Football facility is a must for UNLV to have a shot to succeed

It’s all relative, of course, but there isn’t a Division I conference nationally that doesn’t include an arms race of some level within its membership.

If facilities rank among the most important of cards to show when competing for advantages, those who have the best for football become the difference between showing a royal flush or a pair of 2s.

UNLV is doing its best to greatly improve its hand.

Months of whispers became public Thursday when university president Len Jessup said at an ad hoc committee meeting on athletics for the Nevada System of Higher Education that the Rebels have raised $5 million to $6 million toward building an on-campus football facility.

The structure has a proposed price tag of $25 million to $30 million and would be the centerpiece of UNLV football, including coaches offices and meeting rooms and a training table and weight room and media room and nutrition center and players’ lounge and team theater and space for sports medicine and academics.

Lots and lots of bells and whistles.

And they’re all needed.

In a time when conference expansion into Power 5 leagues appears not completely settled, it’s critical any program with dreams of one day joining such a table of riches exhibit a supreme commitment to being the best it can be at the most important sport.

You have to, in 2016, show you care about being good in football.

I have a difficult time believing any UNLV head coach upon being hired has immediately engaged the community in a more positive manner than Tony Sanchez. He has more people excited about Rebels football than most can remember.

And yet this is fact: Without an on-campus facility like the one being proposed, one that would rival other Mountain West teams that UNLV recruits against, the Rebels have little chance to reach the potential that appears more than possible under Sanchez.

It’s too hard for non-Power 5s to compete at any level nationally, never mind when you don’t measure up in the area of football facilities within your own league.

Jessup told assembled regents Thursday that a timetable has been set to raise enough additional funds by the fall so that construction on the facility — likely to be built adjacent to the current practice fields — could potentially begin in the spring.

What that means: UNLV needs to reach at least half of the projected total cost before it can approach major donors to help offset the remaining dollar figures.

“It’s an aggressive timeline because, quite frankly, this project is critical to our success in football and athletics overall,” Jessup said. “We want to get pledges firmed up by the fall. I’m confident we can do that. (Sanchez) has been intimately involved in all aspects, by conceptualizing what a facility like this should look like and taking part in all the conversations we’ve had around the community.

“As with any campaign, you have to get half the funding done before you can really go to the public about who is in and who has invested so far. It’s possible we could (begin construction) when we reach that halfway mark.”

It’s all relative. This isn’t about trying to match the $68 million facility at the University of Oregon/Nike, where the lockers alone cost $26,000 each; or the palace at Alabama and its 30-foot long hot tubs with a waterfall draining into a hydrotherapy pool; or any of the lavish digs at places such as Oklahoma and Ohio State and Florida State and so on.

It’s about keeping up with the $22 million football center at Boise State and the proposed $44 million performance center at Wyoming and improvements having been made at San Diego State and Colorado State and New Mexico and all across the Mountain West.

Facilities matter to 18-year-old minds when they begin comparing one program to the next, and teams without the bells and whistles get absolutely hammered in recruiting by rival sides.

The Rebels didn’t begin aggressively fundraising for the facility until the past few months because their coach first wanted to show the community how serious he was about building a winner.

“I wasn’t going to walk in here after being hired (in December 2014) and start asking people for money,” Sanchez said. “We need to earn that. We need to show people why they should believe in us.”

Last week, the university announced an anonymous donation of $2 million to football, which will be earmarked for this facility.

People are believing.

Look, UNLV’s record in football in the past few decades is well documented. It has managed two winning seasons since 1996. It has been brutal.

But at some point, you have to decide who and what you want to be in this age of expansion and talk of super conferences or risk being left behind for good.

This proposed football facility at UNLV needs to become a reality sooner than later.

It doesn’t guarantee the Rebels will big win consistently and challenge for league titles annually if built, but they have no chance to do so if it isn’t.

Not in the arms race of 2016.

No way.

Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be a heard on “Seat and Ed” on Fox Sports 1340 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. On Twitter: @edgraney