Ron Kantowski asks, given the sorry state of the program and the exorbitant cost of maintaining it …

Thursday, Nov. 16, 2006 | 7:08 a.m.

Say this about UNLV football fans: They are shameless, impatient and observant.

They have noticed that I haven't been writing about football and want to know when, if ever, I plan to declare an end to the cease fire.

As soon as the Rebels beat somebody that doesn't have two A's behind its name, I tell them, refusing to count that catch-and-release win against Division I-AA Idaho State as the real deal. Only then would I weigh in. Sort of like one of those DJs in Cincinnati who climb a billboard and refuse to come down until the Bengals win.

Still, I figured it would be sooner rather than later, what with last week's game against San Diego State, the one team that on paper (if not the computer rankings) actually looked worse than UNLV, if for no other reason than that it lost to the I-AA team on its schedule (Cal Poligrip).

San Diego State won by two touchdowns.

I can cease and desist no longer.

Free Parking is over when you can't beat San Diego State. That's like rolling double sixes and landing on North Carolina Avenue, with a hotel on it. You've got to expect a little grief, regardless of how many sophomores you are playing.

Or so I thought.

I was shooting the breeze Tuesday with UNLV athletic director Mike Hamrick while the Rebels were letting Eastern Washington hang around like your crazy Uncle Sid long after the pumpkin pie had been served on Thanksgiving. When I asked about what he was going to do about football, he bristled and asked if I noticed how many sophomores the Rebels were playing.

Then he started throwing around proper nouns such as "Rutgers" and "Wake Forest," which after years and years and years of trying, finally seem to have caught a flash in their football pans. I wanted to tell him that Indiana State once played in the Final Four, too. And that Halley's Comet was visible in 1910 and again in 1986.

But I did tell him that in my 19 years in Las Vegas, I had seen a lot of coaches try to build a program by playing a lot of sophomores. But that I had only witnessed the stars line up three times.

In 1992 Jim Strong's Rebels finished 6-5 with the six wins coming against Texas-El Paso, Northern Arizona, Pacific, San Jose State, Montana State and Cal State Fullerton, a couple of which might even still field Division I programs.

In 1994 Jeff Horton's Rebels went 7-5, primarily by beating a bunch of directional schools from Michigan (Eastern, Central).

In 2000 John Robinson's Rebels went 8-5, but were 4-5 before beating New Mexico, San Diego State and Hawaii in close games down the stretch when seemingly every bounce went their way.

As I told Hamrick, all those years of futility are why Rebels fans are growing impatient with the program's lack of progress under Mike Sanford. Nobody expected UNLV to challenge for the BCS in Sanford's second year on the job, which is what the staff on which he served on at Utah did upon taking over. But nobody expected the team to be winless against Division I competition this late, either.

Sanford truly is one of the nicest guys I have met, but it might be that the UNLV job isn't right for him. Or anybody, for that matter.

The team is ranked No. 117 - dead last - in the power ratings. How do you spin that to a recruit? When it comes to talking points on the recruiting trail, tradition and facilities are at the top of the list. UNLV has neither.

Hamrick counters by saying the Rebels are getting better in the weight room.

That's not exactly on a par with receiving total consciousness on your death bed. But if you're a Rebel football fan looking for a place to hang your helmet, I'm afraid it's the only hook you've got.

If the time comes when the football program is run like a business, the bottom line will be the bottom line. According to the most recent U.S. Education Department's Office of Postsecondary Education equity in athletics statistics released in 1995, the Rebel football program generated revenues of $2.6 million but spent $5.4 million. Hamrick said that is misleading, in that it doesn't take into account additional revenue such as TV and BCS money, game guarantees and major gifts from boosters. He said when you add it all up, UNLV is probably losing from a half-million to three-quarters of a million dollars annually on football with a total athletic budget of about $23 million.

But weigh that against what Gonzaga spends ($7.4 million) on its entire athletic program, and tell me how investing $5.4 million in a football program that has had three winning seasons in the past 19 is being fiscally responsible.

I guess now would probably be a good time to mention that Gonzaga doesn't play football.

That, my shameless, impatient and observant friends, is something to think about.