Hill: Keep your outdated opinions about Las Vegas in the past, Matt Rhule
It’s amazing with how much our little town has grown into a thriving sports metropolis that we still have to fight some of the same old battles and deal with the same trite nonsense.
Our emergence as a pro sports hub is one thing. We’ve hosted a Super Bowl and All-Star Games and will soon be the 13th city to have a team in all four major American sports. (Still believe the NBA expansion team will play a home game before the A’s in 2028, but that’s for a different day.)
But Las Vegas is also about to enter its College Sports Capital era.
The Final Four, Frozen Four and CFP National Championship Game are all coming in the next couple years as any and all barriers between the silly, ill-informed view of our alleged Godless, sinful lifestyle and mainstream acceptance seem to have finally been shattered.
Though, not everyone has received the memo. One part of the evolution of Las Vegas becoming an acceptable place has been all the collegiate conferences who choose to hold tournaments, conventions and gatherings here in the city.
Even the Big Ten brought its football media days here with all the coaches and several star players descending on the Strip to promote the upcoming season.
Apparently, Nebraska football coach Matt Rhule wasn’t on board even if he admittedly enjoyed his fantastic dinner at Carbone.
A clip circulated online of Rhule telling a Nebraska radio station he didn’t think the event should have happened here.
“I’ll be honest, I don’t think college sports should be in Vegas,” he told Huskers Radio Network in a short video making the rounds on social media. “So, I wish (media day) was back in Indianapolis. But it’s nice.”
It was such an antiquated take that I felt the need to track the original version to make sure it wasn’t just a bit before reacting. Turns out, it’s real. And it’s the open to the interview. It was actually a very simple “Pretty cool event, isn’t it coach?” question.
So, Rhule had a very easy out of just agreeing and saying the food is great. Or even making a silly, “It’s hot here, but they tell me it’s a dry heat” response. Annoying, but fine. And the interview could begin.
Instead, Rhule decided he just had to express that hot take. Good one, bro. And it’s not about gambling, either, since it’s legal in Nebraska and Indianapolis.
It’s just the kind of thing we’ve dealt with forever and something we could easily brush off, but there was just something about this comment that is a bit tougher to let go.
Because, you see, if Matt Rhule doesn’t think Las Vegas is a good and nurturing environment for college athletes, where exactly would he say is a better one?
Where are these pristine communities where good, salt-of-the-earth folks go about their business of fostering our young people athletically, spiritually and emotionally in a safe environment free from the evils that only exist in our remote desert outpost?
Maybe that would be State College, Pennsylvania, where Rhule played linebacker and started his coaching career.
Oh no, wait. His defensive coordinator at Penn State was a serial child molester, and debate has raged for years about whether the football program and community at large covered for him and to what extent.
Maybe college sports should be in Waco, Texas, where he took his first major conference head coaching job. Nothing bad has ever happened in that pristine community, right?
Rhule got the job at Baylor after major issues involving sexual assaults of students were uncovered at a school that several years earlier had a basketball coach fired for his role in obstructing the investigation when one of his players killed a teammate.
Is that a place where college sports should be, Matt?
Now he is in Lincoln, a place where athletes have a perfect track record. Well, you know, except for repeated sexual misconduct claims against Christian Peter or a horrific act of violence committed by Lawrence Phillips in town back in the day.
But those were decades ago. Of course, there have also been multiple arrests of athletes in recent years and the little matter of an athletic department staffer who was sent to prison on sexual assault and child porn charges.
Oops.
None of this is to blame any of those towns. It’s really not. Bad people do bad things everywhere. It’s a sad reality.
But to cast aspersions on Las Vegas as if it is some sort of bastion of evil in an otherwise unblemished utopia of college towns around the country is a preposterous take in 2025.
Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on X.