Bullmastiff 1 said:

I would pay good money to listen in on those conference calls to see how they're feeling right now.

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The Bob Sugar/Jerry Maguire memes going around are probably pretty accurate.

InZoneU said:

Club Ced lol. I am still in touch w. him every now & then.

The town is also now 2.25MM instead of the 700k it was back then.

I agree about the MWC not being as strong as the PAC, but at the end of the day nobody is watching or interested in going to say UNLV vs. any of the MWC teams except maybe Boise for football. PAC are basically in the big pot of G teams. Like UNLV did in the past, play a tough OOC schedule, win those games, run your conference and you'll be in the mix.

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OOC will be the key for each major sport. In this league, however, for BB we'll have a better chance or winning the Conference Tourney and getting the bid. I don't think this league will ever get more than two bids. The football invite will depend on an undefeated year with a couple of nice OOC P4 wins. The sad thing is we are truly wasting Allegiant stadium when we play home games against Toledo/North Texas/ NMSU or whoever you want to insert.

LVRebel2000 said:

agreed. Hopefully UNLV told the Circa guys, no thank you on the payment to Sluka, but please do submit a donation to the NIL collective that we can use for the next round of players.

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The "Circa Guys" aka Derek Stevens is going to be huge moving forward. That fool has so much cash and loves UNLV sports. I believe the story he tried to come through with a $100k donation to the UNILV. He's that type of guy. He's an "old school" casino owner. Wants to help the city if it makes him look good and brings people through his doors.

I used to assist with a podcast/radio show that was done out of the D back in 2015-16 or so. One of the nicest guys. Walked the floor. Talked to people. He seemed genuine about it to. Even if he's a huge phony he does in invest in Vegas.

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WarthogRebel said:

Extortionists get paid all the time. No matter what, either the collective was sloppy or our assistant was out of line. He had us by the short hairs. We needed to have a logical thinker realize this and just pay.

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Saying "extortionists get paid all the time" doesn't make it the right thing to do. I said that, if he was actually offered that money, then yeah, we should have worked with the NIL group to make that happen. But if we didn't, then I don't agree that you pay him. We can agree to disagree on that.

LVRebel2000 said:

It's hard to know what the right move was, without really knowing the details of what happened. If the staff/NIL collective never made that offer to him, then there's no chance you pay someone that's trying to extort you.

The agent Sluka has is still, to this day, not registered as an agent in NV, so isn't able to act on Sluka's behalf. Pretty crazy situation all around.

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Extortionists get paid all the time. No matter what, either the collective was sloppy or our assistant was out of line. He had us by the short hairs. We needed to have a logical thinker realize this and just pay.

Poster17 said:

We've done the right thing. You don't get to negotiate in season. Sorry kid.

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Not if he is contending he was promised before the season started. His contention is he just wants what he was promised. Everybody in the country thinks this is fair and doesn't give a shit if it's true or not. Our decision makers should have swallow hard, called the collective, and paid. Sometimes the asshole has you by the gonads and you have to admit it a move on.

dcut03 said:

It seems very likely that Sluka tried to raise the agreed upon price.

Holdouts, threats, and power plays cannot be tolerated. You can't set that precedent, even if you have a donor willing to step up and pay him. Can't let that happen.

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agreed. Hopefully UNLV told the Circa guys, no thank you on the payment to Sluka, but please do submit a donation to the NIL collective that we can use for the next round of players.

WarthogRebel said:

Nationally, this has been a PR disaster for us. If he was shaking us down we should have paid. If we promised him we should have paid. Either way, the down side of not paying was far....... greater than just writing the check. Sometimes in life if you are right or wrong it doesn't make any difference. Sometimes the truth doesn't matter and our sports leadership ( be it the University or the collective) can't give flamethrowers like Finebaum etc. gasoline to go after us. The entire thing was FUBAR.

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It's hard to know what the right move was, without really knowing the details of what happened. If the staff/NIL collective never made that offer to him, then there's no chance you pay someone that's trying to extort you.

The agent Sluka has is still, to this day, not registered as an agent in NV, so isn't able to act on Sluka's behalf. Pretty crazy situation all around.

