USC baseball gains more NCAA Tournament projections heading into stretch run
USC baseball gains more NCAA Tournament projections heading into stretch run USC is getting multiple favorable projections from the experts. Now the Trojans need to close the deal and not stumble before the baseball tournament selection show
USC baseball is currently on a roll. The Trojans have won seven consecutive series, and currently sit at 30-14 on the season heading into a massive three-game series with crosstown rival UCLA this weekend.
On Wednesday, Baseball America released its latest projected field for the 2025 NCAA Tournament. The projection has the Trojans in the field as the No. 3 seed in the Fayetteville regional.
The Trojans would travel to the state of Arkansas, where the top seed in their region would be the No. 7 overall seed Razorbacks. The No. 2 seed in the region would be UTSA, and the No. 4 seed would be Oral Roberts.
Under third-year head coach Andy Stankiewicz, USC is having its best season in years. The Trojans have not been to the NCAA Tournament since 2015, and have gone just once in the past two decades. This year, USC looks to be in great position to end the streak.
First, however, the Trojans still have three more Big Ten series in which they will need to take care of business, in addition to two more midweek nonconference games. After the Crosstown Showdown this weekend, USC will host Michigan State the following weekend, before wrapping up the regular season in Seattle against Washington. The Trojans will then travel to Omaha, Nebraska for the Big Ten Tournament at the end of May.
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Yahoo
36 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Chancellor Julio Frenk suggests he'll be actively involved with UCLA athletics
Julio Frenk does not appear to be a university administrator content to watch his school's athletic program from the sidelines. In his last stop before becoming UCLA's chancellor, Frenk led an overhaul of the University of Miami's athletic department, bringing in a new athletic director and football coach after the Hurricanes were criticized for not making football a priority under Frenk's leadership. Advertisement That shakeup resulted in coach Mario Cristobal leading his team to a 10-3 season in 2024 that represented the Hurricanes' best finish in nearly a decade. Can UCLA fans expect a similar level of involvement in athletics from their new chancellor? In a word, yes. Read more: UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk vows to restore campus trust amid 'nervousness and anxiety' During a recent interview with The Times, Frenk indicated that he would be hands-on with UCLA athletics because of its importance to the university as a whole. 'I am [going to be involved] because I think athletics plays a very central role,' Frenk said. 'It is, first, an avenue for recruiting very talented students. Secondly, it benefits the other students. It enriches the student experience of everyone. But let me tell you, when we talk about the contribution to society, part of the reason many universities have a deficit, it's not because of football. Football actually has a positive cash flow for the university. Advertisement 'What we do in the United States that no other country that I know of does, is that universities are the place where we train Olympians, Olympic competitors, competitors who go to the Olympic Games. That function — just like the research function — has been delegated to universities and we are investing in having Olympic athletes. In most of the other countries, it's government-run high-performance centers. 'But here the federal government doesn't have to worry about that because universities do that and they fund that. And when we have the Olympics every four years, everyone is very proud to see the United States top the medal chart. That work starts in universities and that's why we also fund that. It's an intrinsic part of education. It enriches everyone's experience. It builds community. It also produces the best performing Olympic teams in the world.' Frenk's comments would seem to suggest that he is not considering any cuts to UCLA's Olympic sports even at a time when the school's athletic department has run up a $219.5-million deficit over the last six fiscal years. That deficit would be even higher had the university not agreed to provide $30 million to its athletic department as part of its most recent fiscal