Columnist Ron Kantowski: Rebels linked to Pac-10 expansion

Thursday, Sept. 25, 2003 | 9:19 a.m.

Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

Have you heard the latest rumor, that UNLV might be on the short list if and when the Pac-10 decides to expand?

Blame it on the bye week. This is what happens when beat guys have too much free time on their hands.

Actually, this little bit of nonsense/conjecture originated on the wet side of the Cajon Pass, as a copyrighted story in the Los Angeles Daily News Tuesday speculated that the Rebels would be among those considered if the Pac-10 expands.

Granted, the Daily News put UNLV on a "not very sexy" list of schools that would jump at the chance to join the Pac-10, along with Mountain West brothers BYU, Utah, San Diego State and Colorado State, and Fresno State of the WAC.

"Not very sexy" is putting it mildly. I'd say the Rebels' chances of joining the Pac-11 or 12 -- if that's what it becomes -- are roughly equal to Brad Pitt leaving Jennifer Aniston for Bea Arthur.

For starters, the Pac-10 presidents control expansion, and that means, at least on the record, that academics are more important than the size of an applicant's football stadium.

Regardless of how many bellboys and chambermaids UNLV's hotel management school produces, that's strike one against the Rebels.

The size of Sam Boyd Stadium is strike two. Besides, the only time the Rebels fill the Boyd to its modest capacity of 36,800 is when Wisconsin, Hawaii or BYU come to town.

Somewhere down on the list of factors conferences consider when pursuing new members is their basketball programs. There is a thick layer of dust on the Rebels' NCAA championship trophy, and since Tark was run out of town 12 years ago, UNLV has yet to win an outright championship in the Big West, WAC or Mountain West -- conferences most consider no more significant than the ones the Tigers hold in the middle of the diamond.

That's strike three.

So when it comes to UNLV, Craig Thompson's got nothing to worry about. But if I were Mountain West commissioner, I'm make sure they were comfortable in Provo.

Of the Mountain West wannabes, BYU seems to be the only one that would bring anything to the Pac-10 table. But if Gary Crowton doesn't develop a quarterback pretty soon, the Cougars may be relegated to the card table and folding chairs, like a kid at Thanksgiving dinner.

The Pac-10 hasn't changed in any way, shape or form since 1978, when it recruited Arizona and Arizona State from the old WAC. In that I believe in tradition and, as Darrell Royal used to say, "dancing with the one who brung ya," that's a good thing.

Perhaps joining a conference should be like taking a wedding vow. You should agree to honor, love and obey, at least until the death penalty do you part.

Because its membership doesn't change, Pac-10 schools sound like Pac-10 schools. But Arkansas in the Southeast Conference? That just doesn't seem right. And if the Big Ten insists on doing business with Penn State, then it ought to call itself the Big Eleven. Or kick Northwestern out.

So the only reason for the Pac-10 to add schools such as UNLV or Fresno State -- unless it was planning to knock off a savings and loan -- would be increasing its membership to 12, which would then allow it to split into two divisions and stage a lucrative conference championship football game.

But the Big Ten has managed to survive without one of those, although I wouldn't be surprised to see it go after Notre Dame at some point, especially if John Navarre is somehow granted an eighth year of eligibility at Michigan, where he seemingly has been overthrowing open receivers forever.

At first, I wasn't going to pester Mike Hamrick, the Rebels' new athletic director, for a comment on the Pac-10 gossip, in that he's probably still trying to learn where Laramie and Fort Collins are.

But, hey, it's a bye week. So I called his office.

"That's just speculation. That's about the only thing I can say," Hamrick said.

Given his short time on the job, I wouldn't expect him to say much more.

Somewhere down the line, if the Mountain West negotiators fail and Hamrick is able to facilitate the Rebels moving into a BCS conference by their lonesome, he'd become more popular than a good cornerman at UNLV home football fights -- er, games.

But if you're asking where the possibility of UNLV joining the Pac-10 ranks among the things we'll probably never see, I'd place it somewhere between pigs flying and the Expos moving to town.