Rebels and Wolf Pack to compete in new Governor’s Series

By Taylor Bern

Monday, Oct. 8, 2012 | 3:30 p.m.

Conference rivals UNLV and UNR have come together to create a head-to-head competition in 15 sports with an additional academic component factored into the rivalry series, it was announced Monday.

The Governor’s Series presented by NV Energy will award a trophy annually to the winning institution. Gov. Brian Sandoval and NV Energy President and CEO Michael Yackira, alongside university presidents Neal Smatresk and Marc Johnson, presented the new series at a press conference.

The points break down as follows:

• Head-to-head competitions are worth three points

• Home-and-home games are worth a total of three points with conference tournament matchups serving as the tiebreaker; in the event of a tie both schools get 1.5 points

• Highest conference finish will be used for sports that don’t compete head-to-head

• After a sport-by-sport comparison of APR scores, the school with the better overall ranking will get three points, with 1.5 to each in case of a tie

• If both schools are tied at the end, the tiebreaker is the winner of the Battle for the Fremont Cannon football game.

Fans can track the standings throughout the seasons at UNLVRebels.com and NevadaWolfPack.com, and at the end of the school year, each institution will select one student-athlete as its Bill Ireland Award recipient.

The sports involved in the competition include football, men’s and women’s basketball, women’s soccer, women’s volleyball, women’s cross country, women’s swimming and diving, women’s indoor and outdoor track and field, baseball, softball, men’s and women’s golf and men’s and women’s tennis.

Taylor Bern can be reached at 948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Taylor on Twitter at twitter.com/taylorbern.