What do you want UNLV to focus on? Basketball have tried and tried again. That efforts have fail bombastically and miserably. Time for football to reign. I am all for it. What do you think?
Going forward
- Thread starter 1Tripoda
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Men’s Basketball is our athletic identity, even when we suck. Not just by us, but by outsiders.
But the suck has been for such a long stretch, many fans with that strong pride, in fact a large percentage of the core, have died off or called it quits. It’s really whittled down to the bare minimum. And it’s not paying the bills, not like it once did. And the money making is with football.
I’m not against it if that’s what the university decides to do. Downsize everything about basketball, the too lofty, misplaced high expectations will plummet and then muddling in muck won’t be such a disappointment. And even though it’s our been identity, we are the sad fodder we used to beat up on, we don’t resemble the past other than team colors and name. It really is like BC/AD, MLB/Single A, Mason Dixon line …. A very clear line separating two completely different entities.
UNLV wanted it to happen, the fans allowed it to happen, the coaches didn’t get the job done and any momentum gained was double lost. You could see and feel it as it was happening, it’s still happening … but acceptance of a new norm took precedence.
They aren't mutually exclusive, but if you are talking about resources, then football should get preferential treatment.
Football has a much, much higher revenue potential just in a program in general. But even moreso since football is what drives the bus in conference realignment.
Is it too late? Maybe, but there may a few spots to join the power 4 separation if it indeed goes that way. Even if there is a small chance, we should sell out for that.
I just dont feel like we are selling out to support football. The ****ing administration have been fu(king with the basketball program since Tark was here. Now that they aren't under the NCAA scrutiny anymore these people cannot seems to get it right if their lives depend on it. Once the greatest program in the world now relegating to depends upon nepotism and slow growth for some gratification. Just focus on football.
Plus, I like our football coaches more anyway.....real for once.
I like our coaches too. But we will lose him, imo, if we get another year or two of success … don’t know that for sure but it’s sensible.
Then will UNLV invest heavily, strike gold again? I have my doubts. Can you legitimately become what Boise was at their strength? I think it’s possible, but you need talent in house to identify and make the moves.
In hindsight, I couldn't agree more. I always thought it would take basketball's return to success that would financially pave the way for a decent football program. Now that the opposite is true, we need to 100% focus on football and pray a p4 invite comes our way in the next 5 years and opens up the monies needed to support both programs. Once the p4/p2 are finalized, if UNLV is on the outside, it's game over. I really hope our president and AD recognize just how dire our situation is. Hell, it might already be too late, but if there's a smidgen of hope, they better be willing to do anything and everything to keep this momentum and build upon it.
Not saying this in a snarky way. I've been saying this since I joined the board like 20 years ago. I actually got scolded that 'we were a basketball school nobody cared about football' by quite a few on here.
My stance was you better start to care, because if UNLV didn't get football fixed they would get left behind.
You could see the landscape of college athletics was changing as far back as 2007. Football was the driver. Schools started going all in on football. P5 Conferences were just starting to poach schools like UTAH/TCU..And it had everything to do with football and little to do with basketball.
But we were at that time. And it wasn’t close. We were still close enough to the past 20 years ago and we were competing at a level that got us within viewing of the proverbial hump. We inched towards and away from that hump for too long.
Twenty years after that point, you need a telescope to see the hump.
I don’t think you give up that hope at that point and time, much was still achievable. And we were top dog, not top 20. The biggest prize. So aiming for that makes more sense.
Football, you know the history. Can’t just blindly dump money and hopes into a roaring fire.
But we are at a different point in the history of both sports today.
You cant be singular in approach and expect to be invited to the big kids table. These kind of conversations in the past 10 years about dropping football in favor of basketball dont understand how the landscape of college sports is driven by Football. Conversely, now that football looks to be righting the ship, dropping focus on basketball would be a huge negative to big P4 conferences looking to expand. The market share is very strong for football with regards to TV contracts but how many P4s are interested in one dimensional programs? I think you have to grow both in order to be able to generate the type of excitement around UNLV that would allow it to really have football take off. Im all for football to become a West coast powerhouse and drive the bus, but you have to have basketball come along for the ride as its own bus, rather than as a passenger.
