LETTER: UNLV on the outside

I’ve read a lot regarding the Pac-12 bypassing UNLV. Many voices are indicating that UNLV was not selected because then UNR would also have had to be selected to join the conference. I can find no source outside of Nevada, let alone from the Pac-12 selection committee, that states this is the case. You hear this only from people in Nevada, typically those who have some sort of personal relationship with UNLV. It’s almost as if they’re using it as an excuse as to why UNLV was not invited to join the Pac-12.

I believe people in Nevada have an inflated sense of UNLV’s credentials. The basketball team has been out of the loop going on 30-plus years. The football team just became division one in the late 1970s and has been nonexistent since 1984. As soon as the coaches of the big programs achieve any kind of success, they’re gone to a bigger-name school and conference. Does anyone think that the same won’t be true for current football coach Barry Odom? The campus life of UNLV is disjointed and extremely untraditional, to say the least.

Are they doing well this year? Yes. But one good football season, three games in, does not earn you an invite to an elite conference full of tradition.