Bullmastiff 1 said:

They'd be interested.

At a greatly reduced package.

Basically peanuts like CUSA..

I hate hyperbole but this conference would be dead in the water.

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I think if there are more defections, a merger with CUSA is likely. I don’t see the point in backfilling with low tier or FCS like programs.

(In the above scenario, unlv is long gone in the MWC).

Meister_Rebel said:

The way you lay it out just infuriates me knowing that our athletic department, to me, seems to have given up on basketball.

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Me too. It's been painful to watch over the years, and I'm sure even more so for Joe and others that were around back in the Tark years. That was before my time at UNLV. The idea that you have to spend money to make money is definitely true in a lot of ways for college sports. Spending money is no guarantee that you'll make money, but if you are afraid to spend on a proven coach who can bring in players/fans/etc, then you are missing out on a huge opportunity.

Bullmastiff 1 said:

Scheduling would be a nightmare.
Recruiting would dry up as well.

I was sure Odom would stay at least for a couple more years.

Now, if a job comes along for a school in a more stable conference he may bolt.

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Odom and Lindy are the best things we have going on in the athletic department. Whatever it takes we have to keep them. Even if it means taking some of the money we are getting from the departing schools exit fees. We lose them and what do we have left. I don't care if we have to double their salary and shut down the men's basketball program.

Meister_Rebel said:

That's why we need to make a move to the AAC and let the lawyers worry about the clean up.

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That costs us $ 17 million.

Meister_Rebel said:

I don't think it works that way. Look at the PAC2. They were given 2 years to rebuild before the conference would have folded. With 8 schools remaining that would vote for dissolution I don't think one of them right now would vote to close the conference. They are on life support just like us but worse.

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Not dissolving but weakens the conference to the point that they would have to settle for whatever we offered. The schools that left could sue for a settlement as the PAC2 had to do to settle. People forget they were owed huge sums of money and ended up settling for 65 million and other assets in the 100 million range.

In 2026 or 2025, I doubt the conference will have any real value.

LVRebel2000 said:

Me too, which is why I put that out as a big factor. Would these schools continue to play in the conference if they're going to be losing a bunch of money each year? Or would you take the pot of money that was coming in due to these 4 defections, and then vote to disband the conference and split up the money, then find the best option after that for each individual school

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Scheduling would be a nightmare.
Recruiting would dry up as well.

I was sure Odom would stay at least for a couple more years.

Now, if a job comes along for a school in a more stable conference he may bolt.

Hopefully the Rebs stay focus on the same instead being distract by these alignment talks! UNLV need a good showing tonight.

Meister_Rebel said:

I have serious doubts whether CBS or Fox would be interested in continuing their relationship with us based on what is leftover.

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They'd be interested.

At a greatly reduced package.

Basically peanuts like CUSA..

I hate hyperbole but this conference would be dead in the water.

LVRebel2000 said:

If UNLV committed to getting basketball back to the days of Rice, and kept rolling with Odom, the school should easily be able to bring in an extra $10,000,000 annually. Is that not good for the school and the state?

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The way you lay it out just infuriates me knowing that our athletic department, to me, seems to have given up on basketball.

Meister_Rebel said:

I have serious doubts whether CBS or Fox would be interested in continuing their relationship with us based on what is leftover.

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Me too, which is why I put that out as a big factor. Would these schools continue to play in the conference if they're going to be losing a bunch of money each year? Or would you take the pot of money that was coming in due to these 4 defections, and then vote to disband the conference and split up the money, then find the best option after that for each individual school

LVRebel2000 said:

Yeah, that's tough. I think the biggest deal would be based on what the revised conference is able to get in terms of a media deal. If it's a huge downgrade, then what's the point of continuing down the same path?

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I have serious doubts whether CBS or Fox would be interested in continuing their relationship with us based on what is leftover.

LVRebel2000 said:

And that is just in one year, for one sport. So now, with football making this same jump in notoriety with Odom, we could easily get up to where we're averaging 30,000 fans per game. And that could go much higher if we started getting in the top 25 regularly. If UNLV goes back to obscurity in football, averaging 8k fans per game, we'd be in line to lose another $6,000,000 per year in football annually, not including any media deals or merchandise sales.

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If UNLV committed to getting basketball back to the days of Rice, and kept rolling with Odom, the school should easily be able to bring in an extra $10,000,000 annually. Is that not good for the school and the state?

