RebelinWA said:

I think an immediate merger has no shot for the reasons you stated; but the odds do increase (slightly, like a couple of percentage decimal points) the closer we get to 2026 and there is no 8th member.

I would have a hard time believing any AD wants to hang their hat on this type of decision. Its difficult to get fired from that type of cushy job. But a perceived bad decision for enough boosters for something like this would be enough.

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If PAC is unable to secure members that get them to a media valuation north of 8-9 million a year I guess it would be possible.

I think one thing to also consider is the cost to leave leagues is going to get steeper with less notice. At this point, they are now probably in that 1 year window, so any target that is currently in say the AAC or CUSA may have a steeper penalty with half the football season gone. Im not sure how the calendars work with that, but the more time they take the harder/costlier it is going to become.

The best part of Odom is how he speaks about building a program and expectations for the future. I think he is happy and wants to be here, so UNLV needs to do whatever it takes to make sure he is year for the long run. We finally got it right in football!

Bullmastiff 1 said:

Anything is possible but a merger of any kind at this point seems unlikely.

There's ego involved. I think some professional relationships damaged. Trust out the window. Wyoming AD interview was pretty revealing. He wasn't blatant about it, but you could tell he was pretty disgusted by the whole thing.

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I think an immediate merger has no shot for the reasons you stated; but the odds do increase (slightly, like a couple of percentage decimal points) the closer we get to 2026 and there is no 8th member.

I would have a hard time believing any AD wants to hang their hat on this type of decision. Its difficult to get fired from that type of cushy job. But a perceived bad decision for enough boosters for something like this would be enough.

RebelScrub said:

Is he gonna hang out in the paint or just set picks on the outside?

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high pick, then step back for the open 3...


j/k (I hope)

anyone who says "it's technically in Paradise" is 100% from Reno. Yet EVERY Reno-ite tries to sell Tahoe as part of the allure of Reno. GTFO

Increase his pay, back load it so that it balances out to when we have the money available, add in a 30 million buyout clause. He knows were trying to take care of him and is probably well aware of the conference and financial situation. Hes also reasonable and doesnt seem like he'd feel insulted by something that eventually makes him a very well payed G5 coach.

dcut03 said:

It has been reported that the first payment is tied to poaching fees. There rest is following logical threads. Exit fees often are paid off over time in increments.

We know that we are getting extra money from the the conference from the the PAC fees. We know that we will get a lump sum in 2025. We know that we are due poaching fees around that time. We know that we will be then paid over time the rest from the exit fees. Again connecting dots, exit fees are often paid over time.

But by that logic, we know now that lump sum is tied to poaching fees that are now being disputed in a lawsuit. Also the report of 10-14 million, then 1.5-1.8 over 6 years was announced before the lawsuit

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From Nevada Sportsnet:

4. Only $61 million promised: While the MW is in line to collect around $90 million in exit fees ($18 million per school for five schools), only $61 million in collected fees is promised to the remaining members in the first wave of payments using the following breakdown: 24.5 percent to Air Force and UNLV; 11.5 percent to Nevada, New Mexico, San Jose State and Wyoming; and 5 percent to Hawaii. That would give Nevada $7.015 million, down from $10.35 million if all $90 million in exit fees was collected and distributed. That "incentive payment" is due to schools July 1, 2026.

6. Pac-12 poaching penalty evenly dispersed: Any money collected by the MW after the first three pots will be dispersed at 15.83 percent per school except for Hawaii, which would get 5 percent. The largest sum of money that could fund those payments would be the Pac-12's $55 million poaching penalty for taking five MW schools, as outlined in the two leagues' football scheduling alliance. The Pac-12 has filed a lawsuit against the MW over the validity of that penalty. That would be an additional $8.7065 million per full member if all $55 million is collected. Additionally,the MW will play all legal fees and expenses incurred by the conference

8. Tournament in Las Vegas: The MW men's and women's basketball tournaments will remain in Las Vegas through the end of the contract (2032). UNLV previously reported the tournaments would stay at the Rebels' Thomas & Mack Center, although the contract does not stipulate that. It simply says the tournaments will be played in Las Vegas. And I think Thomas & Mack is technically inParadise and not Las Vegas, but I digress. Not sure why UNLV put in its press release the tournaments will remain at Thomas & Mack while the contract says it will stay in Las Vegas as the tournaments could move to T-Mobile Arena or MGM Grand Arena and still stay in line with the contract. UNLV's press release offered when signing the agreement stated the "MW will pay an estimated lump sum of $10-to-14 million to UNLV in 2025, and also pay UNLV approximately $1.5-to-1.8 million annually over a six-year period beginning in July 2026." That early payment is not outlined in the contract.

