With Big 12 heading to expansion, could UNLV be suitable candidate?

By Ray Brewer (contact)

Wednesday, July 20, 2016 | 2 a.m.

Say, in a perfect world, the UNLV football program moves into a new stadium it shares with an NFL team. And, say in that perfect world, UNLV’s nationally known basketball program somehow recovers from its current state of rebuilding under Marvin Menzies’ watchful eye.

Could that make UNLV a contender to join the Big 12 Conference. Why not?

The Big 12 is entertaining adding new members to its 10-team league, with university leaders instructing Commissioner Bob Bowlsby on Tuesday to begin evaluating schools interested in joining.

According to ESPN, the league has been “getting pitches behind the scenes for months from American Athletic Conference schools such as Cincinnati, Connecticut, Memphis, Houston and Central Florida. BYU, a football independent, has made it known it wants into a Power 5 conference. Colorado State has also reached out to Big 12 leaders.”

UNLV, one could argue, couldn’t be part of the mix because its football team is a perennial two-win program and its stadium inadequate for a Power Five league. But both could be changing.

Coach Tony Sanchez, by all accounts, has the Rebels on the up-and-up in his second season at the helm. And if the multi-billion dollar stadium is build for the Raiders — and for UNLV to share — it could put UNLV in the conversation.

Here’s the rest of the story from ESPN, which doesn’t mention UNLV.