and hockey games and horse races.

Although the Ducks were listed as 21/2-point favorites to beat Auburn University on the MGM Grand books when the bowl season kicked off a couple of weeks ago, thousands of folks placing bets on Auburn has resulted in the Tigers now being listed as 3-point favorites.

Tierney’s $50 bet would win him $38.50 if Oregon does no worse than lose by 2 on Monday. Grubb placed a $30 bet for a friend. After betting on the Ducks in games against Cal and USC in 2008, and losing both, she doesn’t bet anymore, she said.

The foursome weren’t the only Duck fans inside the MGM Grand on Friday. Bellied up to slot machines were Jim and Melissa Schroeder of Olympia Wash., whose son, Jason, is a 2003 UO graduate. Jason will join them here today, then drive with them to Glendale, Ariz., for the championship game.

“We like to go to Vegas every once in awhile,” said Jim Schroeder, wearing a green UO shirt and cap. “And we’re going to see a show.”

Seated close by at another slot machine was their friend, Harley McArthur, of Eugene, who was in the process of winning $300 on his machine. McArthur also planned to place a $200 bet on the Ducks for his daughter.

“You can’t come to Vegas and not bet on the Ducks,” said McArthur, who predicts Oregon will win by no fewer than 10 points.

Back at the sports book area, two Auburn fans suddenly walked in front of where Tierney and the others were sitting. Tierney belted out a “Go Ducks!”

“War Eagle!” shot back the orange T-shirt clad David Stutsman of Atlanta, a 2008 Auburn graduate, reciting the Tigers’ battle cry.

Tierney and Grubb later befriended Stuts­man and his friend, fellow 2008 Auburn grad Michael Bleke, who’d both flown here for a couple of days before driving to Arizona for the big game on Monday.

Stutsman and Bleke had placed bets on LSU against Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl, which was playing on one of the big screens, saying they had to back a Southeastern Conference team. But they said they would not be betting on Auburn to beat the Ducks.

“You can’t bet on your own team,” Bleke said. “Never.” Not that Bleke thinks the Ducks have any chance of beating his beloved Tigers, he said.

Tierney and Grubb have tickets to Monday’s game, but Hadley and Clarkson do not. “They’re just along for the ride,” Tierney said. Actually, the road trip was Hadley’s idea. The four of them drove from Eugene to Reno on Thursday, and from Reno to Las Vegas on Friday. They planned to spend the night across the street from the MGM Grand, at the all-lit-up-in-neon-orange Hooters Casino Hotel. They’ll head for Phoenix today.

Hadley’s Jeep Patriot is decked out with five Duck flags, but a magnetic UO football helmet decal flew off somewhere between Reno and here, leaving a dirt outline of a football helmet on his rig.

And one of the car flags, a BCS National Championship flag, broke and flew off, too, Tierney said. They pulled over and ran back on the highway to get it.

“We looked at the odometer and we’d gone 616 miles,” Tierney said of the moment they heard the flag snap and break off. “Maybe I should bet $61.60 on the Ducks?”