budget. Frenk also said that federal legislation was needed 'to create a much more predictable model' for football and men's basketball, controlling expenses while propping up the rest of an athletic department. UCLA chancellor Julio Frenk speaks during his inauguration ceremony at Royce Hall on June 5. (Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Times) 'I acknowledge this costs money,' Frenk said of allocating resources to the revenue sports, 'but the money goes to be able to have all the other disciplines that do not generate money. The most direct way to do that would be to find other sources of funding. Right now, we use the revenue from football and that requires investments to fund the entire athletic operation. Advertisement 'It is time to have a conversation and create a legal framework that doesn't leave it to each institution or each state to find their own way in this. We're part of an ecosystem. I think the move to the Big Ten has been very positive in that respect. And those are the conversations we are having. How do we generate other sources of revenue — mostly to be able not just to maintain the excellence of the sports that are widely followed by the public, but also all the other sports, including, very importantly, the Olympic sports, which are such a source of pride?' Frenk has shown he will not tolerate failure in high-profile sports — or the perception that he is not doing everything he can to help his teams. As Miami's president, he led an upheaval of the school's athletic department after ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit criticized the Hurricanes during a September 2021 broadcast, mentioning a Miami Herald article stating that football was not a priority for Frenk. Herbstreit went on to say that Miami's athletic director, football coach and president were not in alignment about team needs like other powerhouse programs. Five days later, Frenk issued a statement saying that he wanted 'to make clear that the board of trustees and I, as president, recognize the essential part of our brand and reputation derived from athletics and we are fully committed to building championship-caliber teams at the U.' Frenk added that he would have his chief of staff and senior advisor engage with the athletic department to enhance his own commitment to sustain winning teams. Advertisement With the football team headed for a 7-5 finish that fell far short of preseason expectations, athletic director James Blake was fired before the end of the season and football coach Manny Diaz was dismissed a little more than a week after the final game. The Hurricanes then gave Cristobal a 10-year, $80-million contract, with Frenk attending the introductory news conference and calling his new coach's selection 'a bold vision for the future.' UCLA football went 5-7 last season under first-year coach DeShaun Foster. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) Last month, while making his first public remarks about UCLA athletics at a UC regents meeting, Frenk referenced the role athletics played in the school's institutional identity, mentioning legendary basketball coach John Wooden and the Bruins' dominance in Olympic sports with the school set to host the athlete village for the 2028 Olympics. Frenk also mentioned how UCLA's recent move to the Big Ten Conference was made with 'the goal of stabilizing the program and positioning it for long-term success.' The chancellor referenced the school's national championship in men's water polo, a Final Four appearance in women's basketball and a national runner-up finish in women's gymnastics as part of a haul that also included six team and four individual conference titles, the most of any Big Ten team. Advertisement Ultimately, an athletic department is only as healthy as its highest-profile sports. UCLA's football team needs to fully capitalize on the recent buzz created by the arrival of transfer quarterback Nico Iamaleava after finishing 5-7 in coach DeShaun Foster's debut season. The men's basketball team must maximize the ability of transfer point guard Donovan Dent to make everyone around him better if it hopes to make it to the second weekend of the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2023. Going forward, every UCLA team seems assured of one thing: Their new chancellor will be watching. Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
Notre Dame mailbag: Is it over with USC? Fun watching film with Marcus Freeman?
