Sideline pass to USC football game is the hottest ticket in town

Sideline passes for USC home football games might rank second only to Lakers’ courtside seats as the ultimate status symbol on the Los Angeles sports scene, even if Kobe Bryant is not a Trojan.

Neither Jack Nicholson nor Leonardo DiCaprio has shown along the sideline, nor have mythical agent Ari Gold and the boys from the hit HBO series “Entourage” filmed a scene on the Coliseum turf, but it seems like a natural setting given the Trojans’ sold-out season and Coach Pete Carroll’s Q rating in Los Angeles.

“I wish everybody could have the experience,” Carroll said. “You can’t see anything, it’s not a great place to watch the game. It’s just kind of cool and fun to be there.”

Steve Lopes, a senior associate athletic director, said celebrities such as Academy Award winning actors Denzel Washington and Jamie Foxx will be among the estimated 150 to 200 fans holding sideline passes for Saturday’s game between top-ranked USC and fifth-ranked Ohio State.

That’s nothing new. Rapper Snoop Dogg, for example, famously caught a ball tossed by running back LenDale White after a touchdown in 2005.

“Where else can you do that besides L.A.?” White said afterward.

However, the majority of sideline pass recipients are under the radar.

“To a certain extent, you want to create buzz,” Lopes said. “This is L.A, we’re in a big market and our games are on national TV.

“But there are a lot of people you don’t know that are obscure … donors that have done something for the department. You want to take care of those people.”

To better monitor who is strolling the sideline and to offset counterfeiting and sale of the passes, USC this season is requiring recipients to sign waivers listing nine rules. For example, recipients must be 18, must not transfer the passes, must not interact with players and must not sit down. It also requires pass-holders to note from whom they got their passes.

To offset counterfeiting, USC no longer distributes season field passes, they’re only available game by game. “If you send them out early, basically you give people time to figure it out,” Lopes said.

The passes, like USC’s tickets, could eventually include bar codes or photographs to better monitor their distribution and use. But Carroll does not expect the waiver or any other policy to lessen the crowd on the sideline.

“There’s not going to be fewer people here,” he said, chuckling. “There’s going to be a lot of people and I love that aspect of it, the kind of festive environment around the game and all.”

 gary.klein@latimes.com