UNLV AD Erick Harper

UNLV Athletics Decide To Stick With Mountain West Conference

September 26, 2024September 26, 2024 Alan Snel Erick Harper, Keith Whitfield

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By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer

While five colleges have left the Mountain West Conference, UNLV says it’s staying in the Mountain West for six years from July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2032. UNLV’s existing contract with the league was scheduled to expire June 30, 2026.

UNLV President Keith E. Whitfield signed a deal that requires the Mountain West to pay an estimated lump sum of $10 million to 14 million to UNLV in 2025, and then also pay UNLV approximately $1.5 million to $1.8 million annually during the a six-year period beginning in July 2026.

UNLV also has the flexibility to explore future membership in an autonomous “Power Four” conference without penalty.

A Mountain West charter member, UNLV will continue to host the conference’s men’s and women’s basketball tournaments at the Thomas & Mack Center through the duration of the existing and new contract. In addition to UNLV, six other Mountain West colleges signed the deal to remain: Air Force, Hawai’i, New Mexico, Nevada at Reno, San Jose State and Wyoming.

Alan Snel

Alan Snel brings decades of sports-business reporting experience to LVSportsBiz.com. Snel covered the business side of sports for the South Florida (Fort Lauderdale) Sun-Sentinel, the Tampa Tribune and Las Vegas Review-Journal. As a city hall beat reporter, Snel also covered stadium deals in Denver and Seattle. In 2000, Snel launched a sport-business website for FoxSports.com called FoxSportsBiz.com. After reporting sports-business for the RJ, Snel wrote hard-hitting stories on the Raiders stadium for the Desert Companion magazine in Las Vegas and The Nevada Independent. Snel is also one of the top bicycle advocates in the country.

July 5, 2021

LVSPORTSBIZ.COM, launched June 2017: We are a digital magazine providing market-leading news, intelligence, enterprise and breaking info on Las Vegas’ sports/stadium industry. Our stories are quoted nationally and we set the sportsbiz news agenda in Las Vegas. Publisher Alan Snel has reported on the business of sports and stadiums in Denver, South Florida, Seattle and Tampa besides Las Vegas and is considered a national authority on the topic.

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To contact LVSportsBiz.com Publisher Alan Snel or buy his book, Bicycle Man: Life of Journeys, email him at asnel@LVSportsBiz.com

LVSportsBiz number for 2024: $1,178,161,041. That’s the amount of debt Las Vegas (actually, Clark County) owes for its public share of building the Raiders’ Allegiant Stadium.