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Welcome back to the Notre Dame mailbag. You've got questions, so let's get started. Note: Submitted questions have been edited for clarity and length. As the USC series appears to be approaching its end, how much of the blame falls on the Big Ten essentially holding USC hostage? Do you think this could be a sign of things to come as the wheel of college football 'progress' churns toward a Big Ten/SEC super league, and is there a world in which Notre Dame is blackballed from scheduling games against foes from those conferences? — Jack Z. For starters, the Big Ten didn't force USC to join, destroying the Pac-12 in the process. That was USC's decision, which all but dragged UCLA, Washington and Oregon to follow the Trojans' lead, toppling a conference and scattering it across the Big 12 and ACC. Advertisement As for the 'sign of things to come' aspect of scheduling, it's worth monitoring. It's also worth acknowledging Notre Dame has home-and-home agreements with Alabama, Florida, Texas, Texas A&M, Purdue, Michigan State, Arkansas, Indiana and Michigan on future schedules. Ohio State just came off as a home-and-home. The Shamrock Series created a neutral-and-neutral against Wisconsin. Our 2025 home game times are SET ☘️👀 📆 Mark your calendars 📆 🎟️ #GoIrish☘️ — Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) May 12, 2025 As much as both leagues feel like they're taking their scheduling ball and going home, it's hard to imagine those conferences shunning Notre Dame (and the money associated with the Irish) to prove some high-minded point. The 'join a conference!' crowd is primarily fans and a few coaches. It never seems to be from the administrators running the sport. The adults in the room know Notre Dame is good for business. None of that means the USC series is on solid ground, however. But there's a difference between playing a home-and-home with Notre Dame and being locked into a perpetual series with the Irish. I'd doubt the teams cycling through Notre Dame's schedule would jump at the chance to play Notre Dame every year on top of their SEC or Big Ten slates. As much as USC is to blame for the current stalemate in the series, Lincoln Riley's willingness to walk away from one of the great rivalries in the sport makes sense for College Football Playoff contention purposes. (Yes, this assumes Riley can build a CFP-contending roster.) USC traveled to Michigan, Maryland and Minnesota last year. This year, it's got trips to Illinois, Purdue, Nebraska and that October date at Notre Dame. The Trojans don't think they need that additional travel to South Bend. USC probably doesn't want the extra competition, either, considering it just went 7-5 and finished ninth in the conference. Advertisement Notre Dame probably needs the series more than USC does. But the Trojans need a win over the Irish to validate Riley's project, which feels tenuous at best. Too many cautious programs and coaches worry about the schedule being too hard. They should spend more time on the upside of winning signature games. Marcus Freeman has already proved himself that way, not just by beating USC but by making the CFP run. Riley is much less defined, but a potential win over Notre Dame may change the perceptions around USC. He just needs to have the constitution to take on that challenge. It's not clear that he does. What's one thing you learned breaking down film with Freeman that maybe felt different from the previous versions of the series with players? — Terence M. Thanks for checking out that story. It was a lot of fun. The biggest difference between sitting down with the head coach instead of a player was understanding all the moving parts of the play opposed to just diving deep with one player on one assignment. But what struck me most going over the plays was how much there was to critique and how Freeman jumped all over it. Like, he was still bothered by receivers missing blocks in games that happened seven months ago. Games Notre Dame won! He even told me a couple of plays to go watch on my own, plays that had stuck with him that much. Freeman talks a lot in news conferences about not being outcome-driven and chasing perfection, but after watching just eight plays with him, I wonder if there are more than a dozen 'perfect plays' in a 150-play game. Maybe this shouldn't be a surprise, but getting 11 college kids to do the exact right thing at the exact right time seems really, really difficult. Is the lack of a 2027 quarterback offer a sign of maturity and incorporating lessons learned after being burned by longtime QB decommits, or a sign of the downside of having a season that stretches so deep into January? — Andrew B. It's the downside of having a season stretch until Jan. 20. Notre Dame couldn't use the winter contact period to evaluate quarterbacks in person, which is how the staff would have played it under normal circumstances. Whether it was offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock or quarterbacks coach Gino Guidugli, they'd have crisscrossed the country to see quarterbacks throw in person. Instead, they were preparing for the national championship game. And yeah, that's a trade Notre Dame would be willing to make every year, even if it means being behind in quarterback recruiting. Advertisement For the sake of context, it's worth remembering that Notre Dame landed four-star quarterback Noah Grubbs about this time last summer, just before Irish Invasion. But he'd camped at Notre Dame a year earlier and the Irish staff had been targeting him for months. The