Jim Rogers 'Why the hell would you have a football team when nobody goes to the games?'

Propelled by his disgust with the struggling UNLV football team, higher education system Chancellor Jim Rogers is questioning whether the university should have a football program at all.

Rogers has written a memorandum to regents that asks them to investigate Nevada's two university athletic programs.

"Why the hell would you have a football team when nobody goes to the games?" Rogers said Tuesday.

In the five-page memo, Rogers asked the board to audit the football and basketball programs at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and the University of Nevada, Reno, and to push for the schools to play in the same conference.

UNLV was a member of the Western Athletic Conference, but left in 1999 to play in the Mountain West Conference. UNR joined the WAC in 2000.

Rogers said he was frustrated with UNLV's losing football season. The team is 1-10 and has been ranked near the bottom of all Division I-A football teams. The team plays its last game of the season on Saturday against the Air Force Academy.

UNR's football and basketball teams have fared better than UNLV's in recent years. The university's football team has an 8-3 record this season.

Regents have not typically managed the athletic programs of the state's universities, giving that responsibility to the respective university presidents.

But Rogers said he wanted regents to monitor the programs and determine ways to make the programs self-sufficient.

In the memo, Rogers said that media accounts describe the UNLV football program "as one that was born with a serious heart problem and, after many years of struggling, seems to be on its death bed."

Rogers also said in the memo that the UNLV men's basketball team since 1991, its most recent appearance in the NCAA Final Four, has "become stuck far below mediocrity."

Rogers said the UNLV football and basketball programs appear to have no chance of improving in the near future.

"These other schools are so far ahead of us as far as (recruiting goes)," Rogers said. "Some of these people at Duke, they're looking at kids at 12 years old for recruitment."

UNLV athletic department officials could not be reached for comment, but regents seemed accepting of the call to hear more information about the schools' athletic programs.

"There's not enough oversight," Regent Steve Sisolak said. "I would like to know, personally, how much some of these sports cost or make us money."

Sisolak said regents receive general budgets for the athletic departments, not detailed reports about how much money each sport collects and spends.

Rogers said he has heard estimates from losses of $4 million per year to profits of $500,000 per year for the UNLV football program.

Gerry Bomotti, UNLV vice president for finance, said the entire athletic program earned $1.2 million last year, excluding revenue and expenses from the Thomas & Mack Center.

But the program last year received from taxpayers $4.8 million toward operating expenses and tuition and fee waivers.

Struggling athletic programs affect academic programs throughout the rest of the university, Rogers and regents said.

Rogers said the UNLV athletic program does not have enough donors. Such donors sometimes can be persuaded to donate also to academic programs and projects like the Health Sciences Center, he said.

"Even though some people believe that sports programs do not procure donors for academic programs, I have found that not to be true," the memo said.

But Regent Michael Wixom said he does not know whether that is the case and would like to see a study examining whether athletic donors contribute toward the rest of the university.

Rogers said regents should come up with a plan for the programs becoming self-sufficient.

Regent Mark Alden said: "We need to take a look at how we're running things because there might be a time where we don't get state funding."

Regents may either study the issue themselves, create a commission to study it, have the universities' presidents handle it or drop the issue altogether.

The full board could hear the topic as early as its Nov. 30 meeting.

Despite his concerns, Rogers said he would "probably not" bring up the subject again if regents choose not to address it.

"Maybe somebody has to be ranked 117 of 117," Rogers said referring to the UNLV football team.