Loyal Coug1 said:

Well that clears things up. I guess I needed to see you use stupid, idiotic 15 times in a post to understand. Hmm - perhaps I am stupid and idiotic. Should I do a poll and have the entire Board weigh in?

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95coug said:

If we win 9+, the market will develop quickly

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triscuit one said:

I love Dickert, but I don't see much a market for him at this time. Maybe in a year or two if he wins consistently.

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roses04 said:

There's more, USC Defensive tackle just claimed he is now sitting out the rest of the season. I personally feel these players are over playing their hand, fans will get really tired of this real fast, if this trend continues. Of course, there is some team with 20 mil in NIL money that will offer him, but there will be fewer and fewer of those teams is these defections keep happening.

Here is the headline:

In a breaking news story reported by On3 Sports, defensive tackle Bear Alexander has announced his intention to sit out the rest of the season, redshirt and enter the transfer portal.

USC DT redshirts and hits portal

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LeachPack said:

Just decided to go. If anyone has extras they’re stuck with. Let me know!

PS: Yes, I’m aware that GameTime, StubHub, etc exist

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Flatlandcoug said:

Saw an ESPN+ article that listed him as #6 for "Group of 5" coaches to look at.

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triscuit one said:

I love Dickert, but I don't see much a market for him at this time. Maybe in a year or two if he wins consistently.

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roses04 said:

There's more, USC Defensive tackle just claimed he is now sitting out the rest of the season. I personally feel these players are over playing their hand, fans will get really tired of this real fast, if this trend continues. Of course, there is some team with 20 mil in NIL money that will offer him, but there will be fewer and fewer of those teams is these defections keep happening.

Here is the headline:

In a breaking news story reported by On3 Sports, defensive tackle Bear Alexander has announced his intention to sit out the rest of the season, redshirt and enter the transfer portal.

USC DT redshirts and hits portal

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M-I-Coug said:

If we go 8-4, it's going to be tough to keep Dickert. Unless he's a Mark Few.

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ttowncoug said:

Read Memphis was concerned about travel etc. I'm wondering if you play the long game, get to 8 short-term, and build out an 8 team division in the south and east but a few years out (when GOR's are up).

UConn's name has been tossed around. I suspect there are 8 markets/programs that would build a decent eastern division that maximizes exposure and TV value.

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roses04 said:

The cream of the crop in the MWC was BSU, FSU, and SDSU, all three will be moving to the pac 12. Unfortunately, UNLV is not part of it, and the Vegas market would have been nice, but realistically they haven't even been in the top 4 in football in the MWC ever. This year was looking different until their QB bailed, so who knows how they end up. Colorado St and Utah St along with San Diego State, and Boise St made it to the NCAA tournament last year. Everyone needs to quit freaking out, there will be an 8th, and maybe 9th or 10th team. Might not be the first choice, but sometimes the 2nd or 3rd choice ends up being the better option in the long run. All schools except Utah St have football stadiums that are larger than Martin Stadium, and facilities that are very nice as well. The 8th 9th or 10th team don't dictate TV revenue, it's the top 4 or 5 programs that do. Would having UNLV in the fold have helped, probably, but they elected to go a different direction, which most, even the people at UNLV don't understand. Gloria didn't out smart anyone, UNLV simply took the ball and stayed home, of course getting a few extra dollars helped, but I am not sure it's the right move for them in the long run.

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Cougini5591 said:

I think it would make us look bad.

But if we did...

Take University of Montana, Sacramento State, and/or Northern Arizona.

It will be a long way down the road, but MSU in Bozeman will keep growing like crazy

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altolug said:

Meanwhile as you two fight amongst yourself, that some of us here do not care to scroll through. Let’s bring the topic back of who would fill the bill in the conference.

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95coug said:

We clearly didn't play this right, especially if we knew we were going to challenge the poaching fees. We should have moved more aggressively and gotten to 8 teams in a single move.

Since we didn't, we're not in a great spot. Our best targets in the AAC and MWC have all indicated publicly that they're staying put. For the AAC teams, their exit penalties are so steep that making the change doesn't make a lot of sense economically. It's an easier step for the MWC teams, with lower penalties. That math could change if we can get an extra year to fill out the conference, but I don't expect that's going to be feasible.

Hawaii has not yet signed with the MWC, so they could be a target for us...but I don't think they would be a full member so might not check that box.

UNLV and Air Force are supposedly getting paid $20M to stay. While it's a short term, 1-time benefit, it probably makes sense under the current circumstances. They'd have to pay $18M to get out, and projections right now are that they'd get $12M/year from a media deal, so they would be at a net loss for a year and a half. With the signing bonus in place, leaving the conference now would cost them $38M, so it would take over 3 years for them to start making money...and who knows what else happens in that time.

At this point, I think our best move is to push the lawsuit forward. If we can get a judge to nullify the poaching fees, we've got more money to work with. If we can save $55M in poaching fees, we'll be in a position to go back to some of these teams who turned us down and sweeten the pot. We can tell UNLV that we'll pay them $25M to leave, for example...and make it more financially beneficial for them.