Deuce Knight situation was similar, with the Mississippi product targeted during the summer and committing before the Ohio State game two years ago. CJ Carr committed the summer before his junior year, same with Tyler Buchner and Steve Angeli. It's not like Notre Dame can't pivot late when forced to adjust, landing Kenny Minchey in November of his senior year or grabbing Blake Hebert in October of his senior year. The Minchey/Hebert timelines are not ideal because they delay putting a face on your recruiting class while also making it harder to pursue wideouts. Minchey was a late flip from Pitt after the Irish struggled to attract quarterbacks after landing Carr and missing on Dante Moore. Hebert was a reaction to Knight flipping to Auburn. I'm not entirely sure there's a 'lessons learned' element to quarterback recruiting this cycle as Notre Dame would chase Knight just the same this cycle as last. Would that be a smart move considering the 'fit' that's so important at Notre Dame? Debatable. Bottom line, quarterback recruiting is a crapshoot of the highest order. And that's true for everybody, not just Notre Dame. The most successful quarterback of the modern era was a three-star flip from Washington State, Ian Book. The highest-rated quarterbacks the Irish did sign haven't panned out: Brandon Wimbush, Tyler Buchner and Phil Jurkovec. And with the transfer portal available to Notre Dame, the penalty for missing at the position is simply a matter of money. There's always a Riley Leonard, Sam Hartman or Jack Coan available. So yes, Notre Dame needs to make a decision at quarterback for the Class of 2027 soon. I'd expect that to happen in the coming weeks. But with the uncertainty of the position combined with ability to get out of jail free (even if 'free' means a seven-figure investment), the Irish don't need to panic in making that quarterback call. Brian Kelly and Marcus Freeman capped their third years at Notre Dame with a run to the national title game. Which coach had the more impressive first three seasons — Kelly with his ground-up reinvention or Freeman's seemingly sustainable build (plus his overwhelming buy-in from the fan base)? — Ryan M. There aren't many places where Kelly should get the nod over Freeman with Notre Dame's fan base. This remains one. Kelly took a broken program and put it in the national championship game in three years. Freeman took a College Football Playoff regular and did the same. Notre Dame lost to Navy and UConn in the season before Kelly took over. Notre Dame went 11-1 and won its final six games by an average of 27.3 points in the season before Freeman took over as head coach. Advertisement As much as Year 3 under Freeman had a soul that Kelly's third season did not, thanks to the wins over Georgia and Penn State, it's hard to overstate the magic of 2012 when Notre Dame was the story of college football. Put another way, there was never a question last season if Notre Dame was relevant or capable of climbing the sport's mountain. Before Kelly's third season, it was an existential question if Notre Dame had been relegated to the has-been era of the sport. If Freeman proved people right about Notre Dame, Kelly had to first prove people wrong. Now the question is about sustaining success, which Freeman seems much more capable of doing. The university is more invested in football's success. The depth of recruiting is better. And as Ryan noted, the fan base is behind the head coach more now than then. I remember walking into the first practice before the 2013 season and telling another reporter it felt like we were going to cover three months of air coming out of the balloon. And that's what happened. Very little about Notre Dame football felt sturdy after Kelly's flirtation with the Eagles and the Manti Te'o nonsense. That's not the case today. Who ends up with more passing yards: CJ Carr/Kenny Minchey in 12 games in 2025 or Riley Leonard in 16 games in 2024? — Tommy R. To put Leonard's 178.8 passing yards per game in perspective, that ranked No. 89 nationally last season. If Carr/Minchey produce the same total of 2,861 yards during the regular season, it would amount to 238.4 yards per game, which would have ranked No. 36 nationally, between quarterbacks from Western Kentucky and Hawaii. Point being, we're not talking about some transcendental passing performance if Carr or Minchey do in the regular season what Leonard did in the entire season. So, give me Carr and/or Minchey to better Leonard's passing statistics. They both have more arm talent and a better receiver room, plus a better offensive line in front of them. Advertisement As for Leonard's 184 carries for 906 yards and 17 rushing touchdowns … that might be harder to replicate. Is there a new rivalry for Notre Dame that would interest you? — Peter B. This sounds like a great question for next week's fan survey. Not that I'm chasing USC off the schedule, but the Clemson series somewhat fills this slot if it comes to that. Creating new rivalries rarely seems to work … yet Irish versus Tigers somehow does. If USC dropped off the schedule as an every-season opponent, I'd run the slot into a higher-end Power 2 rotating series. Step back from rivalry and lean into novelty. Yes, I'd rather see USC every season, but what if Notre Dame swapped that over 10 years of home-and-homes with Oregon, LSU, Iowa, Auburn and Washington? (Top photo of Kenny Minchey: Justin Casterline / Getty Images)
New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
UNLV's next step in the desert: Become the next G5 giant, or watch its big bets go awry?
