UNLV-UNR date won’t be moved

Monday, March 24, 2003 | 9:31 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A state resolution that would have scheduled the UNLV-UNR football game on the Nevada Day weekend late in October has been scuttled.

John Robinson, athletic director and football coach at UNLV, sent word Friday to the Senate Government Affairs Committee that the two teams have signed a contract to play on the first Saturday in October through the year 2009.

On the last weekend of every October, the state celebrates its admission into the Union. Robinson and Chris Ault, athletic director at Nevada-Reno, said it would be impossible to schedule the game that late in the season because that is when conference games are being played. Robinson, in a letter to the committee, said guidelines in the Mountain West Conference require all non-conference games to be completed by the end of September unless there is an existing contract.

In this case, UNLV and UNR had already signed the contract.

Robinson said the Mountain West Conference signed a $49 million seven-year contract with ABC/ESPN. He said UNLV must work with the conference to make sure all parts of the television contract are fulfilled.

"At this time (UNLV) cannot make any changes or revisions to the existing football schedule," he said.

Ault said it would be "wonderful" if both Nevada teams were in the same conference so the game could be played on the Nevada Day weekend.

Senate Concurrent Resolution 19 was offered by Sen. Maurice Washington, R-Sparks, who played defensive back for UNR under Ault when he was the head football coach.

Washington told the committee that most big rivals play their games at the end of the season. The rivalry for the Fremont Cannon was started in 1969 and UNR holds a 15-12 series edge.

The committee did not take any action but nobody expressed support for the resolution after the Robinson-Ault testimony.