Otherwise, I'm afraid we're at the point of looking even further into the abyss at teams like UTEP - teams that bring nothing to the table other than membership that meets the threshold for a conference. Problem is, those teams may have a net negative impact on media value...and definitely will reduce the amount per school. We could also look at promoting an FCS team, although if we do that I think we should look at ones in bigger markets (Weber State, Sac State) rather than the ones that have been successful like NDSU.

The choices really aren't good in the current circumstances, and the problem is made worse now that we don't know how much money we've got left to work with.

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Coug1990 said:

UNLV is competing with an NFL team, an MLB team in three years, and if the rumored NBA expansion goes through, an NBA expansion team (along with Seattle). UNLV will continue to be a ratings afterthought.

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longtimecoug said:

Hard no on big sky teams

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95coug said:

We clearly didn't play this right, especially if we knew we were going to challenge the poaching fees. We should have moved more aggressively and gotten to 8 teams in a single move.

Since we didn't, we're not in a great spot. Our best targets in the AAC and MWC have all indicated publicly that they're staying put. For the AAC teams, their exit penalties are so steep that making the change doesn't make a lot of sense economically. It's an easier step for the MWC teams, with lower penalties. That math could change if we can get an extra year to fill out the conference, but I don't expect that's going to be feasible.

Hawaii has not yet signed with the MWC, so they could be a target for us...but I don't think they would be a full member so might not check that box.

UNLV and Air Force are supposedly getting paid $20M to stay. While it's a short term, 1-time benefit, it probably makes sense under the current circumstances. They'd have to pay $18M to get out, and projections right now are that they'd get $12M/year from a media deal, so they would be at a net loss for a year and a half. With the signing bonus in place, leaving the conference now would cost them $38M, so it would take over 3 years for them to start making money...and who knows what else happens in that time.

At this point, I think our best move is to push the lawsuit forward. If we can get a judge to nullify the poaching fees, we've got more money to work with. If we can save $55M in poaching fees, we'll be in a position to go back to some of these teams who turned us down and sweeten the pot. We can tell UNLV that we'll pay them $25M to leave, for example...and make it more financially beneficial for them.

Otherwise, I'm afraid we're at the point of looking even further into the abyss at teams like UTEP - teams that bring nothing to the table other than membership that meets the threshold for a conference. Problem is, those teams may have a net negative impact on media value...and definitely will reduce the amount per school. We could also look at promoting an FCS team, although if we do that I think we should look at ones in bigger markets (Weber State, Sac State) rather than the ones that have been successful like NDSU.

The choices really aren't good in the current circumstances, and the problem is made worse now that we don't know how much money we've got left to work with.

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95coug said:

We clearly didn't play this right, especially if we knew we were going to challenge the poaching fees. We should have moved more aggressively and gotten to 8 teams in a single move.

Since we didn't, we're not in a great spot. Our best targets in the AAC and MWC have all indicated publicly that they're staying put. For the AAC teams, their exit penalties are so steep that making the change doesn't make a lot of sense economically. It's an easier step for the MWC teams, with lower penalties. That math could change if we can get an extra year to fill out the conference, but I don't expect that's going to be feasible.

Hawaii has not yet signed with the MWC, so they could be a target for us...but I don't think they would be a full member so might not check that box.

UNLV and Air Force are supposedly getting paid $20M to stay. While it's a short term, 1-time benefit, it probably makes sense under the current circumstances. They'd have to pay $18M to get out, and projections right now are that they'd get $12M/year from a media deal, so they would be at a net loss for a year and a half. With the signing bonus in place, leaving the conference now would cost them $38M, so it would take over 3 years for them to start making money...and who knows what else happens in that time.

At this point, I think our best move is to push the lawsuit forward. If we can get a judge to nullify the poaching fees, we've got more money to work with. If we can save $55M in poaching fees, we'll be in a position to go back to some of these teams who turned us down and sweeten the pot. We can tell UNLV that we'll pay them $25M to leave, for example...and make it more financially beneficial for them.

Otherwise, I'm afraid we're at the point of looking even further into the abyss at teams like UTEP - teams that bring nothing to the table other than membership that meets the threshold for a conference. Problem is, those teams may have a net negative impact on media value...and definitely will reduce the amount per school. We could also look at promoting an FCS team, although if we do that I think we should look at ones in bigger markets (Weber State, Sac State) rather than the ones that have been successful like NDSU.

The choices really aren't good in the current circumstances, and the problem is made worse now that we don't know how much money we've got left to work with.

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Cougsocal said:

UNLV is irreplaceable! The sky is falling. They will be getting AAC, ACC, Big-12, Big-10 and SEC invites within days. They are located in a community of 3 million rabid Reb fans, pro stadium, selling out every game, the gem of the west. Oh that's right, no one gives a crap about them even in Vegas, let alone on the east coast. 5 winning season in 45 years, worst TV ratings in the MWC since 2016, attendance so bad you'd think they were located in Washtucna and they have to pay $2 million per year to rent a place to play in front of empty 45,000 seats. Do you know how bad that looks and will look on TV?

Other than seriously denting our potential road trip and vacation plans, which is a bummer no doubt, UNLV is a school and an athletic program that would add nothing to the conference. If your TV ratings are 104th nationally, and you have been a perennial Big West, WAC and MWC bottom feeder through out your history, and you now and will play in a 3/4 empty stadium, you can be replaced by virtually any school, because any value you have is in uninformed people's minds, not support by anything tangible.

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