Finally, it's here.

Today is game day at the Rose Bowl.

The staging area for the Rose Parade is just about a mile from the stadium, and while tens of thousands of people camped out overnight to hold their spot to view the parade, New Year's Day is hardly a day of leisure for superintendent Will Schnell, assistant Miguel Yepez and their crew. 

The day is scheduled to start around 8 a.m. with any necessary paint touch ups to the letters, logos, numbers, end zones and any painted areas. Once the paint is dry, Yepez will roll the entire field with a fairway unit to smooth out any footprints and other irregularities in the surface. Then the field is off limits until pregame begins.

The crew will stand at the ready throughout the day, including during the game to sweep the field to remove any tufts of turf that pop up, because keeping "the most famous field in sports" looking tip-top is a non-stop job.

Each year, Schnell, Yepez and Martin Rodriguez hand out game balls to two members of their team for going above and beyond in the lead up to the game.

On Tuesday, they gave game balls to Ian Gray and Denzel Grant. Since these are the first two footballs to see the field for today's game, field staff tradition is that one recipient has to complete a pass to the other. Intentional or not, Gray tossed a nice fade into the corner of the end zone where Grant made gameworth over-the-shoulder catch.

Throughout New Year's Eve day, this place was buzzing with activity. The Goodyear blimp was flying overhead most of the morning, ESPN crews have been here for a while and watching a camera operator set up and test the spider cam has been a fun experience.

A game day walk through included color guard, national anthem, introduction of the Tournament of Roses queen and court and at least one celebrity sighting - Olympic gymnast Laurie Hernandez.

All this hubbub means a high security presence.

Schnell and our new friend George Wiley, the former Pasadena Police officer and member of the Rose Bowl field staff tells us the Rose Bowl game is high on the list of terrorist targets and there are several law-enforcement agencies here to make sure the game goes off without incident.

We won't divulge all the security efforts in place here this week, but Customs and Border Patrol has this place surrounded. Police dogs, body scanners and drive-through scanners help ensure that no one and nothing that shouldn't be here gains access to this place. 

Police dogs are everywhere and the parking lot already has been on lockdown at least once this week when a dog hit on a vehicle for contraband. While such security measures definitely slow things down a little, we are all grateful they are here to help ensure everyone's safety.

After all, it's still just a game.