Masked_rebel said:

Except thats against NCAA rules and probably federal law... Its not a matter of "can we just pay him to make the story go away." Its extortion

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Not as long as he deals with the collective.

Masked_rebel said:

Correct. Otherwise it becomes a pay for play scheme and that will not go over well for NCAA.

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It's not pay for play as long as he deals with the collective.

dcut03 said:

It seems very likely that Sluka tried to raise the agreed upon price.

Holdouts, threats, and power plays cannot be tolerated. You can't set that precedent, even if you have a donor willing to step up and pay him. Can't let that happen.

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Powerplays and holdouts work all the time - everywhere. It all depends on who has the power. Rational people make a decision based on the totality of the facts of the situation. In this case, he can't come back to the well time after time because he won't be able to redshirt. We should have paid him and let him play. Then we should have made sure ALL our recruiting measures were tightened up. Nobody would have known anything.

BEAT FRESNO!!

We've done the right thing. You don't get to negotiate in season. Sorry kid.

Except thats against NCAA rules and probably federal law... Its not a matter of "can we just pay him to make the story go away." Its extortion

dcut03 said:

It seems very likely that Sluka tried to raise the agreed upon price.

Holdouts, threats, and power plays cannot be tolerated. You can't set that precedent, even if you have a donor willing to step up and pay him. Can't let that happen.

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Correct. Otherwise it becomes a pay for play scheme and that will not go over well for NCAA.

rebswin2 said:

True but different time and different sport and arguably the best time for college basketball ever.

Plus CSUF had Ced and Pacific had Dell Demps😎

You know as well as I do that in LV if you run out NM St, Albeliene Christian and Wyoming every week people will be sitting at home or at a bar watching compelling games instead. There are no Big Monday 9pm starts where 19k is a sellout

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Club Ced lol. I am still in touch w. him every now & then.

The town is also now 2.25MM instead of the 700k it was back then.

I agree about the MWC not being as strong as the PAC, but at the end of the day nobody is watching or interested in going to say UNLV vs. any of the MWC teams except maybe Boise for football. PAC are basically in the big pot of G teams. Like UNLV did in the past, play a tough OOC schedule, win those games, run your conference and you'll be in the mix.

We have the money..

Finish the god damn season.

It seems very likely that Sluka tried to raise the agreed upon price.

Holdouts, threats, and power plays cannot be tolerated. You can't set that precedent, even if you have a donor willing to step up and pay him. Can't let that happen.

The whole Sluka timeline doesn't add up for his "NIL offer". The guy hired an agent before he ended his season at Holy Cross.
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Then he committed to the Rebels on January 16th.
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Then the next month UNLV offered him a NIL deal?
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Seems more likely his camp asked for money after the hot start.

Boston Rebel 2 said:

The risk is that Odom leaves and we fall off a cliff and I don’t think he will stick around to coach in a rinky dink league.

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That's what we want to extend him. If we don't raise our profile enough in the next 2 seasons to be invited to the Big 12 then he will leave, and another team will buy him out.

I don't think we will every be less than upper third in the conference with him at the helm. In this MW or the new MW.

saulpaul21 said:

You do realize O state and Wsu tv numbers are inflated by playing teams from major markets such as LA, sf, Seattle, Phoenix, and Salt Lake city? We will see the numbers as they play smaller markets.

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That is why I said historically.

Apparently the CW loves their agreement with them so far. I would be surprised that they don't become one of the partners with the new PAC when they settle in. So they are having good returns so far.

But we look at Pullman and Corvalis and scoff. I look at actual viewership and scoff.

Do we scoff at Iowa City, and College Station? Lincoln? No. And I am not saying that OSU or WAZZU are anywhere near that.

But that also does not mean they are worth 3 mil a season per team eithrer.

dcut03 said:

Oregon state and WAZZU averaged over 2.2 million views for football game last season. averaged. We were doing backflips for the maybe 1.5 million on Friday night on ESPN against Kansas.

That is why OSU and WAZZU at least historically is worth more for media that every current MW easily.

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Yeah you are going to average that when you play SC, UCLA, Oregon, Washington, and the rest of the true PAC12. You don't get those numbers playing in the PAC STATE conference.