Columnist Steve Carp: Tried-and-true formula can work again

IT MAY BE an institution of higher learning, but nowhere in the UNLV catalog is there a listing for a class in Financial Common Sense.

Perhaps it's time one was instituted. The class instructor should be Jerry Koloskie, the associate athletic director.

The longtime basketball trainer for the Rebels who was moved into an administrator's chair a year ago quickly is becoming one of the brightest lights at the Thomas & Mack Center.

In the short time he has been promoted to associate AD by Charlie Cavagnaro, Koloskie has improved morale among the coaches, got the basketball schedule finished well ahead of the usual pace and has brought some old-time thinking, that still works well today, back to the athletic department.

With UNLV needing to generate more revenue for its teams to compete and enjoy greater visibility within the community, Koloskie suggested that coaches be permitted to raise money to help promote and market their teams, rather than have the school do it for them.

Instead of spending money that wasn't producing results, the school saves somewhere in the neighborhood of $100,000. It will go back to a basic principle that former AD Brad Rothermel used -- if you have the means by which to increase your operating budget, and you don't break the rules in the process, by all means go for it.

But the important thing is that the opportunity to get better has returned. If a coach is willing to put in the time and do the work, he or she will reap the fruits of the labor. That money will go directly to that team's operating budget and will not be touched. Koloskie's word is good for that.

If Rod Soesbe is able to raise $50,000 by selling a couple thousand baseball season tickets and signage for the outfield fence at Wilson Stadium, that money will be his. For a program which struggles annually to make it within its means, $50,000 would go a long way.

Soesbe is considering hiring someone to do the selling, paying a percentage of the gross on a commission basis. Even if he has to give up, say, 3 percent to the person doing the selling, he'd still be way ahead of the game.

The best thing about it is UNLV will be enhancing its revenue stream without having to go hat-in-hand to the Board of Regents for more funding. And while "soft money" always is a dicey proposition, the potential is there to get a lot accomplished.

If a coach is willing to do what it takes, the entire department will benefit, not just the individual sport. With more resources, more can be accomplished, and that works to the greater good.

If some coaches don't think it's necessary to raise additional funding, that's fine. But then they can't go crying to Cavagnaro when they run out of money in the middle of the season. They had their chance and elected to pass.

Makes sense, doesn't it? Of course it does. The question, naturally, is what took them so long to figure it out? Fill in the blank yourself on that one.

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