Las Vegas Has New Beefed Up Role In Mountain West Conference With UNLV Staying In Conference
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By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Times are changing for the Mountain West Conference, the league that includes UNLV.
With five Mountain West schools becoming Pac-12 schools July 1, 2026 as Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State start Pac-12 play, the MWC not only signed up UNLV to stick around but also will move its conference headquarters to Las Vegas in early 2026 after its lease expires in a building in Colorado Springs.
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. The Mountain West also agreed to keep holding its basketball championship tournament in Las Vegas as UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center as part of the deal of UNLV staying in the league.
While the MWC will be losing five members in 2026, the league is used to change because, keep in mind, the Mountain West Conference was an “original disruptor” in 1999 pulling schools from the WAC league.
The Mountain West Conference knows Las Vegas quite well because it stages that basketball tourney at s Thomas & Mack Center every March. The MWC hoops tourney has a new title sponsor — Credit Union 1, said MWC’s external communications and marketing maven, Javan Hedlund.
The MWC returned to Las Vegas this week to hold its basketball media days amid these turbulent conference realignment times.
“Las Vegas has always been a great city for the Mountain West,” Hedlund told LVSportsBiz.com Thursday. “Vegas has always been a great market for us.”
It seems like colleges are switching leagues as much as players change colleges.
While the Mountain West will lose five member schools in 2026, they have locked up a conference of eight strong for the same year — UNLV, UTEP, Hawaii, Nevada at Reno, Air Force, Wyoming, San Jose State and New Mexico.
Hedlund said the conference explored rebranding a new logo, but that’s been “put on the backburner.”
The conference’s old tagline, “At the peak,” has also been retired. A new MWC motto has not been created.
The MWC even has a title sponsor for its league football championship game, Old Trapper jerky.
The conference has football TV deals with TNT/TBS/True TV along with FOX and CBS.
And having Las Vegas as a future HQ host put the Mountain West Conference is prime position to stage other sports championships here in Sin City like tennis and volleyball.
