We not to stop looking at conspiracy theories and accept some facts.
It is more likely that one or two schools were able to sabotage UNLV (and AFA), keeping them out of the initial group due to spite, preventing them from creating the best and most profitable conference as possible, convincing both the PAC 2 who are diving the bus AND their media partners to do this.
OR
We weren't in their top 4, just like they said.
Money is what drives realignment, nearly 100%. It doesn't make sense that anyone trying to make the most money avoid adding schools that will make them the most money, due to some silly pettiness. It is in everyone's best interest to build a new conference with the best markets, media value, and to a slightly lesser extent, the best performing teams. Media partners want to make money, conferences want to maximize payouts
We weren't blackballed. At the time, we were probably a bit more risky with only 1 good football season under our belts and somewhat underwhelming numbers given our market size and success. The "metrics" were what they were. If they were to do it now, would it be different? Most likely, but even so, we have a pretty small sample size of success. It's one thing to have decent to good crowds when you are good, another when you are mediocre to bad ( all things the top 4 have been able to show btw).