So at least according to this reporting initial payments are coming from exit fees, which are being withheld. It says payments start in 2026, while UNLV says 2025. I’ve also seen it reported as “on OR before July 1, 2026”.

So it seems that the only money they’re counting on is the money being withheld, which appears to be $61 million. 5 schools x $6.1 mil per year = $61 million.

Is it 2025 or 2026? No idea.

Is he gonna hang out in the paint or just set picks on the outside?

The author of that article did not do enough research. There is no way Utah is in the mix for the Big 12 championship.

oneepstein said:

I’d assume you’d need a fair amount of booster support. Not sure though on your thinking that the first tranche of additional payments is tied to the PAC lawsuit and liquidated damages. I’d assume that at least a portion of it is tied to exit fees that are being withheld from any payments that would be due to be paid to the traitors.

You can also use speculative numbers to estimate income that includes provisions for fees that are negotiated down.

Even with that though it might be a politically difficult hill to climb to get much north of $3 million? Not sure.

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It has been reported that the first payment is tied to poaching fees. There rest is following logical threads. Exit fees often are paid off over time in increments.

We know that we are getting extra money from the the conference from the the PAC fees. We know that we will get a lump sum in 2025. We know that we are due poaching fees around that time. We know that we will be then paid over time the rest from the exit fees. Again connecting dots, exit fees are often paid over time.

But by that logic, we know now that lump sum is tied to poaching fees that are now being disputed in a lawsuit. Also the report of 10-14 million, then 1.5-1.8 over 6 years was announced before the lawsuit

dcut03 said:

I don't.




To do it now, it will have to be nearly all booster our outside support. Which I don't think the Regents can balk at. It is basically using outside money/fundraising.

The problem is that we won't know the exact money we are getting from the PAC, probably for a while. The first lump sum is tied to money that currently has a lawsuit, and the rest is tied to Exit fees that will likely be negotiated down and wont start payment for over a year and half from now. So it is hard to make a contract utilizing money that you don't have yet or actually know how much will be there.

Increased revenue from ticket sales and merch are there of course, but that won't move the needle much.

The BOR may try to fight using the PAC fees for a coach as well, but that money was brought in by the Athletic department, and that extra percentage was negotiated by our prez and AD. So I don't know how much say the BOR has in that. It isn't coming from tuition.

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I’d assume you’d need a fair amount of booster support. Not sure though on your thinking that the first tranche of additional payments is tied to the PAC lawsuit and liquidated damages. I’d assume that at least a portion of it is tied to exit fees that are being withheld from any payments that would be due to be paid to the traitors.

You can also use speculative numbers to estimate income that includes provisions for fees that are negotiated down.

Even with that though it might be a politically difficult hill to climb to get much north of $3 million? Not sure.

reagan21 said:

I remember those days

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...so does my 9 year old daughter.

Meister_Rebel said:

Yeah, I watched the 4th Quarter and they mentioned that UTEP was 0-9 before picking up last nights win. The fans, few that were there, celebrated like they won the Super Bowl. Even the players celebrated in getting that monkey off their back. Their coach was jumping all over the place.

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I remember those days

RebelinWA said:

This won’t happen because of pride. BUT the Pac schools could vote to dissolve. Its not what they want. They probably expected the MW to vote to dissolve to absolve them of having to pay those exit fees.

Either way, they will all become independent non conference schools if they don’t bet whatever is left in the “war chest” on that 8th football school.

Its all seriously stupid. Together we would have been a G+ conference. Better than the other G conferences, but worse than the P4. Now each school makes less, and the product for the fanbases is worse overall.

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Anything is possible but a merger of any kind at this point seems unlikely.

There's ego involved. I think some professional relationships damaged. Trust out the window. Wyoming AD interview was pretty revealing. He wasn't blatant about it, but you could tell he was pretty disgusted by the whole thing.

oneepstein said:

I do think it’s funny that we literally just extended him in May of this year and all of us, myself most definitely included, are screaming for UNLV to back the bank truck up. I mean, is there a precedent to redo a contract within 6 months of just having done it?