LAS VEGAS — On a good day, when he gets lucky enough to hit more green lights than red, Erick Harper can make it from his parking spot outside of his office at the Thomas & Mack Center to the tunnel of Allegiant Stadium in about 15 minutes. It's a 3.3-mile drive from the edge of UNLV's sprawling campus to the bright lights of the $2 billion NFL stadium — built to welcome the Las Vegas Raiders — where the Rebels also play their home games. Advertisement 'There's no reason we can't get 40,000 to 60,000 people to come to UNLV football games on a regular basis,' said the UNLV athletic director entering his fourth year at the university. Build yourself into a marketable winner in college athletics, and fans will follow. Even in the city in the desert that offers anything and everything, Harper believes that UNLV is on the doorstep of transforming into one of Sin City's most talked-about attractions. It's the same talking point bandied about in recent years: University leadership believes the Rebels can carve out a spot in the hearts of Vegas sports fans and visitors alike. The Rebels have come within one game of hoisting a Mountain West Conference title in consecutive seasons but have come up short against the crown jewel of the Group of 5, Boise State. The required next step is making the hypothetical a reality. There's a ceremonial 2024 Mountain West title game floor mat inside Harper's office that serves as a reminder of just how close UNLV has been. UNLV, long a floor mat itself in football, had its two best consecutive seasons in football history in 2023 and '24, winning 20 total games. A win over the Broncos likely would've meant a berth in the 12-team College Football Playoff that debuted last season. Former coach Barry Odom took the job at Purdue two days after the Mountain West title game loss. Less than a week later, Harper stunned the college football universe and hired former Florida and Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen. 'I'm taking over a team that was one half away from the College Football Playoff,' Mullen said. 'There's a lot in place already here that we just have to build on.' In March, Harper fired men's basketball coach Kevin Kruger after four years in charge and replaced him with former Memphis and Georgia Tech coach Josh Pastner, who was named ACC Coach of the Year in 2017. Like Mullen, Pastner spent recent years as an analyst at ESPN. Outside the Thomas & Mack Center, a massive new banner of Pastner is plastered on the glass windows as a sell to the UNLV fan base that better days are ahead on the hardwood, too. Advertisement Once a lightning rod of college hoops under legendary coach Jerry Tarkanian, the Rebels have failed to qualify consistently for the men's NCAA Tournament since the early 1990s. Their last appearance was 2013, the longest dry spell in program history. Harper says all the pieces are in place for UNLV to make its move among the elite contenders outside the power conferences. Now comes the hardest part: Proving you're worth the price of admission year-in and year-out. UNLV averaged over 32,000 fans at home football games in 2024, a jump of nearly 10,000 from the 2023 average of over 23,600 per home game. It's there inside the stadium, just a few minutes' jaunt away from the radiant glitz and glam of The Strip, where Harper dares to dream. Such an uptick might not make the stadium look packed yet on TV, but it's proof of concept that in Vegas, winners become a draw. 'If you look at the history of the Mountain West, we were the league of BYU, Utah, TCU,' said Mountain West commissioner Gloria Nevarez. 'Schools come here and really rise to the top if they really put their minds to it and invest. I do think there's a lot of opportunity going forward.' But for its grandiose ambition and recent success in football, UNLV is saddled with significant debt in the athletic department, estimated to be in the range of $25-30 million. And as college realignment in athletics continues to swirl, UNLV is one of many universities with options and massive decisions on the horizon. 'We definitely want to be in the upper echelon of the G5, but also we have to be the best we can possibly be,' Harper said. 