Meister_Rebel said:

They may have to dip into the endowment fund. We would have to pay it back but, if we don't act soon we will become irrelevant. We have to keep Odom and we need to continue to grow. The MWC is dead and any sign of growth is in the rear view mirror.

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Per Regent Brooks.

“And then the financial obligations that these campuses have in moving from one conference to another … I’m not sure that UNLV and UNR are in a place to spend that kind of money to move into another conference.”

And he wasn't on board when it cost us ZERO money.

Meister_Rebel said:

My compliments. That was well said.

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And that is just in one year, for one sport. So now, with football making this same jump in notoriety with Odom, we could easily get up to where we're averaging 30,000 fans per game. And that could go much higher if we started getting in the top 25 regularly. If UNLV goes back to obscurity in football, averaging 8k fans per game, we'd be in line to lose another $6,000,000 per year in football annually, not including any media deals or merchandise sales.

Meister_Rebel said:

I don't think it works that way. Look at the PAC2. They were given 2 years to rebuild before the conference would have folded. With 8 schools remaining that would vote for dissolution I don't think one of them right now would vote to close the conference. They are on life support just like us but worse.

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Yeah, that's tough. I think the biggest deal would be based on what the revised conference is able to get in terms of a media deal. If it's a huge downgrade, then what's the point of continuing down the same path?

LVRebel2000 said:

You need to find a way. Maybe OSU/WSU would still help subsidize it, even if it were just a loan.

How much money will UNLV lose annually if they drift further into obscurity? Let's look at how the decisions with basketball have affected money.

At the end of Krugers time, and early Rice days, UNLV was getting way more butts in seats at Rebel games.

In 2012, UNLV had 283,130 fans at the home basketball games, which averages out to 15,729/game.
Last year, UNLV had 87,227 fans at home games (T&M only) over 14 games, for 6,230/game.

That's a difference of almost 9,500 people per game over the course of the season, and almost 200,000 total difference.

So if the cost of a ticket, parking, and food/beverage is even something low like $40 per person per game, UNLV lost $8,000,000 just in basketball alone between 2012 and 2024.

Decision have consequences, one way or the other. Let's hope they make the right decision here

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My compliments. That was well said.

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WarthogRebel said:

Wouldn't that take regent approval?? If so - forget it.

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I don't know. You could be right. I do remember when UNLV took 50 million dollars from the endowment to buy the property across from the T&M.

WarthogRebel said:

If they don't pay our way how do we afford it now?

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You need to find a way. Maybe OSU/WSU would still help subsidize it, even if it were just a loan.

How much money will UNLV lose annually if they drift further into obscurity? Let's look at how the decisions with basketball have affected money.

At the end of Krugers time, and early Rice days, UNLV was getting way more butts in seats at Rebel games.

In 2012, UNLV had 283,130 fans at the home basketball games, which averages out to 15,729/game.
Last year, UNLV had 87,227 fans at home games (T&M only) over 14 games, for 6,230/game.

That's a difference of almost 9,500 people per game over the course of the season, and almost 200,000 total difference.

So if the cost of a ticket, parking, and food/beverage is even something low like $40 per person per game, UNLV lost $8,000,000 just in basketball alone (PER YEAR) between 2012 and 2024.

Decision have consequences, one way or the other. Let's hope they make the right decision here

Bullmastiff 1 said:

That is not a fight the Regents would want nor could they win.

UNLV President would lawyer up.

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That's why we need to make a move to the AAC and let the lawyers worry about the clean up.

WarthogRebel said:

Can't we take AF and another school and blow up the conference so we don't pay exit fees?

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I don't think it works that way. Look at the PAC2. They were given 2 years to rebuild before the conference would have folded. With 8 schools remaining that would vote for dissolution I don't think one of them right now would vote to close the conference. They are on life support just like us but worse.

WarthogRebel said:

They have complete power over renewing the contract of the university President.

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That is not a fight the Regents would want nor could they win.

UNLV President would lawyer up.

Meister_Rebel said:

They may have to dip into the endowment fund. We would have to pay it back but, if we don't act soon we will become irrelevant. We have to keep Odom and we need to continue to grow. The MWC is dead and any sign of growth is in the rear view mirror.

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Wouldn't that take regent approval?? If so - forget it.

The secondary had that one big mental fart with Utah Tech and it cost us a TD. We better have our secondary better prepared.