There is more smoke to UNLV moving up to a P4 than people think. No, we aren’t SEC bound. But we are on the radar for the Big12 and ACC. However to your point it is unlikely we move before 2031-2032 unless something drastic happens with the ACC or Big12 that forces them to expand past their current footprint.
The amount we spend will be secondary to a media partner. They care more about market size and penetration within that media market. Having a historically well traveled fan base helps too, but the previous two metrics are two big things that matter the most.
While we lack the later, we do the well with the first two. Las Vegas punches above its weight for the size of our market. We are above Oklahoma city, Memphis, and New Orleans. But we have above average market penetration. Having 40m people traveling to Vegas a year helps tremendously. An advertisement seen in Vegas doesn’t necessarily mean its limited to only the Vegas population.
While we lack a fan base that travels in any meaningful numbers; we can point to Iowa State, Syracuse, and hopefully UCLA to show that our stadium looks good for TV. It helps that LSU / USC last season had an attendance larger than the Super Bowl a few months earlier.
You are correct power conferences do not need UNLV to use the stadium. But a trip to Vegas would be cheaper to haul a team + gear to and more exciting to any other p4 fanbase than Boise, OSU, WSU, CSU, SDSU, and USU.
