TV squabbles hinder Mountain West’s quest for respect

So, with a few teams now regularly ranked in the Top 25, the Mountain West Conference has been chittering lately that it deserves more national respect for its football and basketball programs. But the conference won't get that recognition until all of its games are regularly shown on television.

Last weekend, UNLV's game against Wyoming was not televised in Las Vegas. This is ridiculous. UNLV is a prominent Division I program in a metropolitan area of 2 milion people. It's embarrassing — and harmful to the growth and success of UNLV athletics — not to have this game on TV.

Even worse: UNLV's game this Saturday against its archrival, the University of Nevada, won't be televised. For reasons beyond my control, I won't be able to travel to Reno for the game. But as an alumnus of Nevada and a longtime resident of Las Vegas, not to mention being involved with our company's Rebel Nation website, I want very badly to see this game.

But no. I will have to listen on the radio. This isn't the worst thing in the world — Dave McCann does a fine job with the play-by-play on 1100-AM — but it definitely ranks second to seeing the game on the wide screen.

Why are these games not televised? It has to do with the television rights holders linked to the Mountain West Conference and Western Athletic Conference.

For the Wyoming game, it was simply that the Mountain West Sports Network, co-owned by CBS and Comcast, chose not to pick up the game. And since that network has 100 percent rights, nobody else could step in and broadcast it to Las Vegas. What did the network pick up instead? New Mexico vs. New Mexico State — two of the nation's worst teams. Brilliant.

Regarding the Reno game, ESPN owns the rights to WAC home games, and ESPN has decided not to show it. It has decided to pick up a different Mountain West/WAC game: Colorado State vs. Idaho. Interesting. So, just for kicks, let's say one of the local TV stations wanted to fill the gap by airing the game for Las Vegas fans? Not gonna happen, since ESPN owns the rights.

For this and other reasons, the UNLV-Nevada games — football and basketball — haven't been televised for years. It's wrong.

Could the Nevada Legislature require that these in-state rivalry games be televised? People are starting to talk about this idea. The law would supersede any television contracts. I bet it could be done. I bet other states have done it.

That could solve one problem. But as for the Mountain West's desire to be taken seriously alongside the Big Ten, the Pac-10 and so forth, it just won't happen until the TV situation is cleaned up.