Columnist Ron Kantowski: Bill: Move rivalry to Nevada Day weekend

Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2003 | 9:56 a.m.

Ron Kantowski's insider notes column appears Tuesday and his Page One column appears Thursday. He can be reached at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

At this rate, the UNLV vs. Nevada-Reno football game is going to be known as the Swiss Army Knife or at least the Silly Putty of the college football rivalries, because people keep trying to find new uses for it.

Remember back in 2 A.D. (ago) when then-Rebels athletic director Jim Weaver suggested UNLV and UNR play a home-and-home series -- in the same season?

We in the media thought Weaver was nuttier than an Almond Joy. But in retrospect, just because nobody else in college football plays an opponent more than once per season doesn't mean Weaver's idea was totally harebrained, especially considering the Rebels' next-biggest draw in those days might have been Cal State Fullerton or Long Beach State.

But that was before UNLV joined the old WAC, which evolved into the new Mountain West Conference. With familiar opponents such as Colorado State, BYU and Air Force now a yearly attraction, the UNLV-UNR game has lost some of its luster, at least to many of us that reside on the south side of the Silver State.

That might (or might not) change if an anonymous politician is successful in seeing a bill draft come to fruition when the Nevada Legislature convenes in Carson City Feb. 3.

The Unknown Legislator -- you think he walks around the capital with a paper bag on his head? -- is proposing UNLV and UNR (which has since joined the new WAC) hold their annual blood letting on Nevada Day weekend and make the first Saturday in November a permanent date.

Again, not a terrible idea. Only this time, logistics would seem to be a bigger roadblock than college football protocol.

The Mountain West has a gentleman's agreement that its members only schedule non-conference games during the first six weeks of the season. But there are exceptions. For instance, Air Force almost always plays service academy rival Army during November and next season, BYU will visit Notre Dame on Nov. 15.

But, said MWC associate commissioner Bret Gilliland, if UNLV and UNR were steadfast about playing on Nevada Day weekend, the conference would try to accommodate the Rebels.

"We would make every effort to work everything around it," Gilliland said. "But if it does get to an impasse, the school that will wind up suffering a hardship is the school that schedules a non-conference game during the conference part of the season."

That hardship, Gilliland said, could be a situation where if the schedule didn't allow for shuffling the UNLV-UNR game to a later date, the Rebels could wind up playing three straight games on the road or maybe even be saddled with successive bye weeks.

UNLV associate athletic director Jerry Koloskie, who makes the Rebels schedule, said he was somewhat intrigued by the idea of UNLV and UNR playing on Nevada Day weekend but that this was the first he has heard about it.

"We used to move the game around ... but several years ago, we and (UNR A.D.) Chris Ault agreed that we should play the first week of October," Koloskie said. "We have a contract to play that first weekend of October through 2006 or '07."

Speaking of non-conference football contracts, UNLV now has five of 'em on file for 2003. The Rebels will host Toledo on Aug. 30, travel to Kansas on Sept. 6, provide the butt for the butt-kicking at Wisconsin on Sept. 13, host high-flying Hawaii on Sept. 20 and will play the Wolf Pack in Reno on Oct. 4.

As usual, not a pushover in the bunch.

But the Rebels' non-conference schedule looks like French pastry in comparison to BYU's. The Cougars in 2003 will play at USC, Stanford and Notre Dame and will face Georgia Tech and Boise State at LaVell Edwards Stadium.

BYU coach Gary Crowton must be a big fan of Charles Bronson's, because that schedule looks like "Death Wish 5."

Word out of Los Angeles is that John Shoemaker will be named the new manager of the Las Vegas 51s, the Dodgers' top farm club.

Shoemaker was the Dodgers' roving defensive instructor last year.

Former UNLV star Armen Gilliam has resurfaced as head coach at tiny Penn State Altoona, an NCAA Division III school.

According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Gilliam stirred up some controversy by cutting most of the holdovers from last year's team. But considering Altoona lost its first 14 games en route to a 4-21 season, that might have seemed like the wise thing to do.

Alas, Gilliam's team is off to an 0-8 start and has been blown out more often than storefront windows in Corpus Christi during hurricane season.

If you thought Giants coach Jim Fassel or the officials who blew the last play were embarrassed by what transpired in Sunday's Giants-49ers playoff game, Olympic, a high-volume Internet sports book in Jamaica, still has a little yoke on its reddened mug.

According to Las Vegas-based gaming writer Stephen Nover of The Prescription.com, the online book put up a line of Tampa Bay minus 3 vs. the Giants at the start of the fourth quarter Sunday. Olympic prides itself on being the first sports book in the world to put up opening line NFL numbers.

Olympic was forced to refund about $175,000 in wagers on the bogus matchup.

Around the horn: Here's one vote for moving the four BCS games to New Year's Day by their lonesome, in an attempt to make that day special again. ... If the right teams continue to win as conference play begins, this could be a really nice year for the Mountain West come NCAA Tourney time. The first Ratings Percentage Index numbers of the season are out, and BYU, Utah, Wyoming and UNLV are ranked a solid 17th, 29th, 33rd, and 34th, respectively, in all-important RPI, one of the major criteria used to establish the 65-team bracket. ... And finally, Frank Sipe, who threw the first pitch in the first Little League baseball game ever played in 1939, has died at age 74. We can only assume that the parent who complained to the umpire that Sipe's pitch was at least a foot outside has preceded him in death.