With the proposed 65,000-seat Las Vegas Stadium becoming a strong probability, many suggest that could earn the University of Nevada-Las Vegas a place among the nation’s power five football conferences.
Certainly, inclusion in a power five conference, combined with a state-of-the-art stadium in which to play, would boost attendance and tourism during home games – if UNLV chooses to pay a proposed $250,000 fee to play in it, rather than the antiquated Sam Boyd Stadium.
Yet, it will take much more than a new stadium for UNLV to attract interest from a power five conference.
Aside from an occasional “bracket-buster,” NCAA football virtually requires inclusion in a power five conference – and the elevated competition that comes – with it to qualify for the annual playoff.
The power five conferences are the Big 10, PAC-12, Big 12, ACC, and the SEC. Due to its location, UNLV likely would be considered by only the PAC-12 or Big 12 – if ever. The problem for UNLV at this point is its academic ranking.
Based upon member university rankings by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions, the Big 10 ranks as the top conference academically, followed by the ACC, PAC-12, SEC and the Big 12.
UNLV’s current conference, the Mountain West, ranks seventh academically among the NCAA’s 10 football-playing conferences, with an average academic ranking of 354 among its members. Remove Air Force, which enjoys an impressive ranking of 38th among the nation’s top academic universities, and that ranking declines rapidly – as the next-highest ranked Mountain West school is Wyoming, which checks in at 235.
UNLV, though, is undertaking efforts to greatly elevate its academic ranking.
The Carnegie Classification of Institutions not long ago had UNLV ranked as a Tier 4 university, which is the lowest possible ranking. Such a ranking absolutely excludes UNLV from consideration among the Power 5 conferences, which require academic as well as athletic prowess among its members.
Fortunately, former UNLV President Neal Smatresk in 2013 initiated efforts to make UNLV – a former commuter school – into one of the nation’s top 100 Tier 1 universities. If he succeeds, inclusion in a power five conference could become a reality.
To attain Tier 1 status, a university must produce a great deal of research, have high graduation rates and award doctoral degrees, among other factors. UNLV currently is ranked as a high-research Tier 2 university, and Las Vegas is the nation’s largest metropolitan area without a “very high-research” Tier 1 university.
Smatresk in 2013 launched the UNLV Top Tier Initiative, and in December 2015, the university agreed to buy a 42-acre parcel located on the north side of Tropicana Ave. and directly west of campus.
That parcel recently was proposed as a location for the proposed stadium, but that deal fell through. With the stadium likely to go up elsewhere, though, the 42-acre parcel likely will house new academic facilities that could help UNLV attain its Tier 1 goal.
UNLV currently produces significant research in gaming, health sciences and unmanned aerial systems.
The university wants to add facilities to promote biology, technology and chemistry. Doing so, though, requires more money than the university currently has coming in from alumni and other sources.
The estimated cost for such improvements is $73 million, but the university takes in far less in alumni contributions. To boost alumni funding, the university is working to grow its undergraduate base from about 27,500 to more than 30,000, which might help with fundraising and potential bond funding for new facilities and faculty.
If UNLV were to attain its goal of becoming a Tier 1 research university, the university estimates its current $4.5 billion in indirect annual economic impact likely would boost that annual figure to nearly $9 billion.
Better still, the university would stand a much better chance of gaining admission into a power five conference, which is why it needs much more than a state-of-the art stadium.