In terms of basketball, outside of the Tark situation, the Rice to Menzies saga was pretty much a death sentence as well. I could not believe how that whole thing was handled by the Administration. TKM just could not resist stepping in and ****ing everything up with her verbal diarrhea.
Obviously CKK is getting a lot of rope and given proper leeway to run his program the way he sees fit. So there’s some stability there.
In terms of the program, I think and I’ve said this before but there needs to be a UNLVnow type of project to bring in a new base of fans. As Spilotro said, the old guard isn’t around as much and you cannot rely on them anymore to keep the money flowing. You need to pivot to a more collegiate experience and environment especially with the pro teams saturating the market.
Look at the unlvnow project before it was nuked by big casino. Student housing, shops, restaurants etc. it would have been an absolute culture changer, imo.
Obviously CKK is getting a lot of rope and given proper leeway to run his program the way he sees fit. So there’s some stability there.
In terms of the program, I think and I’ve said this before but there needs to be a UNLVnow type of project to bring in a new base of fans. As Spilotro said, the old guard isn’t around as much and you cannot rely on them anymore to keep the money flowing. You need to pivot to a more collegiate experience and environment especially with the pro teams saturating the market.
Look at the unlvnow project before it was nuked by big casino. Student housing, shops, restaurants etc. it would have been an absolute culture changer, imo.
Same w. me. The drop football crowd for the last 25 years killed me with their ignorance. That was most of UNLV BB fans. We're a BB school after all. Let's just go the Gonzaga route. Genius stuff.
Most schools outside of UNLV knew FB drove the bus for funding athletic programs for the last 30+ years, maybe forever. BB revenue is minimal compared to FB, it does not drive growth in the overall athletic programs. BB success comes along with the FB money, just like all the other title ix programs benefit. Bama and NCSt. were just in the final four. Very few of their fans give a sht about BB,
I’d rather be Gonzaga (great basketball, no football) than San Jose (bad basketball, decent football). Gonzaga fans are fine not having football because they’re winning big at basketball year to year. But you can’t slip up too much.
At SJSU, they don’t care much about either sport … better to highly excel at one than flounder in two.
Gonzaga is a privately funded university and Im sure if they had actually wanted to develop a football program, they could find the financial money to field a pretty good program. Our WSU friends on this board might not like that- proximity to their campuses and all, but somewhere along the way they decided to not return the football program, like other religious institutions like BYU or ND(no idea the reason why since WW2 they never tried to re-establish a football program. Probably didnt care once their basketball program became relevant before all this football centric TV deals)..
SJSU on the other hand has the problem of their location and system. Seems like outside the USC/UCLA programs, the entire California sports systems are mostly mediocre outside Olympic sports. SJSU got left out of the big boys table of their neighbors in Stanford and Berkley and it created that weird apathy for their programs.
FB at Gonzaga would and will never happen at any level. For starters, they are a small school. Not enough fan base, and no way enough money to even consider it. Second, they would have to build a new way-off campus stadium, as Spokane tore down the old Jo Albi (Cougs used to play a lot of games there, I think it held 30K but needed a LOT of work) and built a 5,000 seat stadium downtown for HS, etc. 3rd, they have WSU 75 miles down the road to follow in FB. A lot of Spokanites are Coug FB fans and Gonzaga BB fans (to which any good Goug says F-you). And nearby Whitworth and EWU play football, further diluting the potential market.
Right, they're too far down the single sport road to try anything now and who knows, in 10 years if they see a down cycle in their program, they might return to your average non-football mid-major school because of it. There really isnt a good argument for bringing basketball only programs into the P4 conferences who know football is driving the TV deals and trying to figure out a worthwhile revenue sharing agreement that includes "basketball" would be a non-starter for most, given there are plenty of football programs that do both. Some might entertain the name brand aspect of Gonzaga as a "basketball only" member, but does that name drive enough $$ in TV negotiations to share?
