if you are anxious for us to move up to the MWC in football, you want to be a BIG men's and women's basketball fan starting this season. their success will be a litmus test for our readiness to move football up. personally, i think we have a ways to go before we are in the top half of the MWC men's basketball standings. we were a consistent top level team at in the BWC with an arena that was one of the top 4-5 in the conference; i think we'll be toward the bottom of the MWC, with one of the worst arenas.

looks like he can get to the hoop, which hasn’t been a strong point for us.

Sounds like a good addition; we need a solid defender

I was thinking more along the lines of NIL, which i had heard that they were at the top of the conference along with UCSD and UCSB. How that translates to the new revenue sharing model, i'm not sure.

that’s the minimum. The average head coach salary is something like $1,3M, with UNLV’s Dan Mullen topping the list at $3.5M.

https://nevadasportsnet.com/news/reporters/how-much-every-head-football-coach-in-the-mountain-west-and-pac-12-will-make-in-2026

I would think Sac offered more money, and I believe UCI’s revenue stream is larger than ours. In some ways, it feels like they expected big paydays and/or jump up in competition……and had to settle for less when that didn’t materialize.

you are right. It seems like the terms NIL and revenue sharing get interchanged quite a bit.

During the last alumni Zoom, someone asked about the future move to the Mountain West. Plough is cautious -> doesn't want to jump ahead if we don't have the resources to compete long-term. There was money issues that I hadn't fully appreciated. Beside the $5M entry fee (FCS->FBS), the MWC required a minimum staff payroll of $3.5M (about $2.5M more than our current), and NIL commitment of something like $2.5M ($2M or so more than our current). So, we either have to boast revenue SIGNIFICANTLY, or get a big financial commitment from central campus.

let's hope there is some news coming soon. I was looking at the portal tracker google document, and some schools who lost a bunch (SJSU, UTEP) seem to be grabbing anybody they can. Unless I've missed the emergence of William&Mary, John Logan and Stetson as basketball breeding grounds.

I sure wish we’d see some news of signees for us. I know they don’t like to announce anyone until compliance gives the full a-ok, but it’s starting to get late even by last seasons standards.

I thought Plough said he ran a 10.5 100m this last track season during our zoom.

boy, i have no idea what the college football landscape will look like in the next 5 years. I think our success in the Mountain West in other sports the next couple of seasons will either accelerate or decelerate the effort for football.

It’s now a home-home series. 9/18/2027 there, 9/20/31 here.

If we are still FCS in 2031

2008 and 2010 were both night games; 2008 was weird in that it was the final game of the season and it seems like the players weren't too excited about playing. 2008 they had about 4500 fans and they treated the victory like a super bowl (first win against a scholarship program). 2010 had about 2500 fans. The last two in 2019 and 2021 were both 1:00, with about 2000 folks. Tailgating there isn't great -> parking is spread all over the place for the visitors.

My wife and i always stay in Old Town. Used to stay at the Hacienda up on the hill but the quality there has gone downhill terribly. We'll stay in area this time just at a different place. Old Town itself is great, and having the trolley right there is really convenient. Mariachi bands and margaritas in the plaza -> really cool environment.

yep. The first couple times we played there was at night. Only loss was a night game. We stunk up the place that night.

I heard that USD doesn’t like the fact that we play here at 7 - they can’t fly back commercially after the guns due to airport restrictions. So, they are ‘returning the favor’ snd making us play at 7. Not a problem for our charter and much better than playing a hot 1:00 g as bd in front of 1000 fans.

They serve margaritas in old town until midnight - we’re good!

Stokes is back!

I think, based on no knowledge, that they put their names in the portal assuming big offers were coming, and had to settle.

Is this a move up? Mid level WCC team. Closer to home, but I’m guessing not what he was hoping for.