No easy ride for Rebels

Steve Carp

Thursday, Sept. 12, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

You didn't have to be a member of Mensa to figure out that UNLV was playing a difficult 1996 football schedule. And eventually, you knew the NCAA would get around to coming to that same conclusion.

Wednesday, the word came down from Kansas that the Rebels, who are 0-2 after lopsided losses to No. 2 Tennessee and Air Force, are playing the nation's 25th most difficult slate in Division I-A. That's a decided step up from last year's ranking of 105th, third-easiest in the country.

"It means we're headed in the right direction," said coach Jeff Horton of his schedule, which doesn't get any easier Saturday as Wisconsin of the Big Ten Conference comes to Sam Boyd Stadium. "It's a heck of a jump, but I think it will eventually make us better as a football team."

For what it's worth, UNLV has the most difficult schedule of any school in the 16-team Western Athletic Conference. The combined 1995 record of the Rebels' opponents in '96 was 73-58-2, a winning percentage of .556. Four of the teams on this year's schedule (Tennessee, Air Force, Colorado State and Nevada-Reno) went to bowl games last year.

Colorado State is right behind the Rebels at No. 26 and Fresno State follows at No. 47. Oklahoma has the toughest schedule in the nation, playing six teams which went to bowl games last year.

But that No. 25 ranking for UNLV may climb before it's all said and done. According to Richard Campbell, the NCAA's statistics coordinator who compiles and releases the annual list, if more teams on UNLV's schedule make it to postseason play, the Rebels' rating will go up.

Campbell said the move to the WAC, plus playing teams such as Tennessee and Wisconsin, moved the Rebels into the top 25.

"Moving from the 100s into the top 25 in just one year is a remarkable step up in competition," he said.

Horton didn't need to be reminded.

"It's good to play that kind of schedule," he said. "But it could be tougher before we're done."