'The same challenge of getting there with every institution in the country is always going to be financial. That's just the matter of the business. To weather the storm, the best way to generate more revenue is to win, and win at a high level consistently.' One of those big choices came last fall, when UNLV opted to stay in the Mountain West rather than join a rebuilding Pac-12 with Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State. On Sunday, those five departing members officially filed their intent to leave the Mountain West, meeting a deadline to avoid doubling their exit fees, a person involved in the decision told The Athletic. Advertisement UNLV, which was thought to still be a potential Pac-12 target, stood pat. That would seem to fully rule the Rebels out of becoming the eighth football-playing member of the Pac-12, which must still add one more school by next summer. Asked in April whether UNLV was still committed to remaining in the Mountain West, Harper said yes. What kept the Rebels in the Mountain West was a hefty payday from the $150 million in exit fees and poaching fees to come from the Pac-12. Forty-nine percent of the first $61 million will be split between UNLV and Air Force, according to a copy of the conference's memorandum of understanding obtained by The Athletic. Another $21 million would be split the same way. That money is needed. In a Nevada Board of Regents meeting in March, Harper and other UNLV administrators were challenged by several regents regarding the financial state of the athletic department. Regent Joe Arrascada asked Harper whether he's transparent with current and prospective donors about the department being in an estimated $30 million hole, and how he planned to fulfill Mullen's five-year, $17.5 million deal. Harper responded that the school had the funds to pay the first two years of Mullen's contract, then watched national reports fixate on that answer as an implication that the school had promised Mullen more than it could afford to pay over the final three years. Harper shoulders the blame for not being more direct in his explanation, saying he has 'zero fear' the athletic department will have trouble fulfilling any coaching contracts on the books. 'We work with the generated dollars, we work with state and institutional support and we work through our endowments,' he said. 'Our salaries and payroll for all coaches and staff is generated through revenues on an annual basis. What was missed is the fact I said, 'and we also generate ticket sales, donor contributions, multimedia rights partners with Learfield, all those self-generated revenues that pay for salaries.'' The school also received a $3 million buyout when Odom left for Purdue. Harper said UNLV has surpassed $2.5 million in revenue sales for the upcoming football season, compared to $1.8 million last spring. He said over 1,000 new season ticket holders joined the fold and that the season ticket holder count was over 5,000. In that March meeting with the regents, Arrascada told Harper, 'Impressive numbers, but fans are fickle. One bad season, those numbers can plummet.' UNLV's financial challenges made its decision to stay put during this round of realignment more logical. Along with the influx of additional funds, that new Mountain West deal allows its members to leave the league for a Power 4 conference at no cost. So rather than pay potentially upward of $18 million to join a still-unsettled Pac-12 situation, UNLV stayed put to get some much-needed cash. People in the Pac-12 and Mountain West believe UNLV is instead hoping for a future Big 12 invitation. Advertisement 'We all know conference realignment has not ended. It will not stop,' Harper said. 'So where we land is the fact there is no buyout for UNLV out of the Mountain West, to be able to have your opportunity to have free agency and always be able to position UNLV in the best possible space for its growth as an institution. We're one of the top markets that's not in a (Autonomy/Power 4) conference right now.' The Pac-12 and some departing Mountain West schools have sued the league over the exit fees UNLV and the MW leftovers are in line to receive, and the sides are currently in mediation, but Harper did not sound too concerned about the final numbers. 'If I was an attorney or judge, I could probably give you a better answer,' he said. 