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UNLV is winning games, a bunch of them......in the same season. Unprecedented times call for unprecedented moves.

Rosegreen1 said:

I think the 3-4 million range is pretty doable.

Here’s a question for old timers from the Tark days. If the Tark days were today, what would unlv be able to pay Tark? I did see he was paid about 600k annually in the 80s. Adjusted for inflation that’s about 1.8 million in today’s value.

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I don't.

oneepstein said:

I’d agree, especially in this day and age… I’d be curious if it would be possible at a place like UNLV. Does the board of regents start to meddle? Does someone start to see political opportunities and start to gum up the works?

I don’t know exactly how the contracts work but as near as I can tell his base salary is only $400,000, with the remainder coming from incentives? He made $1.8 last year and is expected to make about $2.0 this year… that means only 20% of what he makes is in the form of “salary”.

So in theory what that says to me is that his “salary” is the only thing the board has to REALLY approve, with the rest of his compensation coming from incentives that are theoretically paid for by reaching certain metrics that justify the additional compensation. Translation is that the only thing the board (elected officials) is on the hook for approving is the base salary.

My question would be, how do you structure a deal to get him to double what he’s making and get it through the board?

Just curious what that deal would look like and whether or not it would be worth it to him if it were too incentive heavy.

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To do it now, it will have to be nearly all booster our outside support. Which I don't think the Regents can balk at. It is basically using outside money/fundraising.

The problem is that we won't know the exact money we are getting from the PAC, probably for a while. The first lump sum is tied to money that currently has a lawsuit, and the rest is tied to Exit fees that will likely be negotiated down and wont start payment for over a year and half from now. So it is hard to make a contract utilizing money that you don't have yet or actually know how much will be there.

Increased revenue from ticket sales and merch are there of course, but that won't move the needle much.

The BOR may try to fight using the PAC fees for a coach as well, but that money was brought in by the Athletic department, and that extra percentage was negotiated by our prez and AD. So I don't know how much say the BOR has in that. It isn't coming from tuition.

Meister_Rebel said:

That extension in April didn't give him more cash in his pocket As I recall he would get retention bonuses if he is here in 2026. The original contract will take him up to 2 million next season. However, he has already earned enough in other bonuses for last year and already this year where he is going to get 2 million.

So, based on that I say he needs a salary increase after this season. A new contract compensating him for his value to UNLV. Is $4 million too much? I don't think so. Give him some of that exit fee money coming our way. We may not have that yet but we can write him an IOU. lol.

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I’d agree, especially in this day and age… I’d be curious if it would be possible at a place like UNLV. Does the board of regents start to meddle? Does someone start to see political opportunities and start to gum up the works?

I don’t know exactly how the contracts work but as near as I can tell his base salary is only $400,000, with the remainder coming from incentives? He made $1.8 last year and is expected to make about $2.0 this year… that means only 20% of what he makes is in the form of “salary”.

So in theory what that says to me is that his “salary” is the only thing the board has to REALLY approve, with the rest of his compensation coming from incentives that are theoretically paid for by reaching certain metrics that justify the additional compensation. Translation is that the only thing the board (elected officials) is on the hook for approving is the base salary.

My question would be, how do you structure a deal to get him to double what he’s making and get it through the board?

Just curious what that deal would look like and whether or not it would be worth it to him if it were too incentive heavy.

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Gator 82 said:

October 23, 2023 vs Sam Houston

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Yeah, I watched the 4th Quarter and they mentioned that UTEP was 0-9 before picking up last nights win. The fans, few that were there, celebrated like they won the Super Bowl. Even the players celebrated in getting that monkey off their back. Their coach was jumping all over the place.

RebelinWA said:

Add Catalon, Hajj, White, and Dejesus to that list.

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Hajj is the Rev from Remember the Titans. Sorry, it had to be said!

So refreshing to have a ST Coordinator who makes us not worry about getting burned when the kickoff team, FG team, etc run out to the field.

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rebeltob said:

I don't recall anyone talking about this guy?

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I'm in wait and see mode, then wait until we play in conference mode. I will state that I'm not sold on his overall game. I hope I'm wrong.

On the flip side, I've heard good things about Cottrell which make me concerned about the team if Cottrell is "killing it."

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I remember there being some discussion about him when he first committed, but not a whole lot as of late. I think people are are tired of all the off season hype and highlight reels just to see the team and players struggle. I still remember all the hype around Cotrell when he decided to transfer from WV.