We can't be Gonzaga for several reasons.
We have no where to go in terms of conferences. We couldn't stay in the MW if we dropped basketball, and it is one of the better if not the best non power basketball conferences.
We can't go to the WCC as a public, non faith based school.
Then there is the ridiculous thought of being a large state school without football. That's not a good look either. Nearly unprecedented.
Leaving this "crappy MW conference" would put us in a bad bind. In conference competition would go into the crapper. Our guaranteed TV revenue would be a fraction of what it is. We would more likely drop further as a basketball program, let alone our other sports, then reclaim what we did back in the 70's and 80's. The college sports world has changed. I don't think that could happen again.
I agree, but there are only so many funds to go around. A place like UNLV has a limited budget, and they would likely have to secure the funds necessary first to take both basketball and football to the next level. Which is at least part of the reason why I think we still have CKK. He is relatively cheap, we can still land good for the conference NIL, etc.
The other side is doing whatever he can to secure Odom as long as possible or at least allow us to go after another pretty good sized fish to replace him.
As for Basketball mattering? Well for sure it does with the Big 12, that is apparent, but it doesn't seem to matter that much anywhere else. Maybe the ACC some. Sure I do think it helps, being a NCAA team creates a good amount of revenue for the conference, but I don't think it is that big of a factor. Hell even the Big 12 added TCU when they were pretty bad at basketball at the time. Now they went ahead and spent big on a HC soon after.
I feel like there will be a clear answer after next season. Lots of moving parts and scenarios. These are just some that come to mind right now.
Scenario 1: Barry replicates his success from last year and beats 2 out of 3 of Houston, KU, and Syracuse. Splits Oregon State and Boise State and wins the other games. Go to a solid bowl, Ricky puts up monstrous numbers again, and Odom stays. PLUS Basketball flops again and DJ leaves for the draft or portal. The focus should be on football.
Scenario 2: Football takes a step back and loses to Houston, KU, and Syracuse and loses 2 of 3 to Fresno State, Oregon State, and Boise State. PLUS DJ leads us back to the tournament but leaves for the draft or portal. No idea what the focus should be on.
Scenario 3: Odom and Marion leave after the season REGARDLESS of the results AND DJ goes crazy as a sophomore, the transfers gel with the returning players, and CKK improves immensely as a coach, and we get back to the tournament. DJ announces hes staying for one more year. Then it should be on basketball.
There are so many things to consider and these are just handpicked scenarios from me and these exact scenarios can swing things one way or another. Other scenarios will probably keep it 50/50 and muggy.
Scenario 1: Barry replicates his success from last year and beats 2 out of 3 of Houston, KU, and Syracuse. Splits Oregon State and Boise State and wins the other games. Go to a solid bowl, Ricky puts up monstrous numbers again, and Odom stays. PLUS Basketball flops again and DJ leaves for the draft or portal. The focus should be on football.
Scenario 2: Football takes a step back and loses to Houston, KU, and Syracuse and loses 2 of 3 to Fresno State, Oregon State, and Boise State. PLUS DJ leads us back to the tournament but leaves for the draft or portal. No idea what the focus should be on.
Scenario 3: Odom and Marion leave after the season REGARDLESS of the results AND DJ goes crazy as a sophomore, the transfers gel with the returning players, and CKK improves immensely as a coach, and we get back to the tournament. DJ announces hes staying for one more year. Then it should be on basketball.
There are so many things to consider and these are just handpicked scenarios from me and these exact scenarios can swing things one way or another. Other scenarios will probably keep it 50/50 and muggy.
Holy crap, this is like three topics in a row we agree on..
Somebody should check the temperature in Hell.
🙂
I didn't read his post BUT did he say kickers are important?
The state of UNLV athletics is dire. At some point basketball have to make a splash statement. Football trajectory is on the right track so it seems. Another bowl season is expected for most of us can see. Some even predicted playoff possibilities. Hold your horses...just win the conference first.
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