'I don't know. Do I think the numbers will be where they were reported? Should be somewhere in that neighborhood.' To sweeten UNLV's Mountain West decision further, the conference agreed to continue to hold its basketball tournaments at UNLV and plans to move its headquarters from Colorado Springs to a new home base: Las Vegas. Like so many Sin City transplants, Mike Palm found himself hooked by one Vegas show in particular: Mountain West basketball. Palm, who grew up a sports fan in the Midwest and was once a middle school teacher in Iowa before rising up the gaming industry ranks, could not get enough of hoops at the Thomas & Mack Center. Kawhi Leonard was introducing himself to America at San Diego State. Jimmer Fredette was shooting it from the logo for BYU. Palm, the VP of operations for Circa, The D and Golden Gate Casinos in downtown Vegas, said for so long UNLV football was a local afterthought. Until Odom arrived. The city was in the midst of a sports revolution, with the Raiders arriving after the Vegas Golden Knights of the NHL and Las Vegas Aces of the WNBA. And UNLV football was suddenly something worth talking about. Palm knows a thing or two about the topic du jour as a regular on Las Vegas sports radio. And when Vegas became the epicenter of the name, image and likeness messiness last September, Palm attempted to get involved. Advertisement Before UNLV went on to compete for a second consecutive conference title, its former starting quarterback, Matthew Sluka, announced he was leaving the program amid a dispute over funds he said were promised to him but not delivered by the school's NIL collective. The Rebels were 3-0 and coming off a 23-20 win at Kansas. Sluka's exit was a flashpoint in college athletics — a starting quarterback leaving his team in the middle of a season with tremendous promise. Palm, on behalf of Circa Sports CEO Derek Stevens, offered to pay Sluka $100,000 during the dispute. By the time the public offer was made, officials at UNLV informed Palm that there would be no negotiating with Sluka. In January, the former UNLV quarterback announced he was signing with James Madison. That's the singularity of Vegas in $100,000 nutshell. Stevens, a casino owner who isn't a UNLV alumnus, offered to help keep the Rebels' start red-hot. Palm, who said he's gone to several UNLV games the last two years, said the home game atmospheres are more vibrant than Raiders games. He said Mullen's hiring quickly negated the deflation around town after Odom left for Purdue. But Palm said he's realistic about what challenges still lie ahead. Harper said this spring he has not yet mapped out how UNLV will share revenue with players if the House v. NCAA settlement is passed as expected sometime this summer. He did confirm that the majority will go to football. In conversations with his peers in athletic departments around the country, he's heard some plan to invest anywhere from 50 to 75 percent of their allotment into the biggest money-driving sport in college athletics. 'Obviously Dan's going to need financial support to help them get to the next level,' Palm said. 'And he's going to have to win, and he's going to have to win pretty early.' And with the Athletics on track to move to Las Vegas after leaving Oakland, the already-crowded sports marketplace around the shimmering lights of this town will only be harder to punch through. Advertisement 'Great pro towns don't tend to be great college towns,' Palm said. 'The more this becomes a pro sports town, I'm not sure this doesn't hurt the prospects of UNLV.' Mullen vows that if UNLV plays an attractive style of football and can still contend for a CFP appearance, harnessing the aura of Vegas to get those 40,000 to 60,000 inside Allegiant Stadium won't be hard. 'When you come on our campus and you go to the stadium we play in, you are around this environment, you feel like you're at a major program,' Mullen said. 'You go to recruit and kids are looking out here at The Strip and they go, 'There's a lot of opportunities for me in this town that didn't use to be available that, in today's world, is all legal.'' Harper said the attraction of Vegas under coaches like Mullen and Pastner will be too good to pass up for some athletes. Here, you can get decent seats to a UFC event and fist-bump a bloodied fighter after a victory. Or you can have Kenny Chesney saunter through the halls of your $35 million football facility to work out while he's in town for a series of shows at The Sphere. 'Nobody else can have what we have on a regular basis,' Harper said. The stakes are high, which is one of the many reasons Mullen said he took the job. A good football season doesn't move the needle locally or nationally like a great one. A great season gets you in the College Football Playoff, which could be a landscape-altering achievement for a university that would see immediate financial benefits and an athletic department still waiting to earn its long-desired close-up.
