MW to keep basketball tournaments in Las Vegas, but may change venue
Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson said the conference plans to keep its basketball tournaments in Las Vegas, but he is exploring a possible change of venue after 2016, when a contract with the Thomas & Mack Center expires.
Thompson said a survey of fans in March showed 96 percent want the basketball tournaments to remain in Las Vegas. One-third of those surveyed are New Mexico fans. Most league coaches object to playing in UNLV’s home arena.
The Pacific-12 Conference, which holds its men’s tournament at the MGM Grand Garden, might seek a move to the MGM’s new 20,000seat arena.
“I don’t know that we have a first choice,” Thompson said. “I would say there’s a tremendous chance it will remain in Las Vegas, and we just have to weigh what the options are. MGM Garden may not be an option. We know for a fact Thomas & Mack is an option. We are going to start the process and look at where we can play this thing.”
Also: UNLV will receive a little more than $3 million from the Mountain West thanks largely to the successful debut of the College Football Playoff.
It’s at least $500,000 more than what the school received last year.
The conference will pay a record $47 million to its member schools, up from $29 million the year before.
Boise State receives the largest sum at $9.3 million. That total includes $4 million for its football team playing in the Fiesta Bowl, one of the New Year’s Six games.
The money from the conference includes more than bowl money. Revenue from the NCAA Tournament and television bonuses are part of the equation as well.
The University of North Carolina released the Notice of Allegations from the NCAA in which the school was charged with a lack of institutional control, among five Level 1 charges.
While no one within the basketball or football programs was named individually, the NCAA charged that, over a nine-year span from 2002 to 2011, extra benefits provided to studentathletes were deemed to have “seriously undermined the integrity of the NCAA collegiate model.”
The FBI’s investigation of bribery and corruption at FIFA includes scrutiny of how soccer’s governing body awarded World Cup hosting rights to Russia and Qatar, a U.S. law enforcement official said.
Russia and Qatar have denied wrongdoing in the conduct of their bids for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments, which were not the subject of charges announced by U.S. prosecutors a week ago against FIFA officials that stunned world soccer.
Kentucky coach John Calipari said he was offered a contract worth more than $80 million to be coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers last summer.
The franchise lured LeBron James back to Ohio and is playing for the NBA title, but Calipari said he is not wasting time thinking about what could have been with the Cavs.